Elizalde v. State

507 S.W.2d 749, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1630
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided April 10, 1974·No. 47916·Published·Cited by 46 cases

Opinion

OPINION

GREEN, Commissioner.

This appeal is from a conviction by jury verdict of burglary with intent to commit theft. Punishment, enhanced under Article 62, Vernon’s Ann.P.C., was assessed by the court at twelve years.

In his fourth ground of error, appellant complains of insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction.

The record reflects the following testimony by State’s witnesses:

Mrs. Gathright testified that as she was driving to her home, in the afternoon of September 8, 1972, and just prior to getting there, she saw a car parked in her next door neighbor’s driveway, and a man, whom she identified as appellant, loading a T.V. set covered by her blanket in the car trunk. When she got in her house, her T. V. set, which had been there that morning, was missing, as well as a number of other items. Just after she entered, her neighbor phoned to tell her that a man had broken into her (Mrs. Gathright’s) house. The screen on the door to her house was ripped on the back side, and the latch was pulled out. Mrs. Gathright and her son ran outside, and her son shouted to appellant, who was getting in the car: “Stop, man stop, you have my T.V.” Appellant fled in the car. Mrs. Gathright had not given appellant consent to break into her home, or to take the T.V. set.

The neighbor testified that she saw appellant, whom she knew, walking toward Mrs. Gathright’s house, and then saw him returning to the car with the T.V. set covered by a blanket, which he put into the car trunk. She gave the officers the letters JWF as the prefix to the car license, and described the car to the officers. The description of the car given the officers by the neighbor fit the car in which appellant was arrested three days later.

The appellant did not testify.

The above evidence, including the flight of appellant from the scene, and the recent possession of the stolen property, is sufficient to sustain the verdict of guilty.

In his second ground of error, appellant contends that he was denied a fair trial because of the deliberate and repeated prejudicial remarks made to the jury by *751 the State. In a one paragraph discussion, appellant refers by page number of the record to a number of instances in the State’s argument of which he complains. This ground of error and the arguments thereunder are multifarious and do not meet the requirements of Art. 40.09, Sec. 9, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P., which, in part, requires that appellant’s brief “. shall set forth separately each ground of error of which defendant desires to complain on appeal . . . ” Hunt v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 492 S.W.2d 540; Houston v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 506 S.W.2d 907 (1974); Pitts v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 478 S.W.2d 555.

We have examined the argument of the State, and do not find anything therein which we should consider in the interest of justice. Art. 40.09, Sec. 13, V.A.C.C.P. There is nothing for review.

In this third ground, appellant complains of being denied effective assistance of counsel. The record discloses that appellant was represented on the trial by employed counsel, who had also represented him in other felony cases.

In Curtis v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 500 S.W.2d 478, we quoted from Trotter v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 471 S.W.2d 822, as follows:

“We have carefully examined the record and cannot conclude there was ineffective assistance of counsel. This record does not support or reflect any willful misconduct by an employed counsel without appellant’s knowledge which amounts to a breach of the legal duty of an attorney. See Lawson v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 467 S.W.2d 486, and cases there cited. Further, counsel being retained, any claimed incompetency or lack of effective assistance on the part of such counsel cannot be imputed to the State. Howard v. Beto, 5th Cir., 375 F.2d 441; Lawson v. State, supra.”

We there cited, as in accord with the above quotation,

“Dyche v. State, 478 S.W.2d 944, 945 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Mills v. State, 483 S.W.2d 264 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Guerrero v. State, 487 S.W.2d 729 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Rodriguez v. State, 489 S.W.2d 121, 123 (Tex.Cr.App.1972) ; Sellers v. State, 492 S.W.2d 265, 266 (Tex.Cr.App.1973).”

In our study of this record, we fail to find any evidence of lack of effective representation on the part of trial counsel.

The record reflects that appellant was convicted on the strength of the evidence against him, and not by reason of any willful misconduct or breach of any legal duty of counsel. See Rozell v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 502 S.W.2d 16; Sellers v. State, supra.

The third ground of error is overruled.

Appellant, in his first ground, alleges error in the finding of the court at the punishment stage that appellant had been previously convicted of a like felony. He contends insufficiency of the evidence to support such finding.

The indictment, for the purpose of enhancing the punishment as provided in Article 62, V.A.P.C., alleged a prior final conviction of appellant for burglary in Cause No. 12,779 in the District Court of Nueces County on June 18, 1968. At the punishment stage of the instant case, which was before the court without a jury, the State introduced the indictment and judgment in the prior trial, together with the prison packet from the Department of Corrections containing, as State’s Exhibit No. 7, fingerprints of the defendant in that case and a photograph of said defendant.

Over objections of appellant, the court permitted his fingerprints to be taken at the trial, being State’s Exhibit No. 12. Officer Hernandez, a fingerprint expert, compared these prints with State’s Exhibit No. 7, and testified they were of the same person. However, on cross-examination he could not make a positive identification *752 match, and the court struck State’s Exhibit No. 12 from the record, and stated that it was not to be considered as evidence.

Officer Hernandez testified that he had been with the Nueces County Sheriff’s Department for fourteen and one-half years. He was personally acquainted with appellant.

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Elizalde v. State, 507 S.W.2d 749, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1630 (Tex. 1974).

507 S.W.2d 749 (Elizalde v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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