Evans v. State

632 S.W.2d 912, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4503
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 29, 1982
DocketNo. B14-81-338-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 632 S.W.2d 912 (Evans 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
Evans v. State, 632 S.W.2d 912, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4503 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

MURPHY, Justice.

This appeal arises from Charles Evans’ (appellant) conviction on his plea of not guilty by a jury for capital murder. Punishment was assessed at life imprisonment. This is the second appeal from appellant’s conviction for this offense, the first, Cause No. 281,984, having been reversed in Evans v. State, 601 S.W.2d 943 (Tex.Cr.App.1980). In his eleven grounds of error appellant asserts violations of the fourth, fifth, sixth and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution and error in the trial court’s refusal to charge the jury on a lesser included offense and give an instruction on circumstantial evidence. We affirm.

Armed with an arrest warrant based upon information given by an anonymous informant, eyewitnesses and individuals acquainted with appellant police arrested appellant on July 5, 1978. On July 6, 1978, Leonard Pitre (Pitre), appellant’s co-defendant, gave police a statement implicating appellant in the June 29, 1978 attempted robbery and ensuing murder of Woodrow R. Schultz at the Bill Mathis Jewelry Store in Houston. Appellant made a written statement sometime after a line-up held July 7th admitting his participation in the offense. No counsel was present when appellant made his statement. The events surrounding the lineup are unclear as to presence of counsel for appellant.

Appellant’s first, second and third grounds of error challenge the sufficiency of the affidavit supporting the arrest warrant and the legality of his arrest. The affidavit shows the information presented to the magistrate was gathered from several citizens including eyewitnesses and persons acquainted with appellant possessing personal knowledge of the events at issue and details concerning appellant, and an informant. Although the affidavit fails to meet the Aguilar-Spinelli test prong concerning the informant’s source of information, we find it sufficiently corroborated by the information provided by the other individuals as well as police observation to provide probable cause to support a legal arrest. Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 114-15, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 1513-1514, 12 L.Ed.2d 723 (1964); Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 412-413, 89 S.Ct. 584, 586-587, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969); Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 313-314, 79 S.Ct. 329, 333, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959); Wood v. State, 573 S.W.2d 207, 212 (Tex.Cr.App.1978). See also, Gish v. State, 606 S.W.2d 883 (Tex.Crim.App.1980). On the basis of the above authorities, we overrule appellant’s first through third grounds of error.

Appellant’s fourth ground of error contends appellant’s confession was obtained by police exploitation of his detention following an illegal arrest. We have found appellant’s arrest to be legal and accordingly overrule his fourth ground of error.

[914]*914Appellant’s fifth ground of error contends the trial court erred by admitting line-up identification evidence because appellant had not waived his right to counsel and no counsel was present. The record indicates Pitre and Mr. Naron (Naron), an attorney, were present just before the lineup proceeding and appellant indicated Nar-on would be his counsel to Detective J. L. Bonds. Bonds advised appellant that because Naron was apparently representing Pitre, a conflict of interest would arise and he should seek other counsel. Appellant apparently demurred to that opinion because he indicated that Naron’s presence satisfied him. No one present at the time clarified who was representing whom, but the line-up document indicates appellant had not waived his right to counsel and Naron as the attorney present. An accused’s right to counsel attaches upon the initiation of adversary proceedings, e.g., as here, at a line-up after indictment. Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 684, 690, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 1879, 1882, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972). Constitutional error may be viewed as harmless where the judgment was not substantially swayed by that error. United States v. Jennings, 527 F.2d 862, 868 (5th Cir. 1976); United States v. Steinkoenig, 487 F.2d 225, 229 (5th Cir. 1973); Beck v. State, 583 S.W.2d 338, 347 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Jordan v. State, 576 S.W.2d 825, 829 (Tex.Cr.App.1978). We conclude any error occurring at the line-up is harmless. Several witnesses at the line-up identified appellant in court and their in-court identifications were based upon facts and circumstances independent of the line-up, e.g., Mrs. Futrell’s opportunity to observe appellant lurking in front of her store before the offense occurred. In light of the above authorities, the overwhelming evidence against appellant and his confession, which we discuss below, we overrule appellant’s fifth ground of error.

Appellant’s sixth ground of error contends the trial court improperly admitted his statement. The record shows appellant made his statement approximately 12 hours after his arrest. Prior to his confession homicide detective J. L. Bonds, told appellant Pitre had made a statement implicating appellant and that he had been identified at the line-up. The only individual appellant requested to speak to prior to making his statement was Ms. Donna Bur-rell, appellant’s common-law wife. After a private conversation with Ms. Burrell, appellant made his statement in the presence of detectives Bonds and Wendell, and a Houston Chronicle reporter. The record shows he received and understood the legal warnings given prior to his confession and signed the waiver on the confession form. At trial, the court held a separate hearing to determine the voluntariness of the statement as required in Tex.Code Crim.Pro. Ann. art. 38.22 (Vernon Supp. 1982), and found appellant had freely, intelligently and voluntarily made the statement having waived his right to counsel. The situation before us parallels Kelly v. State, 621 S.W.2d 176 (Tex.Cr.App.1981). In that case, the appellant did not request counsel nor indicate he desired counsel and made his statement after conferring with family members and his pastor. The Court of Criminal Appeals held the decision to confess came as a result of private discussion with his family and not as the product of custodial interrogation. The case before us, therefore, is distinguishable from Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981). Accordingly, we overrule appellant’s sixth ground of error.

In his seventh ground of error appellant asserts the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction because the state failed to prove the corpus delicti of the robbery. Proof of the corpus delicti of the offense charged need not be independent of an extrajudicial confession but instead may corroborate the confession. Wilder v. State,

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Related

Evans v. State
659 S.W.2d 405 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1983)

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632 S.W.2d 912, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-state-texapp-1982.