Lacy v. State

16 S.W. 761, 30 Tex. Ct. App. 119, 1891 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 62
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 24, 1891·No. No. 7384·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

DAVIDSON, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of manslaughter and his punishment assessed at three years confinement in the State penitentiary. A motion to change the venue was made by appellant, based upon both grounds of the statute. Code Crim. Proc., art. 578.

The facts alleged.to support the theory of combination consist of resolutions passed by a Masonic lodge situated in the town of Burnet, [125]*125of which lodge deceased was a member. The resolutions were commemorative of the many virtues of the deceased, and were published in a newspaper that was printed in Burnet, which paper had a circulation of about 900 subscribers. The lodge had a membership of sixty-five. The resolutions were very laudatory of the virtues of the deceased. The appellant swears in his affidavit that “he can not know certainly the extent or influence of said resolutions and can not foresee their effect, but he does believe that since their publication a prejudice has been expressed against him by very many men which did not exist before.” His compurgators are Samuel W. Tate, John C. Tate, J. H. Andrews, and J. P. Nobles.

The State controverted the application, which was in proper and legal form as required by the statute. Willson’s Crim. Stats., secs. 2209, 2210. It is shown thereby that Samuel W. Tate is the father-in-law of appellant and was the father-in-law of deceased also; that John C. Tate is the brother-in-law of appellant; that J. H. Andrews is related by marriage to appellant, and the son of appellant married the daughter of J. P. Nobles.

The counter-affidavit also attacks the means of knowledge of these compurgators by showing that their residence in the county and acquaintance with the citizens thereof are not such as to qualify them to speak in the matters whereof they depose.

We here reproduce all the evidence set out in the bill of exceptions bearing on the resolutions of the Masonic lodge and adduced on the trial of the issues involved in the motion to change the venue:

William M. Spittler testified that the Burnet Bulletin was circulated in every postofftce in the county. I saw the resolutions set out in the application when published in the Burnet Bulletin.

R M. Smith: The circulation of the Burnet Bulletin was about 800, and went to every postoffice in the county.

William M. Spittler, recalled and cross-examined: The resolutions were not published by order of the lodge. It is a custom to pass resolutions upon the death of a member. If there is any combination in the lodge I don’t know of it. This lodge was organized in 1854. A committee prepared the resolutions. The lodge did not order the publication. Don’t know who wrote them. Resolutions generally are published.

Re-exámined: Three copies of the resolutions like those set out in the application were made. One was sent to Mrs. Phillips by mail. It never reached her, and a second copy was prepared and sent to her by hand. I have the third copy. The second copy was sent by hand two or three weeks before they were published.

J. A. Stevens: I was publisher of the Burnet Bulletin at the time the resolutions in the application for change of venue were published. The circulation was 900 in the county. J. T. Halford brought me the [126]*126' resolutions. This is the man who made the controverting affidavit. I think the defendant could get a fair trial in the county.

The only evidence contained in the bill of exceptions with reference to the relation of the Masonic lodge to the combination against the defendant was that of Spittler, and he testified that he knew of no such combination. The resolutions were not offered in evidence in support of the issues involved in the application to change the venue, nor does it form any part of the statement of facts embodied in the bill of exceptions reserved to overruling the motion. When the issue has been joined the burden of proving the existence of the cause or causes for the removal of the case on change of venue is upon the defendant. Davis v. The State, 19 Texas Ct. App., 222; Carr v. The State, 19 Texas Ct. App., 635; Pierson v. The State, 21 Texas Ct. App., 14.

Hone of the witnesses produced testified that appellant could not get a fair trial in the county, nor did any of them testify as to the alleged combination against defendant.

In most of the cases found in our reports, when the change of venue was refused the order refusing same was predicated upon a conflict of evidence as to whether the cause did or did not exist; but in this case the order refusing to change the venue was predicated upon evidence showing that the ground did not exist for such a change. The resolutions were not adduced in evidence on the trial of the issues raised by the motion and the contest thereto, and are not embodied in the bill of exceptions as evidence. Therefore the said resolutions can not be considered by us. Our statute provides that “the order of the judge granting or refusing a change of venue shall not be revised upon appeal unless the facts upon which the same was based are presented in a bill of exceptions, prepared, signed, approved, and filed at the term of the court at which such order was made. Code Crim. Proc., art. 584; Bowden v. The State, 12 Texas Ct. App., 246; Blackwell v. The State, 29 Texas Ct. App., 198.

The fact that the resolutions are attached to and form a part of the motion itself does not authorize this court to consider it as evidence adduced in support of the motion. But if the resolutions had been incorporated in the bill of exceptions as evidence, we would still be of the opinion that the court did not err in overruling the motion. We do not understand that resolutions passed by secret societies simply and only commemorative qf the virtues of their deceased members are necessarily indicative of combinations formed against parties charged with crime as a means of preventing them from obtaining a fair trial in the courts of the country.

It was proved to have been the custom of the Masonic lodge to pass such resolutions and publish them, but in this instance the lodge did not publish the resolutions. To meet the statutory requirement the defendant should have shown that there was .a dangerous combination [127]*127against him, instigated by influential persons, by reason of which he could not expect a fair trial. Code Crim. Proc., art. 578. Defendant ■ offered no proof to sustain this cause or ground set up in his motion. The courts are not permitted to go outside the statute in search of reasons for changing venue when the motion is made for that purpose. In so far as the combination on the part of the lodge was concerned the evidence disproves it.

The facts adduced upon the trial of the cause, if we consider same from the standpoint of the verdict, strengthens the conclusion that there was neither prejudice nor combination against the defendant. If the State’s theory and testimony were correct, the killing was murder, and not manslaughter.

About a week before the killing Mrs. Lacy testified that she had promised an assignation with the deceased, to be' consummated on the day of the killing at the place of the homicide. On Monday morning preceding the killing, about four days after the agreement between his wife and deceased was entered into, the defendant went to the town of Burnet.

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Lacy v. State, 16 S.W. 761, 30 Tex. Ct. App. 119, 1891 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 62 (Tex. Ct. App. 1891).

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