Henderson v. State

402 S.W.2d 180, 1966 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1154
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 9, 1966
Docket39402
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 402 S.W.2d 180 (Henderson 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
Henderson v. State, 402 S.W.2d 180, 1966 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1154 (Tex. 1966).

Opinions

WOODLEY, Judge.

The offense is murder; the punishment, 20 years.

The indictment alleged that appellant did with malice aforethought kill Henry Amey by shooting him with a gun.

Appellant pleaded not guilty and filed application for suspended sentence.

Evidence was introduced by the state to the effect that Amey died as the result of a gunshot wound of the chest. The shooting occurred in The Texas Cafe, owned by one Isaac Texas who died prior to the trial.

Police Officer Alvin B. Young testified that he heard an explosion of some kind from the direction of the cafe and some 30 seconds later Isaac Texas came out calling to him and, pointing in the direction appellant and his wife were walking, said: “That man just shot a man in my place.”

Officer Young testified that he ran immediately to appellant and grabbed him by his left hand in which he was carrying a pistol. After a brief struggle, appellant dropped the pistol that was in his hand and then another pistol which he had on his person fell to the ground.

[182]*182Vickie Jackson testified as an eye witness. According to her testimony, the deceased, who was sitting at a table with his wife, got up and stood by the juke box. Appellant, who was sitting with his wife at another part of the cafe, then got up and the two men were standing facing each other and were talking. She did not hear what was said and did not know whether they were arguing or not. She heard a shot and saw that appellant had something in his hand. The deceased’s hands were to his side. When the shot was fired he crossed his arms in front of his chest — “sort of grabbed his chest” and hacked up and “fell on a lady” and when the lady got out of the way he fell to the floor. She identified appellant as the man who did the shooting and further testified that when the shot was fired his wife grabbed both his hands and backed him out the door. She saw nothing in the hands of the deceased and saw no weapon on the floor around him or on his body after he was shot.

The state introduced the testimony of Doctor Robert Bucklin who conducted the autopsy. He described the gunshot wound and testified that such a wound, which penetrated the aorta, would cause death within a short time.

The state also introduced testimony of expert witnesses who conducted tests of the clothing and the pistol and testified that the shot was fired from a distance of about 8 feet.

Appellant testified in his own behalf and offered the testimony of his wife. Her version was that appellant got up from the table and went toward the front door and the deceased came from behind him and pulled him around. While they were facing each other, about a hand length apart, and were talking “Amey advanced on Henderson (appellant) and Henderson pushed him back and when he pushed him back he advanced again and when he advanced again he came out with what appeared to be a knife and Henderson shot * * * I jumped between them and grabbed Henderson by the hand to take him outside.”

According to the testimony of this witness the deceased stood a while and walked backwards a couple of steps and then grabbed his chest. She testified that after Officer Young stopped appellant and got the guns she remembered that she had left her cigarettes and change and the truck keys on the table and went back into the cafe to get them, at which time Amey (the deceased) was alive and was sitting in a chair still holding his chest.

Appellant testified that he was employed by Uvalde Building Company in construction work. On the day of the killing he was in a cafe in the vicinity of The Texas Cafe looking for workmen to assist in pouring concrete the next day. The deceased had worked twice in this capacity and he was looking for him, but after waiting 45 minutes to an hour, he hired two other men for the job.

When he was about to leave this cafe he saw the deceased who seemed to be angry because he had gotten someone else, and he told appellant he would beat him up or whip him and a few words like that, and that he (appellant) said “let’s forget about it,” and he went home.

Some 30 minutes later appellant and his wife left home in his pickup truck and went to The Texas Cafe, taking the .25 caliber pistol and the .32 caliber pistol into the cafe with him. Appellant testified on his direct examination that he was not looking for the deceased and had no particular reason to do so; that he feared him in a sense; that he was 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 140 pounds whereas he estimated that the deceased was 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed about 180 or 190 pounds.

Asked why he took the pistols from the truck into the cafe, appellant answered: “I put them in my pocket in case'of if I did see him I would have something to defend myself with in case he did mean what he had said earlier that date.”

[183]*183Appellant’s version of the events surrounding the killing was that he was going outside the cafe to lock his truck and first saw the deceased when he was on his way out; that the deceased turned him around and said “ ‘What I said this evening still goes’ * * * And that’s when he went in his pocket. * * *

“Q. O.K. And describe as best you can what he did in relation to his pocket or whatever you meant by that.
“A. Oh, he just put his hand in his pocket and started moving toward me slowly, and I said why don’t you just go on and forget about it, and I took my hand and pushed him away and that’s when he kept coming toward me and that’s when I pulled the pistol from my pocket.
“Q. Why did you pull the pistol?
“A. In order to protect myself because I thought he was going to hurt me with something.
“Q. What did you think it was he might have?
“A. I thought he had a knife.
“Q. And did you think he was going to use that knife on you?
“A. Yes, I did after the way he had talked.
“Q. Did you have anything particularly against this man?
“A. No, I didn’t have anything against him.
***** *
“Q. Do you recall taking — pulling that pistol out and firing it ?
“A. I recall pulling it. The next thing I remember I heard the shot myself. I don’t remember pulling the trigger. I remember pulling the gun out but I don’t remember pulling the trigger.
“Q. Do you recall when you reached in and pulled that pistol out whether you intended to fire it?
“A. No.
“Q. No what?
“A. No, I didn’t intend to fire it. All I wanted to do was try to stop him.
“Q. All this happened in seconds, his movements and your movements there ?
“A. That’s correct.
“Q. And you honestly felt at that moment he intended to kill you or do you serious bodily injury?
“A. Yes sir.
“Q. You really believed that?
“A. Yes sir.
“Q.

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513 S.W.2d 823 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1974)
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490 S.W.2d 594 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1973)
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Hart v. State
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Henderson v. State
402 S.W.2d 180 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
402 S.W.2d 180, 1966 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henderson-v-state-texcrimapp-1966.