Graves v. State

382 S.W.2d 486
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 8, 1964
Docket36595
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 382 S.W.2d 486 (Graves v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Graves v. State, 382 S.W.2d 486 (Tex. 1964).

Opinions

BELCHER, Commissioner.

The conviction is for murder; the punishment, death.

The deceased, Selmon Phillips, and his wife, were operating a motel on October 5, 1962. While Mrs. Phillips was seated at the telephone switchboard behind the counter, and the deceased was seated nearby, the appellant appeared at the door of the office about 9 p. m. When the deceased asked him inside, the appellant entered, threw a paper sack upon the counter, pulled his pistol, and told Mrs. Phillips to give him every “damn thing you’ve got under there.” The appellant then said to the deceased: “you d — s—o—b—, get behind the counter.” As the deceased, who was crippled, tried to comply, the appellant struck him with his pistol, demanded deceased’s billfold, and when he reached for it, the appellant shot him four or five times from a distance of two or three feet. After the first shot, the deceased struck appellant with a club, knocking off his hat and glasses, which were left at the scene as appellant fled from the motel, and the police were notified.

Mrs. Phillips testified that she identified the appellant at the police station as the man who shot her husband at the motel. She also testified on cross-examination as follows :

“Q. Did you have by chance an occasion to say anything to him or did he say anything to you at the police station?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Did you say something to him?
“A. No sir. He came in and picked me out.
“Q. How’s that? A. He came in and told me he did it and he was sorry of it.
“Q. Is that all he told you? A. No sir.
“Q. What else did he tell you?
“A. He said he never had been no good in his life and never would be and his conscience wouldn’t let him live wit/wt.”
[488]*488"Q. * * *
“A. He said its a life for a life and he would get the chair but he said my conscience wouldn’t let me live with it.”

A resident living directly behind the motel, about the time in question, heard his dog barking loudly, observed an automobile parked behind the office of the motel, and after hearing three shots saw a car speeding from the scene. The evidence further shows that there were blood spots from the front door of the motel to the place where the car was parked behind the motel and also signs that the car had started up suddenly.

The evidence reveals that a hair found inside the hat band of the hat found on the floor of the motel soon after the shooting, when compared with known specimens of hair from the head of the appellant, shows that they were completely identical, each having the same characteristics.

The appellant was apprehended on November IS, following the shooting of the deceased on October 5, and he thereafter made a written statement which he signed, and in which he admitted robbing the motel and shooting the deceased with a .22 caliber pistol. While accompanying the officers, the appellant pointed out to them the place in a bayou where he had thrown the .22 caliber pistol, and it was recovered as he directed, and it contained five spent shells.

The appellant did not testify in his own behalf before the jury, but in their absence he testified that he did not voluntarily make the written statement; that the statement included certain facts which he did not relate to the officers, that he did not lose his hat and glasses at the motel as shown in the statement. On cross-examination in the absence of the jury he admitted signing the statement; and he testified that the officers recovered the pistol he used at the motel in the bayou by following the directions he gave them. After this testimony the court overruled appellant’s motion that the written statement was involuntarily made as a matter of law.

The appellant called as witnesses his aunt, a person who had been reared with him, six fellow prisoners, a psychiatrist, and a juvenile parole officer. Their testimony portrayed a series of acts and conduct beginning when he was a child and continuing to the date of the trial in this case, including five commitments to the reform school in Gatesville, two to the state hospital, and one to the penitentiary. The witnesses described the commission of numerous brutal acts by appellant on members of his family, and stated that he had committed theft and burglary and had been released from the penitentiary about two months before the instant offense was committed; and they further described him as being unstable and abnormal. The psychiatrist stated that he considered appellant mentally sick and dangerous, but no witness expressed the opinion that he was insane.

In rebuttal the state called a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and two probation officers, and they each expressed the opinion that appellant was sane.

In his brief and oral argument, the appellant strenuously insists that the trial court erred in refusing to grant his amended motion for a new trial. In the motion he alleged that the jurors were informed through public media that the appellant was planning to escape, that the life of the district attorney had been threatened, that extra guards were needed and they appeared beside appellant in the court room upon restoration of light after an electrical failure. He further alleged that the state, in its closing argument, referred to the juvenile record and prior convictions of the appellant, and that he was incapable of rehabilitation; that the jury commented on appellant’s failure to testify, and did not read and consider the court’s charge during their deliberations; and that since the trial he had discovered new testimony which would support his defense of insan[489]*489ity. The failure to attach affidavits of any jurors to the motion is accounted for by a showing of their unwillingness to make affidavits.

In support of his motion the appellant called as witnesses the following five jurors and Bruce Hamilton Kennard:

Juror Wilson testified that after he was selected as a juror, but before the jury was completed: “This is the only thing I did hear. That the District Attorney had been threatened because of this trial” ; that he did not recall who made such statement, and that he had not heard or read anything about the case before his voir dire examination.

Juror Williams testified that he never obtained any information from a newspaper or television about this case, but as the members of the jury went to their meal he heard the newsboys saying that a district attorney had'been threatened but he did not know which one, and he never heard any comment by a juror about newspaper publicity.

Juror Anderson testified that he never heard of any threats and that he never heard any discussion about the case among the jurors until they retired to deliberate.

Juror Fisher testified that she saw a headline in a newspaper but she did not know “who it was or anything about it.”

Juror Dalleo testified that she had not heard anything about this case before her selection as a juror, and that there was no discussion among the jurors of any publicity about the case.

The record is silent as to the failure to call as witnesses the other members of the jury, other than as shown in the following stipulation.

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3 S.W.3d 522 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1999)
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429 S.W.2d 490 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1968)
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420 S.W.2d 601 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1967)
Procella v. State
395 S.W.2d 637 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1965)
Crain v. State
394 S.W.2d 165 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1964)
Graves v. State
382 S.W.2d 486 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1964)

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Bluebook (online)
382 S.W.2d 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graves-v-state-texcrimapp-1964.