Knot v. State

853 S.W.2d 802, 1993 Tex. App. LEXIS 1219, 1993 WL 133799
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 28, 1993
Docket07-91-0254-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 853 S.W.2d 802 (Knot 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
Knot v. State, 853 S.W.2d 802, 1993 Tex. App. LEXIS 1219, 1993 WL 133799 (Tex. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, Chief Justice.

A jury found appellant Kelly Lee Knot guilty of theft of property valued at more than $750 but not over $20,000 and, finding the enhancement allegations in the indictment true, assessed his punishment at confinement for life. Appellant challenges his conviction by six points of error, the first three of which pertain to his arrest, the next two of which concern the court’s charge, and the last of which relates to the voir dire examination. Because of error in the court’s charge, we will reverse and remand.

Pretrial, appellant moved the court to suppress evidence he alleged was obtained as the result of his illegal detention and arrest by a civilian and his warrantless arrest by a police officer. After a hearing, the court overruled the motion, the subject of appellant’s first three points of error.

At the conclusion of the guilt-innocence phase of the trial, appellant requested, and the court denied, instructions regarding the legality of his detention and arrest. The court’s denial is the subject of appellant’s next two points of error.

These five points require a review of the evidence, which is summarized from the evidential record made at trial, and with reference to the pretrial hearing where appropriate. Dana Lerch, half owner of the Amarillo Tavern, and her niece, Nesigh Kaentong (Nett), testified that on 1 June 1991, they were tending bar at the Amarillo Tavern and had placed their purses on the beer cooler behind the bar. There were about four or five regular customers in the bar along with a “gentleman,” whom they identified as appellant, who was not a regular customer.

Lerch left the bar area to talk to a repairman. Nett continued to serve customers at the bar. Within a five-minute span of time, both women noticed their purses and appellant were missing. Upon questioning the customers, they determined that no one, other than appellant, had left the bar area except to go to the restroom. Neither woman saw appellant take the purses.

Lerch had $5,000 in cash of her own money in her purse, including her collection of between six to eight two-dollar bills. Also in her purse was a bank bag with an unidentified amount of checks and cash belonging to the tavern. Nett had approximately $400 in cash in her purse.

It was the testimony of Fabian Baez, a regular customer of the Amarillo Tavern, that as he was entering the tavern, a man he identified as appellant was leaving hurriedly, carrying two purses. Appellant got on a bicycle and rode away.

When the police arrived, Lerch described the offender as a Hispanic male, 25 to 28 years old, between 5'8" and 5'9" in height, and weighing approximately 140 pounds. He was wearing blue jeans and a “brown spot” shirt. After the police left, Lerch began to search the alley behind the tavern. She followed bicycle tracks along the row of dumpsters, looking in each for her purse. Next to the sixth dumpster, the bicycle tracks ended. There, she found the two purses, a bicycle and a brown shirt with black spots, all of which she later took to the police station. Only the cash and checks had been taken out of the purses and the bank bag.

Gilbert Champion, manager of the Amarillo Tavern who was not working at the time of the theft, arrived for work and met Lerch coming from the alley, carrying two purses and crying. Lerch relayed the events surrounding the theft to Champion. Later that evening, a woman called Champion and told him that the man who stole the purses was at the Cattleman’s Club, but when Champion went to the club, he *804 did not find anyone matching the description he had been given by either the informant or Lerch.

The next day, June 2, a man who had been in the tavern when the purses were stolen, telephoned Champion and said the man who had taken the purses was across the street at the laundromat. Champion went to the laundromat and, upon entering, saw about five people there, including the lady who worked there. Only one person, appellant, matched the descriptions he had been given. He telephoned Nett and asked her to come over and see if she could identify the suspect as the man who stole the purses.

Appellant, who was standing near Champion when he made the phone call, was looking across the street toward the tavern, and when Nett started to cross the street, appellant “kind of looked and ducked, looked and ducked.” As Nett was crossing the street, appellant “just started to take off running.” Appellant “had a beer bottle in his hand” and, Champion said, as he grabbed him, “he kind of threw it at me.” In “a little struggle,” Champion got appellant on the ground, and asked Nett if he was the one who had taken the purse. She looked and said, “Yes.”

Champion asked Nett to call the police and send over the tavern’s security guard. When the security guard arrived, he put handcuffs on appellant and they waited for the police. Amarillo police officers arrived. Officer Efram Contreras was told by Champion that two purses had been taken the day before by appellant, who was positively identified as the subject taking the purses. Contreras replaced the security guard’s handcuffs with his own, and then questioned the identifying witness, Nett.

After Nett identified appellant as the offender, officers Contreras and Birkhead searched appellant and found “a large amount of money in his front and both of his back pockets.” Birkhead testified that “$53 in cash, which was 2 twenty-dollar bills, 2 five-dollar bills and 3 one dollar bills” was found in his left front pocket. In his back right pocket, “he had a bundle of one hundred dollar bills that was folded in half, and there was 40 of those. And then he had a thin black vinyl wallet which contained 8 two-dollar bills.”

Appellant called only one witness in his defense to contradict Champion’s version of the events surrounding the arrest. Christine Walters, who was working at the laundromat on June 2, testified that appellant was in the laundromat washing his clothes when two men came over from the Amarillo Tavern to talk to him. After the two men left, Champion came in and made a telephone call. Walters overheard Champion telling the other party to come to the laundromat, “Now.” Appellant left the laundromat, walking fast, when the five or six men grabbed him outside the laundromat. When asked if appellant threw anything inside the laundromat, she replied, “No, not that I know of.”

When the parties closed, the trial court entertained appellant’s special requested charges to the jury. Among others, appellant requested charges on the circumstances when an officer and a civilian may arrest a person without a warrant as the predicate for two requested charges instructing the jury not to consider evidence the jury believed may have been obtained in violation of the constitution or laws of the State of Texas, i.e., as a result of (1) an unlawful arrest by a peace officer, and (2) an unlawful detention and arrest by a private citizen. The court denied the requested charges.

With his first three points of error, appellant contends he is entitled to a reversal of the judgment because the trial court erred in overruling his pretrial motion to suppress evidence.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Robinson, Timothy Lee
377 S.W.3d 712 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Amber Renae Dabbs v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009
Chapa v. Traciers & Associates
267 S.W.3d 386 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Andrade v. State
6 S.W.3d 584 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1999)
Dunn v. State
979 S.W.2d 403 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1998)
Mungia v. State
911 S.W.2d 164 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Turner v. State
901 S.W.2d 767 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
853 S.W.2d 802, 1993 Tex. App. LEXIS 1219, 1993 WL 133799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knot-v-state-texapp-1993.