McClain v. State

432 S.W.2d 73, 1968 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 891
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 24, 1968
Docket41437
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 432 S.W.2d 73 (McClain v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClain v. State, 432 S.W.2d 73, 1968 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 891 (Tex. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

»BELCHER, Judge.

The conviction is for robbery; the punishment, life.

This is a companion case to Palmer v. State, 423 S.W.2d 323.

Grounds of error Nos. 1 and 2 are:
“The indictment is fundamentally defective in that it alleges the property which was the subject of the robbery to be that of appellant jointly with others, including the alleged victim.
“The evidence is insufficient to sustain the conviction because of a fatal variance in that ownership of the property taken is alleged to be that of appellant, among others, whereas the proof relates ownership to be only in Bert V. Dooley, the alleged complainant.”

An examination of the photostatic copy of the indictment reveals that it jointly charged the appellant and three other persons with “acting together” in the commission of robbery with firearms. It appears from the indictment that in typing the names of the four alleged robbers in the printed form used to prepare the indictment that a small portion of appellant’s surname extends upon a small portion of the word and letters: “Term, A.D.,” and when his name is next alleged his middle and surname and the name of another in-dictee extend upon a portion of the words: “with the fraudulent intent then and there of them, the said.” None of the names of the alleged robbers extends upon the name of the alleged owner.

No motion was made to quash the indictment. The record shows that appellant had retained counsel on September 9, 1966; that the case was passed for the appellant on September 12, 1966, to October 3, and then to October 10, and the trial began on *75 October 17, 1966, at which time the firearm allegation was dismissed from the indictment and appellant’s motion for a severance was granted.

The indictment is not fundamentally defective. Grounds of error Nos. 1 and 2 are overruled.

For reversal, it is contended that:

“The court erred in denying appellant’s motion to require the state to challenge the jurors, first on voir dire examination as mandatorily required by Art. 35.13 V.A.C.C.P.”

Art. 35.13, supra, is not applicable to this, a non-capital case, as tried and submitted to the jury. Fuller v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 409 S.W.2d 866; Elliott v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 412 S.W.2d 320. See: 1967 amendment of Art. 35.13, supra. The method of selection used is not shown except as indicated by the denial of appellant’s motion. No error is presented.

Error is urged on the ground that:

“There being under Art. 36.10 V.A.C. C.P. no evidence of a failure of the joint defendants to agree on an order of trial, the court erred in arbitrarily denying appellant’s motion for continuance and placing appellant on trial first after granting his motion to sever and thus depriving appellant of at least one fact witness in violation of his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as articulated in Washington v. [State of] Texas, 388 U.S. 14 [87 S.Ct. 1920, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019].”

The ground of error fails to specify the name of any fact witness which was not available to him. The record reveals that the appellant called his co-defendant Palmer who testified in his behalf, but it fails to show that he made any effort to call the other co-defendants as witnesses. The testimony, if any, adduced in support of the motion for continuance is not contained in the record. The record indicates that in-dictee Rheuark had not been apprehended at the time of appellant’s trial. Under the record, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing appellant’s motion for continuance and placing him on trial first after granting a severance.

As grounds of error it is urged that:

“The court erred in allowing, over objection of appellant, codefendants in jail uniforms to be brought into the presence of the jury and into the courtroom for identification by a state witness in violation of appellant’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
“The court erred in questioning code-fendants Palmer and Brill and thereby identifying them by name in front of the state witness who was to observe them and did, in fact, later identify them in front of the jury, all over objection of counsel for all defendants in the courtroom, in violation of appellant’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as articulated in Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293 [87 S.Ct. 1967, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199], among others.”

These grounds of error are based upon the following testimony of the state’s witness Dooley, the victim of the robbery:

“Q All right, sir, now, Mr. Britt—now Mr. Dooley, I am going to have two persons brought into the courtroom and I don’t want you to say anything until they are actually gone from our presence here. When they are brought in I want you to take a look at them and I will be asking you some questions in regard to those persons.
“Appellant’s Counsel: I am going to object at this time to bringing anyone into the Court as far as identification purposes it is irrelevant, it is immaterial at this time and it is something entirely disconnected, this man is on trial here for- the armed robbery, the robbery of Mr. Doo *76 ley and I am, I am going to object to these two people being brought in.
■“The Court: Overrule you.
■“Appellant’s Counsel: Note our exception.
“(Whereupon, two men were brought into the courtroom by the bailiff.)
“The Court: Just come up here right in front.
■“State’s Counsel: Stand right around here if you will.
“The Court: You want him to look at these men?
“State’s Counsel: Yes, sir, I want you to look at these men.
“The Court: All right, let them go outside. You have looked at them, have you not?
“The Witness: Yes, sir, I have.
“The Court: All right, take them out.
“(Whereupon, the two men were removed from the courtroom by the bailiff.)
“Q (By State’s Counsel) Mr. Dooley, have you ever seen either one of those two men before?
“A Yes, I have seen both of them.
“Q Where have you seen them please ?
“A In my house the night of this robbery.
“Q All right.

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Bluebook (online)
432 S.W.2d 73, 1968 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclain-v-state-texcrimapp-1968.