Compton v. State

148 S.W. 580, 67 Tex. Crim. 15, 1912 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 367
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 5, 1912
DocketNo. 1823.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 148 S.W. 580 (Compton v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Compton v. State, 148 S.W. 580, 67 Tex. Crim. 15, 1912 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 367 (Tex. 1912).

Opinion

PRENDERGAST, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of robbery and given the lowest penalty, five years in the penitentiary.

The charging part of the indictment is as follows: “That C. B. Compton, in said county and State, on or about the 7th day of October, in the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and eleven, and before the presentment of this indictment, did then and there, unlawfully and wilfully make an assault upon the person of Bufus Biley, and Bob Jamison, and did then and there by said assault and by said violence to the said Bufus Biley and the said Bob Jamison, and by putting the said Bufus Biley and the said Bob Jamison, in fear of life and bodily injury, did then and there fraudulently take from the person and possession and without the consent, and against the will of each of them, the said Bufus Biley and the said Bob Jamison, the property so taken from the said Bufus Biley as hereinbefore stated, being as follows, to wit, one silver dollar of the value of one dollar, two pocket knives, of the value of one dollar each, and 'one coat, of the value of ten dollars, the property so taken as hereinbefore stated from the said Bob Jamison being as follows, to wit, silver coin of the value of one dollar and fifty cents, said property as hereinbefore described then and there being the corporeal personal property of the said Bufus Biley and the said Bob Jamison respectfully and as hereinbefore alleged, with the fraudulent intent.then ánd there of him, the said C. B. Compton, to deprive the said Bufus Biley and the said Bob Jamison, respectfully, and as hereinbefore alleged, of the' value of said property and to appropriate the same to the use and benefit of him, the said C. B. Compton.”

Appellant made no motion in the court below to quash the indictment on any ground. All the questions he raises are raised by motion for new trial. There is no bill of exceptions other than a bill to the overruling of his motion for new trial. The motion for new trial presents several separate and distinct grounds therefor. Under such circumstances we can not treat it as a bill of exceptions, but must review the questions as raised by the motion for new trial. Appellant was not represented by an attorney until after his conviction.

In the latter part of the indictment it is perfectly apparently that where it charges, being the property “of the said Bufus Biley and the said Bob Jamison respectfully,” and then later “to deprive the said Bufus Biley and the said Bob Jamison respectfully” that the word “respectively</” was clearly meant and intended. Bo one could be misled by this. To take the indictment as a whole it, with reasonable certainty, shows and charges, that the one silver dollar, two pocketknives and the coat, was the property of and taken from Biley and that the silver coin of the value of one dollar and fifty cents was the property and taken from the said Jamison. It did not charge, *17 and could not reasonably be understood to charge,, that all of this property was the joint property of these two persons.

The indictment follows in substance and in effect the form laid down by Judge White in his Annotated Code Criminal Procedure, and is in compliance and in accordance with our statute. The allegation that appellant took from.Jamison “silver coin of the value of one dollar and fifty cents,” is a sufficient description. Sims v. State, 64 Texas Crim. Rep., 435, 142 S. W. Rep., 572, and authorities therein cited.

In the fifth ground of the motion for new trial appellant sets up that he was only twenty-six years old, unused to the trial of cases, or the procedure of the courts and when arrested was confined in jail continuously since then until this trial; that he was poor and had no money to employ counsel and had no friends to do so; that he was tried on Thanksgiving Day and the trial rushed through in a half day and that the jury was out only fifteen or twenty minutes, and such like matters. This matter, not being presented by bill of exceptions, is not subject to review. Even if it was, the court-in allowing the bill of exceptions to the overruling of the motion for new trial as to this particular matter, qualified it as follows:

“I had the defendant brought before me several days prior to the calling of the criminal docket, and offered to appoint an attorney to represent him. Defendant informed me that he did not desire to have an attorney appointed, as he proposed to represent himself, to which I consented. I then talked to him about his witnesses, and he informed me that he had only, one witness; I had the clerk issue a subpoena for this witness, and the witness was present at the trial. The defendant did defend himself at the trial, examining the witnesses in such manner as to apparently develop the facts and making a speech to the jury in his own behalf. He impressed me as a man of intelligence, otherwise I would have insisted on furnishing him counsel. The jury received the charge at about the time set out in the motion, and returned their verdict in fifteen or twenty minutes.” In no event was appellant entitled to a new trial on this ground.

One of appellant’s grounds in his motion for new trial is that if the proof shows any offense at all it shows two separate and distinct offenses, to wit, the robbery of Riley and the robbery of Jamison, and claims it was error to permit the State to show two separate and distinct offenses occurring at different times, that is, two robberies, one upon Riley and the other upon" Jamison, and says, that if this testimony was admissible at all, the State ought to have been compelled to elect which offense it relied upon for "conviction and the verdict should show which offense the jury found the defendant guilty of.

Without detailing the evidence, it clearly and satisfactorily shows that the two parties charged to have been robbed—Riley and Jamison—left Austin for Calvert, Texas, traveling together as companions. That *18 when they got to Taylor they, together, got off the train on one side and together walked around the train to the other side and that while there, the appellant came up to them, claiming he was an officer and first arrested Riley, without stating what for and refusing to tell him, although demanded by Riley, and that starting off with him he asked Riley how much money he had and then proceeded to run his hands into Riley’s pockets and took therefrom a dollar and fifty cents in money, two poeketknives and then demanded that he should take off his coat and give it to him. Upon Riley refusing to do this, he forcibly took the coat off of him, put it on. himself and wore it. That Jamison was present when all this occurred and as soon as appellant got through with Riley he then at once proceeded to take Jamison and asked him how much money he had.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 S.W. 580, 67 Tex. Crim. 15, 1912 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/compton-v-state-texcrimapp-1912.