Laird v. State

650 S.W.2d 198, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4359
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 20, 1983
DocketNo. 2-82-134-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 650 S.W.2d 198 (Laird 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
Laird v. State, 650 S.W.2d 198, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4359 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

SPURLOCK, Justice.

Don Melton Laird, Jr., appellant, was charged with aggravated rape. V.T.C.A. Penal Code, sec. 21.03. Laird pled not guilty. The jury found Laird guilty and assessed his punishment at 20 years in prison. He raises four grounds of error. They are:

1. The trial court committed error in permitting the State to improperly bolster a witness whose testimony was unimpeached;

2. The court erred in not sustaining Laird’s objection to an improper jury argument;

3. That a pre-trial identification process (photo spread) was so suggestive and conducive to mistaken identification as to deny Laird due process; and

[200]*2004. Laird was required to smile at the jury in violation of his constitutional right to remain silent.

We affirm.

On January 4, 1982 appellant was seen in a K-Mart store, carrying a baby. He asked an employee (Boland) for the name of another employee (the complainant). Boland refused to tell him complainant’s name. This was around 3:30 to 4:00 p.m.

The complainant got off work and left. She later returned to pick up a prescription for her child. On the way into the store, Laird drove his car up beside her to ask if she wanted to earn some money. She ignored him and walked into the store. She complained to fellow employees about the event, and discussed with them whether or not she acted like a prostitute. She left the store, and started to walk away. Laird pulled up beside her in the same copper-colored car, and pointed a gun at her to force her into the car. She noticed an infant in the back seat.

Laird drove to a secluded area and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Then he raped her. She testified she consented because of her fear of the pistol and Laird’s threat to kill her. He returned her to the K-Mart parking lot, let her out and left. She noted the license number of the car, entered the store and reported what happened to the manager and later the police.

The police investigated the offense, and discovered the plates belonged to an auto registered in El Paso. The officer (Briggs) looked for the auto on January 5, and on January 6, found a car matching the description of the suspect car, including the reported license plate with two of the letters transposed. He called in the location, and followed Laird when he came out of the house. Briggs stopped Laird for a traffic offense, and while checking it out, another police unit came on the scene. Authorization for an arrest by warrant was issued over the radio.

As he was being arrested and handcuffed, Laird mentioned he had an infant in the car. As Briggs was getting the child out, he noticed in view, what looked like a .22 caliber “pistol”, stuffed down in the driver’s seat. At the trial, the pistol was admitted without objection. The “pistol” was a “blank” starters pistol, but Briggs testified he wouldn’t have been able to tell it was a blank gun if pointed at him in the dark.

Laird’s defense was alibi. His parents and a neighbor testified about his whereabouts from around 4:45 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the 4th of January. In response, the State called two children who testified that Laird also drove up to them the afternoon of January 4, near a Nazarene church parking lot and asked them if they wanted to make some money.

The witness Boland, one of the two children, and the complainant all identified Laird in court.

Laird complains in his first ground of error that the court permitted a police officer (Place) as a witness for the State to bolster the complainant’s identification of Laird by telling the jury she had earlier picked his photo from a spread. The victim positively identified Laird in court, but was vigorously cross-examined about previously stated inconsistencies. The testimony more correctly stated was that the witness Place testified complainant had been able to identify one of the four photos shown her. Her identification was a basis that he, Officer Place, used to obtain a warrant for arrest.

Laird relies on Lyons v. State, 388 S.W.2d 950 (Tex.Cr.App.1965), to support his argument that others may not bolster the unim-peached testimony of an identification witness who identifies a defendant at trial, and states she earlier picked him out. More recently, though, in Johnson v. State, 583 S.W.2d 399 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), the Court of Criminal Appeals has held: “[t]he State may bolster an identification witness’ testimony when that identification is challenged by cross-examination.” Johnson, p. 403-404.

In Smith v. State, 595 S.W.2d 120 (Tex.Cr.App.1980), the Court of Criminal Appeals has held it is not error for a police officer to testify about a witness’ pre-trial [201]*201identification where a defendant attempts to impeach the testimony of an eyewitness. Smith, p. 126. Here we have a clear record of the vigorous attempts of Laird to discredit all aspects of the complainant’s identification of him. This meets with the modern reasoning of the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1982 in the case of Wilhoit v. State, 638 S.W.2d 489 (Tex.Cr.App.1982), where Judge Clinton has stated (page 495), that Lyons, supra, has been so “weakened by explanations and distinctions that it is futile for an accused to invoke it if he has merely ‘attempted to impeach an eyewitness.’ ”

The first ground of error is overruled.

Laird argues that the prosecutor misquoted from the record and quoted facts not in the record, and he was greatly prejudiced by the improper jury argument.

The State had called two girls to testify about a man, matching Laird’s description, driving a car similar to his, stopping them the afternoon of January 4th near a Nazarene church to ask them if they wanted to make some money. This is similar to the first approach Laird used on the complainant (before he used the pistol to get her attention).

The specific language complained of was:

MR. BAYS (State’s counsel): Couple that with the fact that this offense against these two little girls occurred not three or four blocks from where the Defendant lives at approximately the time that he came home and saw his parents—
MR. EAKMAN (Appellant’s counsel): I object....
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. EAKMAN: Ask the Court to have the jury to disregard that statement.
THE COURT: [Y]ou are instructed to disregard the statement as to the number of blocks . ..

Laird argues that such argument was so improper and prejudicial that his right to a fair trial was denied.

We have examined the record and find that the remarks were not prejudicial. The jury could decide from the testimony concerning the Nazarene church that the contact with the girls was near Laird’s home.

Not being so prejudicial that an instruction to disregard, after proper objection is made will cure the same, we conclude the argument was harmless.

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650 S.W.2d 198, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laird-v-state-texapp-1983.