Hart v. State

447 S.W.2d 944, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1160
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 12, 1969
Docket42271
StatusPublished
Cited by78 cases

This text of 447 S.W.2d 944 (Hart 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
Hart v. State, 447 S.W.2d 944, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1160 (Tex. 1969).

Opinion

*947 OPINION

ONION, Judge.

The offense is assault with intent to rape; the punishment, SO years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections.

The record reflects that on October 7, 1967, the prosecutrix went to a brightly lighted washateria on Wichita Street in the City of Fort Worth. She arrived there sometime after 8:30 p. m., left her clothes in a dryer, went to a nearby supermarket and returned to the washateria about 9 p. m. No one else was present. While the prosecutrix, who was 4 months’ pregnant, was folding her clothes a young man entered the washateria, grabbed her by the right breast, hit her in the face, threw her to the floor and threatened her with a knife. After removing her dress and panties he twice made a slight penetration of her vagina with his male sexual organ and forced her with a knife at her neck to commit acts of oral sodomy i>n him. When the man left the washateria the prosecutrix fled to her automobile and began honking the horn until she attracted the attention of a city policeman. At the trial the prose-cutrix positively identified the appellant as her assailant. The appellant’s defense was alibi, which the jury, by their verdict, rejected. The indictment charged rape by force, but in its charge the court also submitted assault with intent to rape, when it was requested by the appellant.

Appellant presents 13 grounds of error which shall be considered in the order enumerated in his brief.

Initially, appellant claims the court erred “in refusing to require the State to produce the original of the Police Report which was made by Officer W. W. Davis, which said Report had been properly subpoenaed, for refusing to permit the defendant to examine the same and for permitting the State to offer into evidence two (2) pages only of the Police Report.” The contention is difficult to follow in light of the record, which reveals that appellant’s counsel cross examined and sought to impeach Officer Davis by the use of a copy of an offense report prepared by such witness which had been obtained by appellant’s counsel prior to trial. Following such cross-examination the State, to show that the officer’s testimony on direct examination was consistent with the offense report, offered into evidence a copy of such report. Appellant objected on the ground that it was not the original report. When the two page original arrived from the Fort Worth Police Department the packet also included 3 separate one page reports involving the alleged offense made by three other officers. When the two page original was identified by Davis it was introduced without objection, but the court refused the request to make available to the appellant the other 3 reports unless such officers became witnesses. Such reports were eventually sealed and made a part of the appellate record.

The 3 separate reports were never used or exhibited by the State in the jury’s presence so as to bring into play the “use before jury” rule. See Rose v. State, Tex. Cr.App., 427 S.W.2d 609. Neither was the so-called Gaskin Rule (Gaskin v. State, 172 Tex.Cr.R. 7, 353 S.W.2d 467) involved. Such rule applies only to statements by the witness himself. The appellant had the witness Davis’ report for the purpose of cross-examination and possible impeachment, and the other reports were not made by Davis. In fact, there is no showing that Davis had ever seen such reports. See Bryant v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 397 S.W.2d 445; Henley v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 387 S.W.2d 877; Sewell v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 367 S.W.2d 349. Cf. Rose v. State, supra.

Even though the so-called “Gaskin Rule” is not involved, we have nevertheless examined the 3 reports attached and find them entirely consistent with the record be *948 fore us and nothing material therein either to guilt or penalty so as to invoke the prosecutor’s constitutional duty to disclose. See Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215; Means v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 429 S.W.2d 490.

Further, appellant’s request was not sufficient to meet the requirements of a motion for discovery under Article 39.14, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P. Sonderup v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 418 S.W.2d 807; Smith v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 409 S.W.2d 408, cert. den. 389 U.S. 822, 88 S.Ct. 45, 19 L.Ed.2d 73. And even if it had been, the reports by their very nature would have fallen within the expressed exception contained in said Article 39.14.

We fail to see how appellant was harmed by not having the entire police report. No error is presented.

Ground of error #1 is overruled.

Appellant next complains of the admission in evidence of inflammatory and prejudicial photographs of the prosecutrix taken at a hospital the morning following the alleged assault, since he argues they did not tend to resolve any disputed issue at the trial. He cites Burns v. State, Tex. Cr.App., 388 S.W.2d 690; Davis v. State, 165 Tex.Cr.R. 456, 308 S.W.2d 880; Borroum v. State, 168 Tex.Cr.R. 552, 331 S.W.2d 314, etc. It is true that this Court has held that photographs gruesome in nature are admissible only if they tend to shed light upon a disputed fact issue. Burns v. State, supra; Pait v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 433 S.W.2d 702 and cases there cited.

It appears, however, that Echols v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 370 S.W.2d 892; Richardson v. State, 159 Tex.Cr.R. 595, 266 S.W.2d 129; and McFarlane v. State, 159 Tex.Cr.R. 658, 266 S.W.2d 133, have been decided contrary to appellant’s contention in cases such as the one at bar. See also Boyd v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 419 S.W.2d 843, cert. den. 393 U.S. 863, 89 S.Ct. 144, 21 L.Ed.2d 131; 11A Texas Digest Criminal Law <⅜=>438. We observe that both the State and appellant elicited testimony from the prose-cutrix as to her condition and appearance before and after the alleged offense.

In Burns v. Beto, 5 Cir., 371 F.2d 598, the Court pointed out that the admission of photographs must necessarily rest largely in discretion of the trial judge. There the Court said: “We hold that, so long as photographs accurately represent what they purport to depict and are logically relevant, their extreme gruesome and prejudicial character cannot make their admission in evidence amount to a denial of due process,”

Still further, we note that the complained of photographs were not brought forward in the record, approved without objection, and we are therefore in no position to review appellant’s contention.

Ground of error #2 is overruled.

In his third ground of error appellant urges the court erred in permitting the prosecutrix to testify as to the forced acts of oral sodomy which took place during the assault.

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Bluebook (online)
447 S.W.2d 944, 1969 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hart-v-state-texcrimapp-1969.