Dempsey v. State

667 S.W.2d 801
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 29, 1984
Docket09-83-043-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 667 S.W.2d 801 (Dempsey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dempsey v. State, 667 S.W.2d 801 (Tex. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

BROOKSHIRE, Justice.

Clarence Dempsey appeals from conviction for possession of a controlled substance (Pentazocine), with intent to deliver, in an amount less than two hundred (200) grams. The Court assessed punishment at six years confinement.

Appellant asserts five grounds of error. The first four grounds of error challenge the sufficiency of evidence to sustain conviction and to prove intent of appellant; also challenge is made to sufficiency of evidence to prove possession and to negate an hypothesis concerning possible guilt of another person other than appellant.

Detective Ray E. Beck testified that at about 3 p.m., December 1, 1981, he was at a bank parking lot two blocks to the north of Forsythe Street in Beaumont. He was there to do narcotics surveillance work in the Forsythe-Trinity Streets area. Something got his attention. He saw a man wearing a brown suit and brown hat. The man was standing on the sidewalk of For-sythe Street near a large garbage dumpster. On at least two occasions the man would leave his position near the dumpster and meet cars on the street. The detective could see the man lean into a car, reach inside, and finally walk back over to the sidewalk. Each time he left any of the cars he would walk back to the east side of the dumpster, specifically to the pickup slot on the east side. Each time he saw the *803 man reach toward that slot. “What he was doing there, you know, I can only assume,” Beck injected. Beck saw only Dempsey go to or near the dumpster. Beck also saw Dempsey reach into the arm of the dumpster three times.

Finally, Detective Beck made some sort of contact with Policeman W.C. Kittell who was making a routine patrol in the area. The detective asked Kittell to identify the man and also to check something. Beck confirmed that the man Kittell approached was the same man Beck had seen standing near the dumpster. Beck next asked the officer—apparently by radio—to check the arm slot of the dumpster. Kittell identified the man as appellant and found in the dumpster slot a match box containing twenty-four sets of pink and blue pills. At the time of arrest, appellant was about six to ten feet away from the dumpster—more than an arm’s reach—Kittell said. Some of these pills were identified as Pentazocine (also known as Talwin). No weight was determined. There were twenty-four of that particular tablet and each weighed less than one-half gram.

Detective Beck stated he was on his surveillance mission a total of approximately thirty minutes. We observe the following during cross-examination:

“Q. And this is an area you have testified where you make narcotics and prostitution arrests ... ?
“A. That is correct.
“Q. Would it be safe to say that ... these particular drugs are common in that area?
“A. Yes, sir, that is true.
* * * * * *
“Q. ... Would it be safe to say that there could be more than one person who frequents that area who could have placed that particular drug in that dumpster?
“A. Someone else could have, yes.”

In cases such as this, the evidence must affirmatively link the accused to the contraband in such a manner and to such an extent that a reasonable inference may arise that the accused knew of the contraband’s existence and such affirmative link is established by showing additional facts and circumstances which indicate the accused’s knowledge and control of the contraband. Waldon v. State, 579 S.W.2d 499 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). In our case, the evidence—direct and circumstantial—affirmatively links the accused to the contraband. By eyewitness testimony it ties appellant to the dumpster arm slot at a time when the contraband was present. During the time of the surveillance no other person approached the dumpster and no other person except appellant reached toward the arm slot.

As to the direct evidence in the case, we follow the holdings and the reasonings in Fernandez v. State, 564 S.W.2d 771 (Tex.Cr.App.1978), and Banks v. State, 510 S.W.2d 592 (Tex.Cr.App.1974). In Banks, supra, the Court defined the standard for reviewing the sufficiency of direct evidence, writing:

“In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict. In doing so, the verdict will be sustained if there is any evidence which, if believed, shows the guilt of the accused.”

As to the nature and quality of the circumstantial evidence in this case, we test the same using a different standard whereby a conviction based on circumstantial evidence can be sustained only if the circumstantial evidence excludes every other reasonable hypothesis except that of appellant’s guilt. Moore v. State, 640 S.W.2d 300 (Tex.Cr.App.1982); Autry v. State, 626 S.W.2d 758 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). See Sewell v. State, 578 S.W.2d 131 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Wilson v. State, 654 S.W.2d 465 (Tex.Cr.App.1983).

Of course every circumstantial evidence case must necessarily be measured and tested on its own facts to determine the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction. Earnhart v. State, 575 S.W.2d 551, 554 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Stogs *804 dill v. State, 552 S.W.2d 481 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). And the appellate or reviewing court has an affirmative duty of seeing to it that no one is convicted of a crime except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and if prosecution is based on circumstantial evidence, then such evidence and proof must exclude all other hypotheses except guilt as to every element of the offense charged. Easley v. State, 529 S.W.2d 522 (Tex.Cr.App.1975).

The rule on an appellate court’s reviewing of evidence in a circumstantial evidence case is in Sewell v. State, supra, 578 S.W.2d at 135, as follows:

“The general rule for reviewing the sufficiency of evidence is that it will be viewed in the light most favorable to the jury verdict. Bowers v. State, 570 S.W.2d 929, 932 (Tex.Cr.App.1978).

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Bluebook (online)
667 S.W.2d 801, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dempsey-v-state-texapp-1984.