Johnigan v. State

628 S.W.2d 852
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 9, 1982
Docket2-81-060-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 628 S.W.2d 852 (Johnigan 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
Johnigan v. State, 628 S.W.2d 852 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION

RICHARD L. BROWN, Justice.

Appellant, Johnigan, was tried before a jury for the offense of rape of a child. He was convicted and his punishment was set by the trial court at fifteen years confine *853 ment in the Texas Department of Corrections. From this conviction, appellant has brought this appeal.

Affirmed.

Sufficiency of evidence to sustain the conviction is not in issue; consequently, the lurid details of the offense will not be set forth in the opinion.

By his first ground of error, appellant asserts that the trial court erred in permitting the state to question the appellant about his prior felony conviction when he testified on his own behalf at the guilt/innocence stage of the trial.

Appellant presented a motion in limine to the court before testifying at trial. The motion sought to prohibit the State’s prosecutors from mentioning or introducing evidence of appellant’s prior felony conviction for burglary. Appellant was convicted in 1975 and received a four-year sentence. The sentence was probated and the term of probation was to expire in February of 1979, two months before appellant came to trial in this cause. However, a motion to revoke appellant’s probation had been granted by the court on December 18, 1978. The revocation, since affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in cause 61,903, October 10, 1979, was then on appeal and counsel for appellant thus believed the conviction was not a final one which could be used to impeach the appellant. The trial court overruled appellant’s motion.

On cross examination of the appellant, the State’s prosecutor asked appellant if he had been convicted of burglary in 1975 and received a four-year probated sentence for that offense. He admitted the prior conviction and sentence.

Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P. art. 38.29 is cited as authority for the inadmissibility of the testimony concerning the prior conviction. The pertinent provision of art. 38.29 is as follows:

“The fact that a defendant in a criminal case ... is or has been, charged by indictment, information or complaint, with the commission of an offense against the criminal laws of this State ... shall not be admissible in evidence in the trial of any criminal case for the purpose of impeaching any person as a witness unless on trial of such indictment, information or complaint . . . such person has been placed on probation and the period of probation has not expired.”

The filing of the motion to revoke tolled the running of the period of probation. Until the appeal of the revocation of probation was determined, appellant’s probation still existed and art. 38.29, supra., would be applicable. Additionally, in Roliard v. State, 506 S.W.2d 904 (Tex.Cr.App.1974) it was held that the State’s use of a prior conviction was proper where the probated sentence for that conviction had been revoked; and in United States v. Franicevich, 471 F.2d 427 (CA-5—1973) it was held that prosecutors can use a prior felony conviction in a trial on a subsequent offense while the probation revocation on the prior sentence is being appealed. Ground of error one is overruled.

By ground of error number two, appellant asserts that it was improper for the trial court, over objection, to permit the State prosecutor in his argument to the jury to state that appellant was a convicted felon or burglar. Having ruled that the testimony elicited of the prior conviction was proper, it follows that the argument was proper. Alejandro v. State, 493 S.W.2d 230 (Tex.Cr.App.1973). Ground of error number two is overruled.

By his third and fourth grounds of error, appellant asserts that five photographs of black men (one of whom is appellant) of the same or similar age and appearance constitute an impermissibly suggestive photograph line up and that the prosecu-trix’ positive identification of appellant as one of the men who raped her is thus tainted. We disagree.

The factors to be considered in determining the origin of an in-court identification were stated in Garcia v. State, 563 S.W.2d 925, 928 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) to be:

“(1) the prior opportunity to observe the alleged criminal act; (2) the existence *854 of any discrepancy between any pre-line-up identification and the defendant’s actual description; (3) any identification of another person prior to the lineup; (4) the identification by picture of the defendant prior to the lineup; (5) failure to identify the defendant on prior occasions; and (6) the lapse of time between the alleged act and the lineup identification.”

From the record as a whole it appears:

(1) the prosecutrix had prior opportunity to observe the appellant during the criminal acts; (2) the record is silent as to any discrepancy between her description of the rapist and the appellant’s actual description; (3) there is nothing in the record to indicate that she ever identified any other person as the black male who raped her; (4) she identified appellant’s photograph from a group of similar photographs prior to the trial; (5) each time the prosecutrix was confronted by the appellant, whether photographically or in person, she identified him as one of her attackers; (6) the lapse of time between the alleged act and the photographic lineup identification was relatively short, approximately two weeks; and (7) she had ample opportunity to observe appellant close up and under well-lighted conditions. Under the test in Garcia, the prose-cutrix’ identification was sufficiently based on independent facts other than a picture shown to her in a photographic lineup.

Furthermore, for her in-court identification to be tainted by a photographic lineup, the photo display must be impermissibly suggestive and it must give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 88 S.Ct. 967, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968). The photo spread shown to the prosecutrix was not impermissibly suggestive. Defendant’s Exhibit One sets out the photographs shown to her in the photo lineup. The pictures are obviously similar photographs of men of the same race and of similar age and general appearance. This is how the lineup was viewed by Detective Cole who compiled the photographs, and by the prosecutrix who picked the appellant’s photo out of the lineup. She denied being told by Detective Cole that the “right defendant” was in the lineup or that she had picked the right suspect out of the lineup. Detective Cole denied making such statements also. The record presents ample evidence from which this court may conclude that the photographic lineup was not impermissibly suggestive.

Moreover, appellant has also failed to show a “very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.” Simmons v. United States, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
628 S.W.2d 852, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnigan-v-state-texapp-1982.