Holloman v. State

942 S.W.2d 773, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 1752, 1997 WL 154856
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 2, 1997
DocketNo. 09-95-122CR
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 942 S.W.2d 773 (Holloman 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
Holloman v. State, 942 S.W.2d 773, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 1752, 1997 WL 154856 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for the felony offense of Burglary of a Habitation. Following the jury’s guilty verdict, the trial court assessed punishment at confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — Institutional Division for a term of forty (40) years. Appellant raises two points of error on appeal, the first complaining that the trial court abused its discretion in permitting a State’s witness to testify in violation of the witness sequestration rule.

The record before us reflects that during the defense’s case-in-ehief, the following colloquy took place between the parties and the trial court:

BY THE COURT:
Okay. It is now nine o’clock. Ready to start? Nothing to take up before I bring the Jury in?
BY [TRIAL COUNSEL]:
Yes, Your Honor. I don’t know if I made it a record yesterday when he offered the testimony of someone in violation of the Rule, but I would like to make it part of the record that I object.
BY THE COURT:
[State’s Attorney], you ask [sic] me yesterday after we retired the Jury, told me that you would probably call Mr. Gary Wright, the husband of the alleged victim in this case, and that he had come in, I think he was sworn in, but he had come in and listened to his wife’s testimony and some more testimony.
BY [STATE’S ATTORNEY]:
Specifically, he was sworn in and I was thinking about using him as a witness on another matter other than what he would be testifying to today. I did not know he had any knowledge concerning that. He ask [sic] me if he could come in and hear the cross examination of his wife, and I told him that would be fine, since I didn’t intend to use him as a witness. He heard [Trial Counsel’s] cross examination of his wife, he heard the testimony of Joe Rhodes and he heard the testimony of Joe Clifton. He would not be testifying to any matters concerning that.
He was also in the courtroom when [Trial Counsel] made his opening statement as to what he intended to show the Jury, and after hearing that opening statement, he came up to me and told me he had some knowledge concerning the information that [Trial Counsel] was offering to the Jury, and at that point I told him not to come back into the courtroom. So, he has heard none of the testimony of the Defense witnesses.
BY THE COURT:
[Trial Counsel], you object to that?
BY [TRIAL COUNSEL]:
Yes, sir, I do. He may not have heard any of the testimony, but what I understand he is going to report is something he has known for quite sometime. I don’t know why it took a refreshing course in my speech to the Jury to refresh his memory, for him to come forward with it. It would appear that it could very easily be he did not think the case was going well in his wife’s favor, and the State’s favor, and that he wanted to bring in something else.
BY THE COURT:
All right. I am going to DENY the Motion, your Motion to — or GRANT [State Attorney’s] Motion to allow him to testify, and OVERRULE your objection on that.

The record before us indicates the final witness in the State’s case-in-ehief was Joe Rhodes, the lead investigator with regard to the burglary. Rhodes was cross-examined extensively by appellant’s trial counsel regarding how appellant became the prime suspect, including questions to Rhodes concerning the house owned by appellant’s family which was located approximately one-quarter mile from the scene of the burglary. It was Rhodes’s theory that appellant was staying at this otherwise abandoned house which provided him with the opportunity to commit the burglary. Rhodes also stated that neighbors of the complainant had seen appellant walking in the neighborhood “from time to time.” Immediately following Rhodes’s testi[775]*775mony, the State rested and appellant’s trial counsel made his opening remarks as to what he anticipated his witnesses’s testimony would show, e.g., that appellant’s identification by neighbors was based on mistaken identity as the house that the authorities considered him living in at the time of the offense had no electrical service, was boarded up and virtually abandoned so that no one could live there. It is apparently at this point in the trial that Gary Wright informed the prosecutor that he could testify that he personally observed appellant at the “abandoned” house about one to one and one-half months prior to the date of the offense, that he (Wright) observed appellant going inside the house, and that from all indications it appeared appellant was living there. The prosecutor instructed Wright to remain outside the courtroom for the entirety of the case-in-chief for the defense, and was then called by the State as a rebuttal witness. From all appearances, it seems the State acquiesced in a violation of the witness sequestration rule in that the State admits it permitted Wright to enter the courtroom to hear his wife’s testimony as well as the testimony of the State’s two remaining witnesses, Joe Clifton and Joe Rhodes.

In Guerra v. State, 771 S.W.2d 453, 474-76 (Tex.Crim.App.1988), cert. denied, 492 U.S. 925, 109 S.Ct. 3260, 106 L.Ed.2d 606 (1989), the Court devised a two-tiered analysis of the trial court’s actions in situations where the witness sequestration rule1 has been violated. The reviewing court must initially determine what kind of witness was involved. Id. at 476. The Court framed the analysis thusly;

If the witness was one who had no connection with either the State’s case-in-ehief or the defendant’s case-in-chief and who, because of a lack of personal knowledge regarding the offense, was not likely to be called as a witness, no abuse of discretion can be shown. On the other hand if the witness was one who had personal knowledge of the offense and who the party clearly anticipated calling to the stand, then the appellate court should then apply the Haas v. State, 498 S.W.2d 206 (Tex.Cr.App.1973) test as amended above and in Archer v. State, 703 S.W.2d 664 (Tex.Cr.App.1986).

Id.

In the instant case, the witness in question, Gary Wright, does not fit neatly into either description recited above. While he had no personal knowledge of the crime itself, being the husband of the complainant as well as the owner of the burglarized premises, Gary Wright could not be said to have “no connection” with the State’s case-in-chief in that he could have been called to testify as to the lack of consent the intruder had for entry into the habitation. Indeed, the State admitted that Gary Wright had been sworn as a potential witness and placed under the rule at the start of the trial.

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Bluebook (online)
942 S.W.2d 773, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 1752, 1997 WL 154856, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holloman-v-state-texapp-1997.