Hall v. State

745 S.W.2d 579, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 493, 1988 WL 19262
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 18, 1988
DocketNo. 2-86-272-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 745 S.W.2d 579 (Hall 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
Hall v. State, 745 S.W.2d 579, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 493, 1988 WL 19262 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

JOE SPURLOCK, II, Justice.

A jury found appellant, Willie James Hall, guilty of the offense of attempt to commit murder, TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 15.01 (Vernon Supp.1988), and TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 19.02 (Vernon 1974); and that he had been previously convicted of one felony. It assessed Hall’s punishment at 60 years in the penitentiary. In two points of error, Hall complains that the court committed error by permitting the State to attempt to impeach the credibility of a defense witness, who was a juvenile, and by permitting the State to question the same witness about having been in juvenile detention. In his third point of error, Hall complains that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to convict him.

We affirm. We will review the evidence to address the third point of error first.

On April 25, 1985, Randal Culton, while working on his truck at the Jackson Square Apartments in Arlington, Texas heard a girl scream. He went to the area where he heard the scream and saw Hall confronting a young woman. They were yelling back and forth at each other. Culton intervened and escorted the girl to her apartment, and told a young man standing nearby to come get him if there was any further trouble.

Culton returned to his truck. Shortly thereafter the young man came to Culton and told him there was more trouble. As Culton went back toward the apartment he saw Hall in an altercation with another man. The man was on his knees and Hall had him by his hair. As Culton approached the two men to attempt to break up the fight, he realized that Hall had a gun. Hall pointed the gun at Culton who then began backing up because he was scared. The man on the ground was struggling to get up. As Culton turned to run, he was shot one time by Hall. He was struck in the left arm by a bullet which traveled through to the left rib cage where it lodged. Hall was arrested at the scene by the Arlington Police.

In his review of the evidence, Hall emphasizes different testimony. He says that when Culton first arrived on the scene where he and the girl were arguing, Culton told him to leave the girl alone and to “get the Hell out of there.” The girl then asked Culton to escort her to her apartment. Culton did, but testified that he and Hall exchanged profanities and that Hall made threats toward him. Hall notes that he and the girl thereafter got into the argument again, and a crowd gathered. Hall then began to tell the crowd to leave them alone; that they didn’t know what was going on. Hall says that the crowd had gathered because he was involved in a fight with a David Rogers. There was a verbal confrontation between Hall and Rogers and Hall asked his girl friend to get his “piece.” At that time someone in the crowd screamed “he’s got a gun.”

Rogers ducked underneath some cars and Hall threatened to “waste him.” Hall pulled Rogers’ hair and beat him in the face with the pistol. While he had Rogers by the hair he was waving the gun around, [581]*581and as he and Rogers continued to struggle, the gun went off. Hall relies on Rogers’ testimony that despite Hall’s threats to Rogers, Hall never fired the gun at Rogers. Rogers testified that Hall let him go and that the gun went off. Other testimony was that the bullet struck Culton in the left arm as Culton was backing away from the fight. Gregory Rose testified that immediately after the shooting Hall went to assist Culton and told him he was sorry, it was an accident. However, Culton testified that after he had been shot and lay bleeding on the ground, Hall came up to him and said “[d]on’t die on me, baby.” At trial Officer Parker of the Arlington Police Department demonstrated to the jury the force necessary to pull the trigger and stated that it was a standard factory pull trigger.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction based upon direct evidence, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. See Flournoy v. State, 668 S.W.2d 380, 383 (Tex.Crim.App.1984); and see Houston v. State, 663 S.W.2d 455, 456 (Tex.Crim.App.1984). The critical inquiry is whether, after so viewing the evidence, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Bonham v. State, 680 S.W.2d 815, 819 (Tex.Crim.App.1984); Wilson v. State, 654 S.W.2d 465, 471 (Tex.Crim.App.1983) (opinion on reh’g).

The sufficiency of the evidence is a question of law. The issue on appeal is not whether we as a court believe the prosecution’s evidence or believe that the defense evidence “outweighs” the State’s evidence. See Wicker v. State, 667 S.W.2d 137, 143 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 892, 105 S.Ct. 268, 83 L.Ed.2d 204 (1984). If there is evidence which establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and if the trier of fact believes that evidence, we are not in a position to reverse the judgment on sufficiency of the evidence grounds. See id.

Hall argues that the evidence was insufficient to prove he intended to cause the death of Culton, because there was no evidence or other testimony which conclusively established that he pointed or aimed the firearm at Culton. To the contrary, we find the victim specifically testified that Hall pointed the gun at him. Culton testified:

The man was, obviously, angry because I told him to leave the girl alone before. When I walked up to him, he pointed the gun at me and I started backing up because I was, obviously, scared. You know, he had a gun pointed at me.

In reviewing the balance of the testimony there is obvious conflict between what Cul-ton testified to and what other witnesses testified to, as to whether Hall pointed a gun at Culton. We note that one of the witnesses, Gregory Rose, in answering a question from the prosecutor as to whether he saw a flash from the gun, said:

A. Yes.
Q. Who was holding the gun?
A. Willie.
Q. Did you see the direction that the barrel of the gun was pointed?
A. At that man.
Q. Did you see the direction that the flash went off in?
A. Towards that man.

On cross-examination, however, Rose testified that Hall didn’t have the gun pointed at anybody, “he was just kind of pointing a little bit at everybody.” We do not find this conflicting testimony is the same as insufficient evidence. The jury was free to believe or disbelieve the testimony of any of the witnesses or any part thereof, and in particular free to believe that Hall pointed the gun at Culton as Culton directly testified he did. We hold the evidence is sufficient by which the trier of fact could have found Hall guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Hall’s point of error number three is overruled.

In his first point of error Hall argues that the trial court erred in permitting the prosecutor to impeach the credibility of a juvenile defense witness, “Mary” (not her real name).

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Bluebook (online)
745 S.W.2d 579, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 493, 1988 WL 19262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-state-texapp-1988.