Hannah v. State

624 S.W.2d 750
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 27, 1982
DocketC14-81-018-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 624 S.W.2d 750 (Hannah 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
Hannah v. State, 624 S.W.2d 750 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

SAM ROBERTSON, Justice.

The jury rejected appellant’s plea of not guilty, found him guilty of aggravated rape and the court assessed punishment at confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections for sixteen years. We affirm.

The sufficiency of the evidence is not challenged. It would add nothing to the jurisprudence of the state to detail the facts of this case. Suffice it to say the sixteen year old complainant, her twin sister and a nineteen year old male companion were walking down a public street at approximately midnight. Appellant, two of his brothers and a fourth companion pulled up in an automobile and by exhibiting a sawed-off shotgun, kidnapped complainant and the male companion. Complainant’s twin sister escaped. The evidence describes *752 in detail the sordid acts of sexual depravity that were repeatedly forced upon complainant and her male companion over the approximately two and one-half hours following the abduction. The male companion was subsequently released and while the complainant was still in the automobile, the appellant and his three companions were arrested.

Appellant brings forward five points of error.

By his first point of error, appellant contends that the trial court committed fundamental reversible error in applying the law of parties to the facts of the case because it permitted the jury to convict on a theory not alleged in the indictment.

The count of the indictment, omitting its formal parts, upon which appellant was convicted, alleged that appellant, “did then and there unlawfully, intentionally and knowingly by force and by threatening the imminent infliction of serious bodily injury and death to ... [the complainant], a female not his wife and hereafter styled the Complainant, have sexual intercourse with the Complainant and without the consent of the Complainant.”

After defining rape in its charge, the court defined aggravated rape as follows: “A person commits aggravated rape if he commits rape as defined above and he ... (b) compels submission to the rape by threat of death or serious bodily injury to be inflicted on anyone.”

The charge then contained the following special provision:

The indictment in this case having alleged the use of force and threats by the defendant and threatening the infliction of serious bodily injury and death upon the alleged victim, before you would be warranted in convicting the defendant, you must find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant used such force or threat on the occasion in question, if any, as to overcome such earnest resistance as might reasonable [sic] be expected under the circumstances at the time, and, that any threat the defendant is alleged to have made in accomplishing the sexual intercourse, if any, was such that it would prevent resistance by a woman of ordinary resolution, under the same or similar circumstances because of a reasonable fear of harm; that defendant, in the course of the same criminal episode as the alleged rape, compelled submission to the rape, if any, by threat of death or serious bodily injury to be imminently inflicted on ... [the complainant], and that there was penetration of the sexual organ of the female in question by the male organ of the party accused. If you have a reasonable doubt as to any of these matters, you must find the defendant not guilty.

Immediately following this special instruction, the court in its charge applied the law to the facts:

Now if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 5th day of November, 1978, in Harris County, Texas, the defendant, Jerry Ricky Hannah, did then and there unlawfully and intentionally and without the consent and against the will of ... [the complainant], a female, have sexual intercourse with the said ... [the complainant], and that the said ... [the complainant], was not then and there the wife of the said defendant, and that the defendant used force or threat on ... [the complainant] on the occasion in question to accomplish the sexual intercourse, and that such force or threat was sufficient to overcome such earnest resistance as might reasonably be expected under the circumstances at the time, and that such threat or threats, if any, were such as would prevent resistance by a woman of ordinary resolution under the same or similar circumstances because of a reasonable fear of harm, and that the defendant, in the course of the same criminal episode as the alleged rape compelled submission to the rape by threat of death or serious bodily injury to be imminently inflicted on her, then you will find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.
*753 Unless you so find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, or if you have a reasonable doubt thereof, you will acquit the defendant.

Finally, the court concluded by defining the law of parties and applying that law to the facts:

Now if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, either acting alone or with another, or others as a party to the offense, as that term is hereinbefore defined, did intentionally or knowingly, in Harris County, Texas, on or about the 5th day of November. 1978. did commit the offense of aggravated rape against . .. [the complainant], then you will find the defendant guilty.
If you do not so believe, or you have a reasonable doubt thereof, you will acquit the defendant.

No objections were made to the court’s charge.

Relying upon Sandig v. State, 580 S.W.2d 584 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), appellant argues that “the Court’s charge allowed the jury to convict the Appellant on a party basis on a type of Aggravated Rape not alleged in the Indictment.” Appellant says further: “[T]he Court’s charge on parties in its simplified language allows conviction on a party theory for any theory of Aggravated Rape as defined in the Charge.”

Were we confined only to the two paragraphs of the charge to which appellant wants us confined i.e., the statutory definition of aggravated rape and the paragraph applying the law of parties to the facts, the opinion in Sandig would control. However, appellant completely overlooks the two additional paragraphs of the court’s charge quoted above which specifically require that before the jury may convict the appellant, they must believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant compelled the complainant to submit “by threat of death or serious bodily injury to be inflicted on ... [the complainant].”

In Jackson v. State, 591 S.W.2d 820 (Tex.Cr.App.1980), the Court of Criminal Appeals again stated that “the charge must be read as a whole and the review thereof must not be limited to a small part standing alone.” To view only those two portions of the charge as appellant would have us do would be unrealistic. On the other hand, viewing the charge as a whole as we are so required, we are convinced that no fundamental error is shown. Appellant’s first point of error is overruled.

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624 S.W.2d 750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hannah-v-state-texapp-1982.