Jones v. State

568 S.W.2d 847, 1978 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1307
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided June 21, 1978·No. 57631·Published·Cited by 154 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ROBERTS, Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction for capital murder. 1 The jury answered the three special issues prescribed by Article 37.071(b), Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P., in the affirmative; accordingly, punishment was imposed at death.

The appellant contends that he was unlawfully arrested and therefore that the trial judge improperly allowed into evidence the fruits of that arrest, that the trial judge improperly allowed into evidence an extraneous offense, and that the trial judge erred by overruling the appellant’s motion for mistrial when the prosecutor argued his personal feelings at the punishment stage of the trial. We affirm.

The evidence reveals that on January 8, 1974, Ricardo Sisto was working as a used car salesman at J & M Motors in Dallas. Sometime during the day, he sold a 1967 yellow Chevrolet to the appellant.

At approximately 9:59 a. m. on the morning of January 15, 1974, Officer Bill Slack of the Dallas Police Department received a call over his police radio to proceed to the *850 E-Z Way Grocery located at 5376 Second Avenue in Dallas. When Slack arrived, he encountered Officer Michael Warren of the Dallas Police Department. Inside the store, behind the check-out counter, they found the body of the deceased, William Cain. The officers also noticed that the cash register was open and that no money was inside it. Immediately to the left of the cash register the officers found a brown paper sack which contained a cold can of Schlitz beer. Outside the grocery they found a trail of quarter-sized blood drops that led across the parking lot and into a gulley that ran underneath Second Avenue.

The investigation of the murder and apparent robbery revealed that $871.39 and two radios were taken from the store, while the deceased’s watch — a “Paul Raynard” with a new “Twist-o-Flex” band attached— and personal radio were also taken. Two fingerprints — the left ring finger and left middle finger — were “lifted” from the Schlitz beer can.

On January 21, 1974, at approximately 12:50 p. m., two men driving a yellow 1967 Chevrolet pulled up to Al’s Grocery at 3606 Lamar in Dallas. The two men went into the store. One man, subsequently identified as the appellant, went to the vault cooler and looked inside while the other man stopped at the check-out stand and ordered a salami sandwich. A1 Binley, the owner of the store, made the appellant’s companion a sandwich. At that point in time, one of Binley’s employees, Verdie Lee Sterling, gathered her belongings and started to leave the store. The appellant’s companion paid for the sandwich and, together with the appellant, they followed Sterling out of the grocery. Sterling saw the men get into the 1967 yellow Chevrolet.

Approximately five minutes later, Binley, who was alone in the store, noticed that the appellant and his companion reentered the store. The appellant’s companion told Bin-ley that he wanted another sandwich while the appellant walked to the vault cooler. After Binley made the appellant’s companion a sandwich, the appellant approached the check-out counter and asked for a pack of Winston cigarettes. Binley laid the cigarettes on the counter and told the appellant that they were 55 cents. The appellant said, “Put them back and I will get a can of beer.” The appellant went to the cooler, got out a can of Schlitz, walked back to the counter and placed the Schlitz can on the counter to the left of the cash register.

The appellant then reached for what Bin-ley believed to be a wallet, but the appellant pulled out a chrome-plated pistol with a “pitted place down below the cylinder” on the right-hand side of it, pointed it directly at Binley’s forehead and pulled the trigger. The pistol did not fire.

Before the appellant could pull the trigger again, Binley attempted to disarm him. While Binley and the appellant struggled for control of the gun, it discharged into the ceiling. Binley ran down an aisle and started to “bombard him [the appellant] with all of the canned goods and everything I could lay my hands on.”

The appellant fired a second shot at Bin-ley which struck him in the forehead, spun him around, and knocked him down. Bin-ley, who was semi-unconscious, played “dead.” Someone jerked off his wrist watch and searched his pockets. The appellant and his companion also took two cartons of Winston cigarettes, a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver, and the contents of the cash register.

After the appellant and his companion left the store, some children entered it, saw Binley and screamed. When the police arrived they found the unopened can of Schlitz on the counter and what appeared to be a bullet hole in the ceiling.

The investigation of the attempted murder and robbery at Al’s Grocery yielded a bullet from the ceiling, and two fingerprints — the right middle finger and right index finger — were “lifted” from the Schlitz beer can.

On February 6, 1974, Officer D. M. Hickman of the Dallas Police Department executed an affidavit for an arrest warrant for *851 the appellant. 2 The affidavit was presented to Judge Robert Cole who issued an arrest warrant on February 6, 1974.

Approximately four hours after the arrest warrant was issued, numerous officers of the Dallas Police Department converged on a house at 519 East 12th in Dallas. A yellow 1967 Chevrolet was parked approximately forty feet away.

Officers Tom Sewell, George Thomason, Marvin Johnson and Lieutenant A. M. Eberhardt, among others, approached the front of the house. They noted that there were three doors on the front porch and together they approached the left door. Se-well, who was closest to the left door, started to move a garbage can to gain entrance, but just as he did, he heard “breaking glass” and an officer yelling for someone to get back inside. He also heard footsteps in the house. Accordingly, Sewell kicked the door down and started to enter the house. He encountered a stairway, and then realized that he was not at the appellant’s door.

The officers then went to the middle door and kicked it open. Johnson, Sewell and Thomason ran through the door into the living room — where they saw a woman— down a hallway, through the kitchen and into a bedroom which led to an adjoining bathroom. Sewell, Johnson and Thomason located the appellant in the bathroom and they yelled to Eberhardt, who had remained with the woman, that “He is in the bathtub.”

Sewell, Johnson and Thomason arrested the appellant and had him get out of the bathtub. As they marched the appellant from the bathroom into the bedroom, Se-well noticed the butt of a chrome-plated pistol protruding from underneath a stack of towels on a linen shelf. After the officer had handcuffed the appellant and started to dress him, Sewell seized the pistol. A number of other officers had entered the bedroom while the appellant was being dressed and one of them, Officer Wilson, saw a radio and seized it. Thomason seized a watch from a shelf above the washstand in the bathroom and a watch from the top of a dresser in the bedroom.

At trial, one of the watches seized was identified by Binley as the one taken during the robbery at his store, while the other watch was identified by Mrs.

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Jones v. State, 568 S.W.2d 847, 1978 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1307 (Tex. 1978).

568 S.W.2d 847 (Jones v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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