Huffman v. State

479 S.W.2d 62, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2293
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 23, 1972
Docket31436
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 479 S.W.2d 62 (Huffman 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
Huffman v. State, 479 S.W.2d 62, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2293 (Tex. 1972).

Opinion

OPINION

ROBERTS, Judge.

This is an out-of-time appeal granted pursuant to Huffman v. Beto, 382 F.2d 777 (5th Cir. 1967) and Huffman v. Beto, 414 F.2d 1094 (5th Cir. 1969). Appellant was convicted of robbery by assault 1 in *64 the 105th District Court of Nueces County, on June 24, 1959. As a result of his conviction, his parole on a 1956 conviction for another offense was revoked, and he was sent to the penitentiary. On November 11, 1959, he completed his service of the 1956 sentence, and was, through oversight, released from the penitentiary. At this time, his appeal from the robbery conviction was pending before this Court. On February 3, 1960, this Court granted the State’s Motion to Dismiss the appeal, on the ground that appellant’s absence from custody was, in law, equivalent to an escape. Huffman v. State, 331 S.W.2d 325 (Tex.Cr.App.1960). The facts surrounding appellant’s erroneous discharge were developed in the federal Habeas Corpus Proceeding cited above. Subsequent to the granting of the out-of-time appeal, but prior to submission of the appeal to the court, appellant applied for Writ of Habeas Corpus in the 105th District Court of Nueces County, and on July 20, 1971, after a hearing, the court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law, and granted the writ. The findings of fact deal with matters not contained in the appellate record. Before discussing the evidence elicited at the hearing, we shall first examine the merits of the appeal.

At trial, Robert Doyle Cline, the complaining witness, testified that on December 8, 1958, he received a check in the amount of $212.26 from his employer, as compensation for his services as an oil field “rough neck.” He stated that on that date he negotiated the check at the San Juan State Bank, in San Juan, Texas. He testified that he received in exchange for the check, a one-hundred dollar bill, a fifty-dollar cashier’s check, and the remainder in small bills. He said that after cashing the check, he drove to Edinburg, Texas, and after a short delay, left Edinburg in his automobile, and headed for Corpus Christi. Shortly after leaving Edinburg, Cline saw three hitch-hikers by the road. He stopped and picked up the three, one of whom was the appellant, the other two being Lester Adkins and Otis Pennington. A few miles farther down the road, Cline stopped and picked up a fourth hitch-hiker, whose name he did not learn. The group then proceeded toward Corpus Christi, stopping four times for beer along the way, the last two stops being in Kingsville. Cline testified that he stopped in Kingsville and called his wife, who was working in Kingsville, telling her that he was going to Corpus Christi. Cline testified that he was going to Corpus Christi because the three hitch-hikers had offered at Kingsville to pay him if he would take them to Corpus Christi, and because he had business there. The group proceeded on from Kingsville to Robstown, where the fourth hitch-hiker left the car. The group proceeded on to Clarkwood, where a fifth stop for beer was made. After leaving Clarkwood, while driving the automobile, Cline was hit behind the right ear with some kind of heavy object, the nature of which he did not know. After Cline received the blow, appellant took control of the car and drove off onto a side road. The other two hitch-hikers pulled Cline’s head over the back of the front seat and began beating him between the eyes with two beer bottles. Cline testified that one of the beer bottles broke, and that it cut him, the blood from the cut blinding him temporarily. Cline testified that he lost consciousness at about this time. He remembered being thrown out of the car. When he regained consciousness, he was on the side road, and his car was gone. The one-hundred dollar bill was no longer in his billfold. He also found that he was missing a mechanical pencil, a pocket knife and a cigarette lighter. Cline testified that he made his way to a residence nearby, where two sheriff’s deputies were called. He was taken to a hospital by the deputies, where he remained for three days.

On cross-examination, Cline stated that he obtained the fifty-dollar cashier’s check for the purpose of paying his child support. He testified that the bank re-imbursed the check. He stated that he did not know if the check had been cashed. Appellant’s counsel asked Cline if he had told the woman at the residence he approached that *65 he had a fifty-dollar bill and fifty one-dollar bills, and Cline denied making the statement. Cline was also asked if he told the woman that the three hitch-hikers offered, at Robstown, to pay him if he would take them to Corpus Christi. He denied telling her that the offer was made at Robs-town. He further denied telling anyone that the offer was made in Robstown. He was also asked if he had ever told anyone that the hitch-hikers had a gun. Cline admitted that he had told someone that he thought they had a gun at that time.

A Corpus Christi police officer testified that he arrested appellant and two other men, who were the two other hitch-hikers, in Corpus Christi. He found a Scripto pencil and a knife on appellant’s person. Cline identified the pencil and the knife as the ones which he had with him at the time of the robbery. A deputy sheriff testified that he first saw Cline at a residence on Shell Road. The officer stated that Cline was bleeding, and was bruised about the face, and behind the right ear.

Another witness, Bobby Byas, testified that sometime in December, 1958, the exact date he could not recall, he saw Otis Pennington and two or three other men, come to his filling station in Corpus Christi. They were driving a 1949 or 1950 model Dodge. They later returned and sold him five white sidewall tires, which were mounted on wheels. The State also offered evidence that Cline’s car (a 1949 Dodge) was found on a rural road in Nueces County, with the wheels and tires missing. Two beer bottles, one broken and one whole, and a cigar box were found in the car. One of the bottles and the cigar box bore fingerprints of Lester Adkins and Otis Pennington, respectively.

The appellant testified in his own behalf. He admitted that he had been picked up by Cline, but his testimony differed from Cline’s in several respects. In particular, he testified that Cline purchased a bottle of whisky and some grapefruit along the trip, as well as beer. He contended that Cline gave the knife to Pennington to peel the grapefruit, which was to be used as a “chaser” for the whisky. He also testified that he was not certain that he possessed the mechanical pencil at the time of arrest, but he seemed to remember that Cline gave him the pencil to use in writing down the names of potential employers. ' According to appellant’s testimony, at a point outside of Kingsville, Cline told Lester Adkins to either commit an act of sodomy with him, or to fight. Adkins chose to fight. The car was stopped, and the two fought, with Adkins emerging as the victor.

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Bluebook (online)
479 S.W.2d 62, 1972 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huffman-v-state-texcrimapp-1972.