Louis R. Talley v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 5, 1993
Docket03-90-00144-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Louis R. Talley v. State (Louis R. Talley 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
Louis R. Talley v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT OF TEXAS,


AT AUSTIN




NO. 3-90-144-CR


LOUIS R. TALLEY,


APPELLANT



vs.


THE STATE OF TEXAS,


APPELLEE





FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF TRAVIS COUNTY, 147TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT


NO. 96,468, HONORABLE TOM BLACKWELL, JUDGE PRESIDING




After finding appellant guilty of capital murder, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(6) (West 1989), the jury failed to find that appellant constituted a continuing threat to society. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 37.071(2)(b)(1) (West Supp. 1993). Punishment was assessed at confinement for life.

Appellant asserts ten points of error, one challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, five directed to the trial court's action in overruling objections to remarks and arguments of the prosecutor, two complaining of the trial court's permitting the prosecutor to reveal the contents of an inadmissible letter to the jury, and two based on the trial court's denial of a motion to quash the indictment. We overrule appellant's points of error and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

In his first point of error, appellant asserts that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's verdict in that the State failed to prove that the offense was not voluntary manslaughter. The court instructed the jury that the State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was not under the immediate influence of sudden passion arising from an adequate cause when the fatal shooting occurred. See Bradley v. State, 688 S.W.2d 847, 851 (Tex. Crim. App. 1985).

It is undisputed that appellant caused the deaths of his estranged wife, Lillian, and Merlin Anderson, by shooting them with a sawed-off shotgun at an apartment on South Congress Avenue in Austin about 7:00 a.m. on May 7, 1988. Appellant testified that, about a year after their 1967 marriage, he confronted Lillian about his belief that she was having an affair with someone where she was working. Subsequently, Lillian admitted having an affair with her boss. On another occasion, appellant returned to their home in Splendora, a town about thirty-seven miles north of Houston, in the early morning hours to find a man leaving their apartment. Appellant related many confrontations prompted by his suspicions of Lillian's infidelity and her threats to leave. Appellant stated that he threatened her with a gun on numerous occasions. He threatened her with a knife when he returned home from a hunting trip and found her packing her bags. After a number of threats with a gun, Lillian dared appellant to shoot her. Knowing that she could not swim and was afraid of the water, appellant threatened to throw her in the lake while they were on a fishing trip if she did not stay with him. On another occasion, appellant stated that he had Lillian perform oral sex upon him and, unknown to her, videotaped the episode. Later, appellant played the tapes for her and threatened to show the tapes to family members and friends.

On March 31, 1988, Lillian left while appellant was away from home. Appellant hired a lawyer to file a divorce on April 8, 1988. Prior to Mother's Day, May 8, 1988, appellant approached his sister and her husband, J.C. McGee, about the need of the children to see their mother. The McGees agreed to arrange the meeting, but refused to divulge Lillian's whereabouts. Appellant hired Victor Peschke, a private investigator, to follow the McGees and the children, appellant advising Peschke that he needed to locate his estranged wife in order that divorce papers could be served on her. Following Peschke's report that the McGees and the children had boarded a Continental airplane for San Antonio, appellant contacted the airline and learned that they would return on a flight departing San Antonio on Sunday afternoon. In accordance with appellant's directions, Peschke went to the airport in San Antonio in order that he might follow Lillian after the children departed.

Peschke called appellant about 7:00 p.m. from Brenham to report that the had followed Lillian and Anderson from the airport in San Antonio to an apartment on South Congress Avenue in Austin. Appellant stated that Peschke reported that Lillian and Anderson were "smooching" and "drinking" on the trip to Austin. Appellant decided to go to Austin and confront Lillian and Anderson. While waiting to talk to Peschke in person at 10:00 p.m., appellant went to a shed behind his house where he sawed eight inches off the barrel of a shotgun. Appellant testified that he took this action because he knew of Anderson's interest in guns. At the conclusion of his meeting with Peschke, appellant told Peschke that he needed to get back with the children and that he would contact him later about serving the divorce papers.

After returning home and leaving a note for the children that he was going to Lake Sam Rayburn, appellant, clad in a "camouflage slicker," drove to Austin, arriving about 3:00 a.m. After finding the apartment Lillian and Anderson were reported to have entered, appellant decided to wait in his truck rather than run the risk of armed resistance on entering the apartment. Shortly after 7:00 a.m., Lillian and Anderson emerged with laundry baskets. Appellant confronted them with the sawed-off shotgun and ordered them to return to the apartment. Following their return to the apartment, appellant related that Lillian told him that "he would never be any good . . . that she loved this man . . . You're a lying son-of-a-bitch." Appellant stated he "had a rush of heat go through my body . . . it's called an anger rush." At this point Anderson "made his move to get the shotgun . . . I killed him." Appellant followed Lillian down the steps to the stair landing where "I heard the shotgun go off . . . I'm the only one that could have pulled the trigger." Appellant threw the death weapon in a lake.

Victor Peschke testified that appellant initially contacted him about finding his wife in order to determine if she was "okay." Later, appellant advised him that he wanted her followed from the airport in San Antonio to her new address in order that divorce papers might be served on her. Clint Talley, aged nineteen at the time of trial, testified as a witness for the State. Clint stated that his father (appellant) told him that he had threatened his mother several times with a gun. Appellant also told Clint about threatening to throw his mother into the lake while they were on a fishing trip if she did not stay with him. Clint related that he had observed bruises on his mother when she returned from the fishing trip. Appellant told Clint "a lot of times, I guess through . . . back up '87, '88, that if he ever caught her with a man, that he would blow the man's brains out." When the McGees returned Clint and his sister Lori (age fifteen at the time of trial) from their San Antonio visit with their mother, appellant acted as if he were surprised and mad that they travelled on an airplane. About 11:00 p.m. on the night of their return, Clint heard a truck leave the house.

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Louis R. Talley v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/louis-r-talley-v-state-texapp-1993.