Davis v. State

684 S.W.2d 201, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6849
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided December 27, 1984·No. 01-84-00345-CR·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

OPINION

DUGGAN, Justice.

After finding appellant guilty of burglary of a habitation, the jury made an affirmative finding at the punishment hearing that he exhibited a deadly weapon during the commission of the offense, and assessed his punishment at thirty-five years confinement. Appellant urges six grounds of error.

Appellant first contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to dismiss the indictment for violation of the Speedy Trial Act.

When appellant’s pro se speedy trial motion was heard on March 2, 1984, appellant testified that he was arrested on September 6, 1983, and incarcerated from that time until the date of the hearing. The trial court took judicial notice of the facts that (1) more than 120 days had elapsed from the date of arrest and incarceration until the date of the hearing, and (2) the state’s announcement of ready was signed and filed October 25, 1983. The fact of the filing was also entered on the docket sheet. Appellant’s request for dismissal was denied.

Texas Code Crim.P. art. 32A.02 (Vernon Supp.1984) (the Texas Speedy Trial Act) addresses prosecutorial delay rather than delay resulting from the judicial process, Barfield v. State, 586 S.W.2d 538, 541 (Tex.Crim.App.1979), and an announcement of ready by the state within the 120 day time period applicable for felonies constitutes a prima facie showing that the state was ready. Ostoja v. State, 631 S.W.2d 165, 167 (Tex.Crim.App.1982). This prima facie declaration of readiness can be rebutted by evidence showing that the state was not ready for trial during the Act’s time limits. Barfield at 542. The state presented evidence of its announcement of ready at the motion hearing, and appellant offered no evidence in rebuttal. The requirements of the Speedy Trial Act were met, and appellant’s first ground of error is overruled.

In his second ground of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling his four objections to improper pros-ecutorial jury argument at the punishment phase of the trial.

The trial court sustained appellant’s first objection to the following state’s argument:

One of those aspects is that it was a very well conceived crime. You heard from the witnesses that this was a particular time in the day, in a very nice neighborhood of this town, very exclusive neighborhood, where people were gone out of their homes, where there were housewives and children in many of the homes. And those people were gone between 8:00 and 8:30 everyday. This gave the Defendant time to go into a home and get out in virtually minutes.
MR. VANCE: Your Honor, I am going to object at this time to the argument. There has been no testimony to any conceived plan or there’s been no testimony as to what type of neighborhood, and I would object.

Appellant’s motion to instruct the jury to disregard these comments by the prosecutor was granted, but his motion for mistrial was denied. The prosecutor’s argument continued as follows:

I don’t think it’s an accident. I don’t think the evidence shows it was an accident.
MR. VANCE: Your Honor, I object to that. There’s no evidence as to — he’s, again, alluding to a preconceived plan by arguing it wasn’t an accident. That was the same objection that I objected to, as *205 to him arguing outside of the record. He’s just paraphrasing it in another way.

This objection was also sustained by the court, but appellant’s counsel made no motion to instruct the jury to disregard.

The prosecutor continued his argument as follows:

An [sic] in today, in the 1980’s, I think we have come to a point in time where the prisoners in society tend to be the citizens of society.
MR. VANCE: Your Honor, I am going to object to that as an improper plea of law enforcement.

This objection was overruled.

Four general areas of acceptable jury argument are: (1) summation of the evidence; (2) reasonable deduction from the evidence; (3) answer to argument of opposing counsel; and, (4) plea for law enforcement. Denison v. State, 651 S.W.2d 754, 761 (Tex.Crim.App.1983). While the prosecuting attorney is permitted in argument to draw from the facts in evidence all reasonable, fair, and legitimate inferences, he may not use jury argument to get before the jury, either directly or indirectly, evidence which is outside the record. Jordan v. State, 646 S.W.2d 946, 948 (Tex.Crim.App.1983). However, unless argument outside the record is extreme, manifestly improper, or injects new harmful facts, it does not constitute reversible error. This rule is applied by looking to the facts of each case and viewing the probable effect on the minds of the jurors. Thomas v. State, 621 S.W.2d 158, 164 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). If the prosecutor does argue outside the record and injects personal opinion, any error is cured when the trial court sustains appellant’s objection and instructs the jury to disregard the statements, Boyd v. State, 643 S.W.2d 700, 707 (Tex.Crim.App.1983), unless it appears that the argument is clearly calculated to inflame the minds of the jurors and is of such character as to suggest the impossibility of withdrawing the impression produced on the juror’s minds. Rodriguez v. State, 646 S.W.2d 539, 542 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1982, no pet).

Appellant’s objection to the first instance of alleged improper argument was sustained and his motion to instruct the jury to disregard the prosecutor’s remarks was granted. From a review of the record, we conclude that these remarks were not of such a nature as to be clearly calculated to inflame the minds of the jurors, and any error was cured by the court’s instruction. An eyewitness testified that she saw appellant walk along the street in front of the burglarized house and then go up its driveway; that the neighborhood was one of single family houses with children; that the time was about 8:10 or 8:20 a.m.; that it is usual or customary for parents to be taking their children to school at this time daily; that she had just seen Mrs. Perkins leave the house to take her children to school; and that Mr. Perkins usually left at 7:30 a.m.

As to the second instance of improper jury argument, appellant’s objection was sustained, and no motion was made to instruct the jury to disregard, nor did appellant request a mistrial. Appellant obtained all the relief he sought, and no error is preserved. Boyd v. State, 643 S.W.2d at 707.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Davis v. State, 684 S.W.2d 201, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6849 (Tex. Ct. App. 1984).

684 S.W.2d 201 (Davis v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Romell Robert Carter v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Tommy Dale Slaughter v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Phillip James Moore v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013
Barnes, Roman Anthony v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006
Burke, Elizabeth Jane v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2005
Jackson v. State
50 S.W.3d 579 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2001)
Ables v. Scott
73 F.3d 591 (Fifth Circuit, 1996)
Davis v. State
894 S.W.2d 471 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Luken v. State
780 S.W.2d 264 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1989)
Benton v. State
770 S.W.2d 946 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)
Rodgers v. State
744 S.W.2d 281 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1987)
Fann v. State
702 S.W.2d 602 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1986)
Wissinger v. State
702 S.W.2d 261 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Turner v. State
695 S.W.2d 254 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Gooden v. State
692 S.W.2d 562 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)