Gobin v. State

684 S.W.2d 802, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 6220
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 13, 1985
DocketNos. 2-84-053-CR to 2-84-055-CR
StatusPublished

This text of 684 S.W.2d 802 (Gobin 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
Gobin v. State, 684 S.W.2d 802, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 6220 (Tex. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

GRAY, Justice.

Jack Richard Gobin, Jr. has appealed his conviction on three counts of delivery of a controlled substance, to-wit: amphetamine less than 200 grams. The case was tried to a jury which returned a verdict of guilty and then assessed a punishment of three concurrent sentences: two three-year sentences in the Texas Department of Corrections and one eight-year probated sentence.

We reverse and remand for a new trial.

The evidence shows that Kathy Ward, an undercover narcotics agent for the Fort Worth Police Department, was introduced to a police informant who was then under indictment for auto theft. The informant led Officer Ward to the home of appellant and appellant’s wife for the purpose of buying amphetamine. Officer Ward testified that, at that time, appellant stated that he was waiting on his supplier, named Wes, to deliver the drugs and did not then have any in his possession. On three later occasions, appellant sold amphetamine to Officer Ward and was arrested the third time. At the time of arrest, a pistol was found in the car appellant was driving.

At trial, appellant claimed that the informant was the appellant’s roommate and that the informant provided the appellant with drugs to supply the appellant’s addiction. The appellant testified that the informant came to him and asked him to sell some amphetamine to a school friend of the informant’s (Officer Ward posed as that friend), and that he flatly refused to do so the first time he was introduced to the school friend. The appellant claimed that the informant threatened to withhold drugs and rent money from appellant if appellant did not sell amphetamine to Officer Ward, and that appellant would not otherwise have done so. The appellant also testified that the informant supplied the drugs which were eventually sold to Officer Ward.

Based on these alleged facts, appellant asserted the defense of entrapment under TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 8.06 (Vernon 1974). Appellant tried to introduce several indictments pending against the informant to show that the informant had an incentive to cooperate with the police and to help them “make a case.” The trial court refused to admit the indictments. The trial court also refused a directed verdict of acquittal based on entrapment and refused an instruction on entrapment in the charge. The pistol was admitted into evidence.

The appellant’s first ground of error complains of the trial court’s denial of an instructed verdict of acquittal. The second ground of error complains of the denial of an instruction on entrapment in the charge. We will discuss these two grounds together.

Section 8.06 reads as follows:

(a) It is a defense to prosecution that the actor engaged in the conduct charged because he was induced to do so by a law enforcement agent using persuasion or other means likely to cause persons to commit the offense. Conduct merely af[804]*804fording a person an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.
(b) In this section “law enforcement agent” includes personnel of the state and local law enforcement agencies as well as of the United States and any person acting in accordance with instructions from such agents.

Id.

Thus, the issue of entrapment in this case was two-pronged: (1) was the informant acting under police instructions, and (2) if so, did his conduct constitute persuasion or other means likely to cause the appellant to commit the offense, excluding conduct which merely afforded the appellant an opportunity to do so? The State argues that there was no evidence of either prong to support an instruction on entrapment or an instructed verdict of acquittal.

On the first prong, the State admits that the informant was acting in concert with the police, but alleges that if the informant used any illegal means to induce the appellant to commit the crimes charged, he did so without the knowledge or consent of the police. The State argues that the first prong of the issue of entrapment was not raised and that neither an instruction on entrapment nor an instructed verdict thereon was warranted because the appellant presented no evidence that the informant was acting under specific instructions from the police to entrap the appellant or that he was under their general control, as required by Rangel v. State, 585 S.W.2d 695, 699 (Tex.Crim.App.1979). We agree that an instructed verdict was not warranted, but we think there was justification for an instruction on entrapment.

Though the evidence was far from conclusive, there was some evidence that the informant was under the general control of the police. At trial, appellant was prevented from introducing three indictments pending against the informant to show that the informant’s conduct was under the control of the police. The State cites Taylor v. State, 612 S.W.2d 566, 571 (Tex.Crim.App.1981) as authority for the exclusion of such evidence. However, that case is not on point. In Taylor, the informant was not the person who had allegedly entrapped the defendant into criminal conduct, but rather, the police officer had allegedly done so. In that case, the question of whether or not the informant was under police control was not in issue. In the case at hand, the informant himself allegedly entrapped the appellant. He was more than an informant, he was an active participant. Therefore, the question of whether he was under police control is in issue, even though the informant did not testify.

We should point out that the recent opinion in Soto v. State, 681 S.W.2d 602 (Tex.Crim.App.1984) does not control the issue of whether an instruction on entrapment should have been submitted to the jury. In Soto, the judge was the trier of fact and was authorized to weigh the evidence. In the case at bar, the jury was the trier of fact, and if any evidence existed to support the allegation that the informant was acting under police control, then the first prong was raised. We hold that there was such evidence and that the first prong of the entrapment defense was raised, though not proven conclusively.

The second prong of the entrapment defense is whether the appellant was induced to commit a crime by a law enforcement agent using persuasion or other means likely to cause persons to commit the offense; with the caveat that conduct merely affording appellant an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.

The appellant alleges that the informant threatened to withhold drugs which the appellant needed for his own addiction unless appellant sold drugs to Officer Ward. Appellant also alleges that the informant threatened to withhold his share of the rent which was due.

The State cites Bush v. State, 611 S.W.2d 428, 432 (Tex.Crim.App.1980) (on rehearing) to show that “[a] promise to get appellant high on dope is so unlikely to induce a person not already so disposed, to commit the criminal offense charged as to [805]

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Related

Albrecht v. State
486 S.W.2d 97 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1972)
Soto v. State
681 S.W.2d 602 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Bush v. State
611 S.W.2d 428 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1981)
Jones v. State
481 S.W.2d 900 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1972)
Rangel v. State
585 S.W.2d 695 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Taylor v. State
612 S.W.2d 566 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
684 S.W.2d 802, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 6220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gobin-v-state-texapp-1985.