Majid v. State

713 S.W.2d 405, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8042
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 16, 1986
DocketNo. 08-85-00272-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 713 S.W.2d 405 (Majid 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
Majid v. State, 713 S.W.2d 405, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8042 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION

SCHULTE, Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for solicitation to commit capital murder. The jury assessed punishment at forty-five years imprisonment. We affirm.

Ground of Error No. One contends that the indictment is fundamentally defective in that it fails to allege that Appellant requested and attempted to induce an intentional or knowing act of homicide. The indictment alleges:

[T]he defendant, with the intent that a capital felony, to-wit: capital murder, be committed, did then and there intentionally and knowingly request and attempt to induce another, namely, ROY HARRISON, to engage in specific conduct that under the circumstances surrounding the conduct of ROY HARRISON as the said defendant believed them to be, would constitute capital murder, to-wit: the said defendant did then and there intentionally and knowingly request and attempt to induce ROY HARRISON to cause the death of an individual, LISA DOOLY BELL, for renumeration [sic] and the promise of renumeration [sic]....

The solicitation cases cited by Appellant do indeed include an allegation that the ultimate actor’s homicidal conduct be intentional or knowing. That is a more desirable manner of averment, but does not render the present pleading defective. Appellant’s initial reliance is upon Ex parte Winton, 549 S.W.2d 751 (Tex.Crim.App.1977), which overturned a burglary conviction for failure to plead intentional or knowing entry. First, we note that in Win-ton the defendant was charged with entry and commission of theft. Hence, the omission of the statutory mens rea requirement was fatal. Had Winton been charged with [407]*407entry with intent to commit theft, the specific culpable intent would have sufficed for the omitted general criminal intent. In any event, the present case does not present a problem under Winton. Winton was not granted appellate relief because the indictment failed to allege the mens rea required for the subsidiary theft offense, but for failure to aver the primary mens rea associated with the burglary. See: Ex parte Cannon, 546 S.W.2d 266 (Tex.Crim.App.1976); Johnson v. State, 537 S.W.2d 16 (Tex.Crim.App.1976). The present complaint is that the indictment fails to allege one of the constituent elements of the subsidiary murder offense. That is not a defect. The indictment tracks the elements of solicitation as set out in Penal Code Section 15.03(a), including the Appellant’s alleged mens rea. It further identifies the ultimate offense intended, capital murder, and identifies which provision of Penal Code Section 19.03(a)(3) is relied upon (murder for remuneration).

Appellant suggests the indictment fails to allege an offense since Appellant could have requested or induced Harrison to perform an act which caused the death of Lisa Bell without being murder. The present indictment specifically negates this hypothetical as a basis for guilt by: 1) specifying that Appellant intended a capital felony be committed and 2) requiring that the jury find that the request or inducement be for Harrison “to engage in specific conduct that under the circumstances surrounding the conduct of ROY HARRISON as the said defendant believed them to be, would constitute capital murder....” Consequently, under this indictment, Harrison’s intended conduct would have to have been capital murder, intentionally or knowingly causing the death, before Appellant could be found guilty. Appellant’s hypothetical and complaint are without merit. The indictment presents no error, either fundamental or subject to a motion to quash. Ground of Error No. One is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Two contends that the charge was fundamentally defective in the same regard urged above. We disagree for the same reasons cited above. The charge, tracking the indictment in this respect, did require the jury to find that the solicited offense would have been capital murder, including murder, on the part of Roy Harrison. This is especially true in light of the abstract instructions given the jury which defined murder as intentionally or knowingly causing the death of an individual and capital murder as committing murder for remuneration. Ground of Error No. Two is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Three alleges a fatal variance between the indictment and the charge. The former alleged remuneration and the promise of remuneration. The charge referred only to promise of remuneration. Appellant relies upon Doty v. State, 585 S.W.2d 726 (Tex.Crim.App.1979), which reversed a conviction where the indictment alleged remuneration and the promise of remuneration, but the proof showed only a promise to pay. Doty, however, dealt with a prosecution for attempted capital murder, not solicitation to commit capital murder. The distinction is critical to the present complaint and is addressed specifically by Judge Clinton in his concurring opinion in Doty. Attempt culpability arises when the defendant has performed an act beyond mere preparation which tends but fails to effect the commission of the ultimate offense intended. Tex. Penal Code Ann. sec. 15.01(a). In Doty, the majority found that both the payment and promise of payment had been averred by the State as the conduct beyond mere preparation which rendered the defendant liable for the attempt offense. The State was therefore required to prove both to support a finding of guilt. Liability for solicitation does not necessitate the act beyond mere preparation. The solicitation offense is complete when the culpable request or inducement is unilaterally presented. A meeting of the minds is not even required. Unilateral guilt of solicitation may be established solely by the communication presented by the defendant, accompanied by his culpable intent and belief [408]*408alone. Doty, at 730-731 (Clinton, J., concurring.) Both elements, promise to pay and actual payment, were not proof requirements for the State in this case. They were alternative forms of committing the offense of solicitation of capital murder. They appear disjunctively in the statute. Tex.Penal Code Ann. sec. 19.03(a)(3). They were pleaded conjunctively and potentially could have been charged in the disjunctive, with guilt founded upon proper proof of either. Hill v. State, 625 S.W.2d 803 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1981), affirmed, 640 S.W.2d 879 (Tex.Crim.App.1982). Instead, the court properly conformed the charge to the evidence, which clearly demonstrated no actual payment, and deleted the payment allegation. Ground of Error No. Three is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Four alleges the court erred in denying a new trial due to misdirection of the jury as argued under Grounds of Error Nos. One, Two and Three. Finding no error presented in those complaints, Ground of Error No. Four is also overruled.

Grounds of Error Nos. Five and Six assert ineffective assistance of counsel and are addressed below.

Grounds of Error Nos. Seven and Eight allege prosecutorial misconduct in the withdrawal of a plea bargain agreement reached on the second day of trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
713 S.W.2d 405, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8042, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/majid-v-state-texapp-1986.