Johnson v. State

651 S.W.2d 434, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4477
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 17, 1983·No. 05-81-00419-CR·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

STEPHENS, Justice.

Michael Wayne Johnson was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to 99 years imprisonment. In a per curiam opinion, we reversed the conviction on appellant’s seventh ground, that the prosecutor’s argument injected his personal opinion of appellant’s guilt. The Court of Criminal Appeals granted the State’s Petition For Discretionary Review, reversed our judgment, and remanded the case to this court for consideration of appellant’s nine remaining grounds of error. We now overrule each of these remaining contentions and affirm.

In his first two grounds of error, appellant contends that the pre-trial identification procedure utilized by the State was unnecessarily suggestive, and that the trial court erred in admitting the in-court identification which resulted from that procedure. The record reveals that the complaining witness was shown a photographic line-up nine days after the offense occurred. This line-up included State’s exhibit number eight, a photo of the appellant. When the witness was unable to identify her assailant from these photos, Officer Petterson picked out exhibit eight and specifically asked her if she could identify it as her assailant. She could not. Two weeks later, the complaining witness was shown a second photographic line-up which included State’s exhibit number one, another photo of the appellant. This time, she was able to identify appellant as her assailant.

Appellant contends that this procedure was impermissibly suggestive because the other photos in the second line-up bore little resemblance to the appellant’s photo and because it took place only two weeks after a different photo of the appellant had been specifically pointed out to the complaining witness. We disagree. The complaining witness testified at trial that she was still unable to identify State’s exhibit number eight as her assailant even after she was told it was a photo of the appellant. She further testified that exhibit eight did not look like the appellant. She was, however, able to identify State’s exhibit number one. This testimony establishes that her pre-trial identification was not based upon any suggestion made during the earlier photographic line-up. Furthermore, the witness’ in-court identification was of independent origin, it being based upon her close observation of her assailant during the rape. Under these facts, the identification testimony was admissible. Jackson v. State, 470 S.W.2d 201 (Tex.Cr.App.1971), cert. denied 405 U.S. 1067, 92 S.Ct. 1511, 31 L.Ed.2d 798 (1971). Appellant’s first and second grounds of error are overruled.

In his third ground of error, the appellant contends that the trial court erred in excluding evidence that the complaining witness suffered from trichomonas, a sexually transmitted disease, at the time she was raped. This evidence, as all other evidence, must be relevant to a contested fact or issue to be admissible. Stone v. State, 574 S.W.2d 85, 89 (Tex.Cr.App.1978). The determination of relevancy is within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Id. at 89. As evidence of the complaining witness’ sexual conduct, it was properly excluded. See Young v. State, 547 S.W.2d 23 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).

Appellant, in compliance with Texas Penal Code, Section 21.13, sought to offer evidence from Dr. Fawzi Iliya, the state’s medical witness, that the prosecutrix was suffering from a sexually transmitted disease known as trichomonas, at the time of the rape. His contention on appeal is that such evidence, if permitted, would then *437 have permitted him to show that he did not suffer from trichomonas, and thus cast doubt on his identity as the rapist. Appellant was permitted to question Dr. Iliya outside the presence of the jury. Dr. Iliya testified that his records of her examination showed that the prosecutrix did not have trichomonas; only that she told him that she was being treated for the disease. His testimony was at best speculative as to whether the prosecutrix, if she in fact had trichomonas, would have infected appellant by the sexual contact which she had with him, because of her declaration to the doctor of the medication she was under to control the disease. Furthermore, appellant made no attempt to show the trial court the materiality of the evidence as to his identification, or as to any harm resulting to him from the suppression of the evidence, by his failure to show that he was in fact clear of the disease. The trial judge did not abuse his discretion by his exclusion of the evidence. Consequently, it was not error to exclude this evidence. Appellant’s third ground of error is overruled.

In his fourth ground of error, appellant complains that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence several items of jewelry which, he contends, were the fruits of an unlawful search. This contention is without merit. The jewelry, which was identified by the complainant as resembling jewelry taken from her on the night of the offense, was originally found in the appellant’s possession and was placed in police custody at the jail. The next day, the jewelry was released to appellant’s brother, and eight days later a police officer went to the brother’s home, without a search warrant, to retrieve it. The officer was then simply given the property upon his request, and the officer gave appellant’s brother a signed receipt. No search was made, and the property was obtained with the consent of the person to whom it had been released. Furthermore, the appellant would have no standing to question the legality of a search of premises not under his control. Stiggers v. State, 506 S.W.2d 609 (Tex.Cr.App.1974). Appellant’s fourth ground of error is overruled.

In his fifth ground of error, appellant contends that the trial court should have granted his motion for a mistrial because the prosecutor’s argument injected new evidence before the jury. The argument went as follows: “As I hold these chains in my hand, I’ll ask you ladies to take a nice close look at them. You know gold when you see it. You know the weight of it. This isn’t 14 karat gold.” Appellant’s objection to this argument was sustained, and the jury was instructed to disregard. His motion for a mistrial was denied.

For improper argument to constitute reversible error, it must be extreme or manifestly improper or inject new and harmful facts. Duffy v. State, 567 S.W.2d 197 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) (en banc), cert. denied 439 U.S. 991, 99 S.Ct. 593, 58 L.Ed.2d 666 (1978). We find that the statement by the prosecutor that “this isn’t 14 karat gold” was not a new fact put before the jury, but was a reasonable deduction from his analysis of the physical evidence and which served to answer the rhetorical questions just put to the jury. As such, it was a proper comment on the evidence. See Wright v. State, 582 S.W.2d 845 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). Furthermore, any possible error would have been cured by the court’s prompt instruction. Thomas v. State, 578 S.W.2d 691 (Tex.Cr.App.1979).

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Johnson v. State, 651 S.W.2d 434, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4477 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

651 S.W.2d 434 (Johnson v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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