Jackson v. State

470 S.W.2d 201, 1971 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1705
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided June 16, 1971·No. 43688·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ROBERTS, Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction for rape; the jury assessed the punishment at life.

The State’s evidence shows that on the evening of January 23, 1969, the appellant Jackson, Freddie Lockett, and Walter Sammy Goffney, were rabbit hunting in a wooded area near Interstate Highway 10 in Beaumont. They were wearing headlights and carrying shotguns and had been drinking heavily throughout the evening. They walked past a parked car occupied by the prosecutrix and her boyfriend. Appellant came back to the car and ordered the occupants to roll down the window. When they refused, he pointed his shotgun at them and told them that he would kill them if they did not get out. When they got out of the car, the appellant told them something to this effect, “I have been hearing that you white people don’t like Negroes. You white mother f-. Let’s walk down this trail. I am going to show you Whites what a Negro can do.” Because they were not walking fast enough he said, “Go on down the trail and walk faster or I’ll kill you all.” When the prosecutrix tried to talk to her boyfriend the appellant told them, “Shut up you mother f-or I’ll kill you.”

Goffney and Lockett were observing this. Lockett told Goffney that he believed what the appellant was doing was “crazy.” He then ran off and refused to participate in the incident.

They walked down a trail away from the highway. They forced the boyfriend to kneel and the appellant told Goffney, “If he gets up shoot him.” He then pulled the prosecutrix by her hair and threw her to the ground and said, “You know what I am going to do to you?” When she answered “No” he said, “I am going to f— you.” She began screaming, and the appellant hit her and beat her. The boyfriend got up and fought them; they beat and kicked him until he was unconscious.

During this scuffle, prosecutrix was able to get up and she tried to plead with Goff-ney, telling him that he seemed more sensible than the appellant, and Goffney replied, “That’s why I am holding the guns.” When the appellant was finished fighting with the boyfriend, he pushed prosecutrix to the ground again and started tearing her clothes off. He told her that he would kill her if she did not cooperate. The appellant proceeded to have sexual intercourse with her, while Goffney watched. Whenever she tried to resist, he told her that he would kill her, and told her, “What a baby this will make.” Goffney then asked her, “Can I have some when my friend gets through?” When Jackson finished, Goff-ney got on top of her, but was unable to have intercourse. He forced her to manipulate his sexual organ in order to obtain an erection, but was still unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the appellant took the boyfriend’s billfold and stole about $30. Goff-ney and the appellant began fondling her at the same time and the appellant told Goffney that he would show Goffney^.how to do it and he raped her again.

*203 When they were finished, the appellant asked her if she liked him and because she was scared she said “Yes” and offered to meet him again and gave him a false name, address, and telephone number.

They forced her into the car and rode off. After driving for a while they stopped the car, removed the stereo tape player, and took $12 from prosecutrix’s billfold, then ran off.

Prosecutrix went home and told her mother that she had been raped and went to a hospital.

The appellant presents eleven grounds of error.

First, he contends that certain evidence was improperly admitted because it was seized at the time of his arrest, and the affidavit upon which the warrant for his arrest was issued was insufficient.

The affidavit was as follows:

“My name is G. C. Breaux, and I am employed by the City of Beaumont, Police Department, as a Detective.
“On January 24, 1969, at about 1:20 a. m. my partner, H. P. Engstrom and I received a call to see a party at Paul Poe’s Eneo Service Station on IH-10. We arrived and talked to - (Injured party). He advised that he and his girl had been parked on the Southwest Side of IH-10 and 3 negro males came up to the car and pointed a shotgun at them and took them off into the woods and beat him and raped his girl, - (prosecutrix). While with - (boyfriend) there was another call put out having to do with a Rape Victim at 3409 Corley St.(Boyfriend) stated this was the home of - (prosecutrix). We went to the home of-(prosecutrix) and talked with her and her mother carried her to the hospital to be checked. She was released from the hospital and came to the Police Station. During this time a man fitting the discription given to us by the-(boyfriend) and-(prosecutrix) victims was arrested. This was a boy by the name of Walter Sammy Goffney. Found on Goffney at the time of his arrest was a Allstate Envelope with the name of-(prosecutrix). - (Prosecutrix) told us that she had given the 2 negro men an envelope with her name on it but had not put the correct name or address but would recognize the handwriting. A group of 4 pictures were obtained and shown to both -(boyfriend) and-(prosecutrix) and - (prose-cutrix) picked picture #20641, dated May 24, 1966, as being the party that had raped her on January 24, 1969.
“Based on the Identification of-(prosecutrix) and the fact that Goffney had the envelope-(prosecutrix) had written on in the car with the 2 men I believe and have good reason to believe that Walter Sammy Goffney and Donald Christopher Jackson, committed the offense of Rape on - (prosecutrix) and request that the D.A.’s office accept my complaint and issue a warrant for the arrest of Donald Christopher Jackson and Walter Sammy Goffney, for Rape.”

The appellant contends that there are no facts stated in the affidavit referring to or identifying or connecting him with the offense or with any of the facts or matters stated therein. The affidavit states that his (affiant’s) belief was based on the identification by the prosecutrix and the fact that Goffney had the envelope she had written on. The averments that the prosecutrix identified a picture of the individual who raped her and that the officer’s belief was based on her identification lead to the clear conclusion that she identified the appellant’s picture. Thus, it was shown that the witness was reliable because she was the victim of the crime; and the underlying circumstances of why she knew the appellant was her assailant were shown. The *204 Aguilar requirements were met. Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 84 S.Ct. 1509, 12 L.Ed.2d 723. The affidavit is sufficient for a magistrate to conclude that there is probable cause that the appellant committed the offense. See: Whitely v. Warden of Wyoming Pen., 10 Cir., 416 F.2d 36.

The appellant’s first ground of error is overruled.

Secondly, the appellant contends that the indictment was defective because an investigator for the district attorney’s office was the sole witness before the Grand Jury, and his testimony was based solely upon hearsay obtained from the actual witness to the crime. The proceedings of the Grand Jury are secret. Art. 20.02, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.

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Jackson v. State, 470 S.W.2d 201, 1971 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1705 (Tex. 1971).

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