Douglas v. State

733 S.W.2d 347, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 7791
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 18, 1987
DocketNo. 10-86-048-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 733 S.W.2d 347 (Douglas 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
Douglas v. State, 733 S.W.2d 347, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 7791 (Tex. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

THOMAS, Justice.

A jury convicted Appellant of robbery and assessed his punishment at thirty-four years in prison. He contends the court should have dismissed the indictment because of a violation of the Speedy Trial Act, suppressed the victim’s in-court identification testimony, and suppressed evidence seized by police during a “pat-down” search and while he was being “booked” into jail. He also claims the instruction on the parole law violated his constitutional rights and constituted fundamental error. The conviction will be affirmed.

A black male entered a Zippy convenience store at 2:00 a.m. on May 29, 1985, and told Gaby Bowers, the clerk, that he wanted to purchase a package of Salem cigarettes. When Bowers laid a pack of Salems on the counter, the man put a hand into the pocket of his blue sweat pants and said, “Give me all your money or I’ll shoot.” He held his hand inside the pocket as if he had a weapon. Bowers gave him $53 in currency from the cash register, all in $1 and $5 bills, and the man walked out of the store, taking the package of Salems with him.

Bowers immediately called police and gave them a description of the robber. She described him as a young black male, approximately five feet-nine inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, and wearing a nylon stocking cap and dark blue sweat pants with a white string around the waist. Police officers stopped an automobile a few minutes after the robbery and arrested Appellant who was a passenger in the car. He was not wearing a shirt or a stocking cap, but was wearing red tennis shoes and blue sweat pants with a white string around the waist. Officers conducted a “pat-down” search of Appellant and seized an unopened package of Salem cigarettes from his sock. Police officers later recovered $48 in currency, all in $5 and $1 bills, from his shoe and sock while he was being booked into jail. The excise tax number on the pack of Salems taken from Appellant matched the tax number on packages of Salems in the cigarette display rack behind the counter at the Zippy store.

Officers drove Appellant to the Zippy store within twenty minutes after the robbery and asked Bowers if she could identify him as her assailant. Bowers, who said the robbery had made her nervous, upset and scared, did not make a positive identification of him at that time, but did tell officers that she “thought” he was the robber. However, she positively identified Appellant at the suppression hearing and the trial as the person who robbed her. Appellant denied that he had committed the robbery.

Appellant’s first point of error involves the Speedy Trial Act, which requires the state to be ready for trial on a felony within 120 days after the criminal action commences. See Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 32A.02, § 1(1) (Vernon Supp.1987). A criminal action commences, except as otherwise provided in the Act, when the accused is indicted or arrested, whichever occurs first. Id. at § 2(a). The state does not have to announce its readiness within the applicable time limit, but may make a pri-ma facie showing of its readiness by declaring at the hearing on the motion to dismiss that it is then ready and has been ready at the times required by the Act. Jordan v. State, 639 S.W.2d 477, 478 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). A prima facie showing of readiness shifts the burden to the accused to prove otherwise. Phillips v. State, 659 S.W.2d 415, 419 (Tex.Cr.App.1983).

One of the ways the accused can rebut a prima facie showing of readiness is by proving that he was absent during the [350]*350applicable time limit. Newton v. State, 641 S.W.2d 530, 531 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). This is because the state, although ready from an evidentiary standpoint, cannot be ready for trial within the meaning of the Act while the accused is absent. Id. Producing the accused for trial is a part of the state’s burden of readiness. Id. Therefore, once the accused establishes that he was absent during the applicable time limit, the burden shifts back to the state to exclude the period of his absence under section 4 of the Act. Id; Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 32A.02, § 4 (Vernon Supp.1987). These rules will determine the disposition of the first point of error.

The criminal action commenced against Appellant on May 29, 1985, the date of his arrest. See Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 32A.02, § 2(a) (Vernon Supp.1987). Therefore, the State had to be ready for trial on the felony by September 26, the 120th day after his arrest. See id. at § 1(1). He was indicted for the offense on September 17, which was 9 days prior to the expiration of the 120-day period. The court heard Appellant’s motion to dismiss the indictment on February 24, 1986, at which time the prosecutor gave the following testimony under cross-examination:

Q And do you recall the date of the indictment in this cause?
A The 17th day of September 1985.
Q Were you ready for trial at that time?
A I was.
Q What if any — do you know where [Appellant] was at the time of the indictment, where he was physically located?
A I do not know where [Appellant] was physically located at the time of the indictment. I do know that on the 15th day of July 1985 I talked to Mr. Rollin Khoury, a licensed attorney in McLen-nan County, and reviewed the file with him, and indicated what the State expected and anticipated to produce by way of testimony in this cause, and further made an offer of a certain number of years of time to do rather than proceed to trial in this particular cause.
Q Okay. What if any steps did you take to bench warrant [Appellant] back from T.D.C.?
A Well, if Mr. — if [Appellant] was bench warranted back from T.D.C., I am sure that I am the one who made arrangements for the bench warrant to bring him back.
Q I’ll hand the Court file that has been introduced into evidence and ask you if you can identify a document in the Court’s file, which is now in evidence in this hearing, entitled an application for bench warrant?
A That is what it is. And the file stamp on this is apparently October the 7th, at 10:36 a.m. 1985.
Q Did you or anybody else in your office to your knowledge make any attempts to bench [Appellant] back prior to the date of October—
A 7th.
Q —7th, 1985?
A When I was talking with Mr. Khoury [on July 15], [Appellant] was in the McLennan County jail, and — I’m trying to refresh my memory and recollection in this particular cause.
There was another attorney involved in this set of sequences in which we were going to set up a polygraph examination for [Appellant]. And I don’t remember whether he’s the person who told me that [Appellant] was at T.D.C., or whether on the date normally scheduled for arraignment, which would have been sometime prior to the 29th day of September 1985,

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Related

Green v. State
892 S.W.2d 217 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Douglas v. State
761 S.W.2d 16 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
733 S.W.2d 347, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 7791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/douglas-v-state-texapp-1987.