Creel v. Estelle

448 F. Supp. 894, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16094
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedMay 2, 1977
DocketCiv. A. No. 1-74-24
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 448 F. Supp. 894 (Creel v. Estelle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Creel v. Estelle, 448 F. Supp. 894, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16094 (N.D. Tex. 1977).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BREWSTER, District Judge.

This habeas corpus action seeks to set aside petitioner’s conviction for murder with malice and life sentence in Cause No. 12,015, the State of Texas vs. James Duke Creel, after a trial by jury in the 91st District Court of Eastland County, Texas. The conviction was affirmed on direct appeal. Creel v. State, 493 S.W.2d 814 (Tex. Cr.App., 1973).

The two grounds alleged are quoted from the petition:

“A. Petitioner’s State trial conviction was obtained through an illegal search and seizure without Probable Cause. Without an arrest warrant and without a search warrant, in violation of Article 1 — Section 9 of the Texas Constitution, and rights afforded by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

“QUESTION INVOLVED

“Whether Petitioner was denied the Protection of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by the use at trial of evidence seized in violation of the Constitutions (sic) Fourth Amendment.

“B. Petitioner was denied Due Process of law under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution when he was denied an impartial fair trial free from community hostility and prejudicial pre-trial publicity due to the Court’s denying A Motion for Change of Venue.

“Whether the denial of a Change of Venue to a county not saturated by prejudicial pre-trial news coverage denied Petitioner a Fair and Impartial Jury in violation of the due process standards afforded by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.”

After filing the application, in a pleading entitled, “Notice to Withdraw Allegation B”, petitioner pointed out that his original Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus contained a ground, which he described as “Allegation B”, that challenged the venue of the trial. He then proceeded to say:

“At this time Petitioner Creel withdraws this allegation ‘B’ in that it is petitioner’s firm belief that the search and seizure issue raised in the application for writ of habeas corpus warrants relief and that the Court’s time would be best served if devoted to said claim, i. e., the search and seizure contention raised under ground ‘A’ in the original application for writ of habeas corpus.

“Petitioner most respectfully, therefore, abandons allegation ‘B’ and urges the Court to focus its attention upon the remaining claim.1

In his “Memorandum in Support of Application for Writ of Habeas Corpus” filed [896]*896herein, petitioner further narrows the issue before this Court by conceding that there was probable cause for his arrest. The following is quoted from page 6 of that Memorandum:

“Petitioner concedes the fact that Lt. Davis had ‘probable cause’ to arrest him on March 16, 1971 at 5:10 P.M., but that the ‘burden is on the State to show that the exigencies of the situation make a search without a warrant imperative,’ Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443 [91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564] (1971).”

The only question now before the Court is whether the admission in evidence at the murder trial of some of the fruits of the search of petitioner’s automobile, taken into possession at the time of petitioner’s arrest, is ground for setting aside his conviction and sentence.

Petitioner has filed no habeas corpus action in the state court; but his habeas corpus petition here should nevertheless be considered, because the questions presented in such petition were thoroughly litigated in the state court, both on the trial and the appellate level. The transcript of the proceedings in the murder trial, containing more than 2,000 pages, is a part of the record in the present action. The opinion of the Court of Criminal Appeals affirming petitioner’s conviction is reported at 493 S.W.2d 814. They show that petitioner has effectively exhausted his state court remedies. Reed v. Beto, 5 Cir., 343 F.2d 723 (1965), affirmed 385 U.S. 554, 87 S.Ct. 648, 17 L.Ed.2d 606; Robinson v. Beto, 5 Cir., 473 F.2d 665 (1973).

The application for writ of habeas corpus and the files and records of the case conclusively show that petitioner is not entitled to the relief prayed for. Stone v. Powell, 428 U.S. 465, 96 S.Ct. 3037, 49 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1976). The application should therefore be denied without an evidentiary hearing. Broxson v. Wainwright, 5 Cir., 372 F.2d 944 (1967); Rogers v. Wainwright, 5 Cir., 394 F.2d 492 (1968); Hernandez v. Scheckloth, 9 Cir., 425 F.2d 89 (1970); Mackey v. Oberhauser, 9 Cir., 437 F.2d 120 (1971).

The overwhelming evidence showed that petitioner, then thirty-three years old, was guilty of a brutal rape and murder of a ten year old girl who was intercepted on her way home from Reagan Elementary School in Abilene. Tona left the school playground about 4:15 p. m. on March 15, 1971, after softball practice to walk to her home about a mile away. She never got home. After an intense search that lasted through the night and a good part of the next day, her lifeless body was found about 3:00 p. m. stuffed into a culvert in a rural area about nine miles from her school.

For some time prior thereto, a man had been prowling the vicinity of the Reagan Elementary School trying to entice young girls into his automobile.

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Bluebook (online)
448 F. Supp. 894, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16094, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/creel-v-estelle-txnd-1977.