Mosley v. State

643 S.W.2d 212, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5380
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 24, 1982
Docket2-81-198-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 643 S.W.2d 212 (Mosley 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
Mosley v. State, 643 S.W.2d 212, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5380 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION

JORDAN, Justice.

This appeal is from conviction of murder. V.T.C.A., Penal Code, sec. 19.02.

The jury assessed punishment at 99 years imprisonment.

We affirm.

Appellant complains that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support the allegation in the indictment that the appellant caused the death of the decedent in Tarrant County, Texas; (2) the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on the law of circumstantial evidence; (3) in failing to suppress the confession; (4) in refusing to suppress evidence of the search of appellant’s automobile; (5) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 16; (6) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 17; (7) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 18; (8) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 19; (9) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 20; (10) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 21; (11) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 22; (12) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 24; (13) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 37; (14) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 38; (15) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 39; (16) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 40; (17) in refusing to suppress State’s Exhibit No. 41; (18) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 26, a color autopsy photograph of the decedent; (19) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 28; (20) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 29; (21) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 30; (22) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 31; (23) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 32; (24) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 34; (25) in permitting the State to elicit expert testi *215 mony from a prosecutor as to the State’s reasons for deleting exculpatory portions of confessions; (26) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 2, a color photograph of the decedent’s body; (27) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 6, photograph of the decedent’s body; (28) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 8, a color photograph of the decedent’s body; (29) in admitting State’s Exhibit No. 11, a color photograph of the decedent’s body; and (30) in refusing to instruct the jury to disregard a prosecutor’s comment on the appellant’s failure to testify.

On May 5, 1980, Greyhound bus driver David Blassingame picked up two women passengers in Monahans, Texas. These women had tickets to Fort Worth, Texas, and were scheduled to arrive in Fort Worth at 4:10 a.m. Mr. Blassingame identified photographs of Rebecca Hampton and Penny Dale at trial as being the women who got on the bus at Monahans on the evening of May 5, 1980.

On the morning of May 7, 1980, Charles Smith discovered the body of Rebecca Hampton in a ditch along the side of Quail Road in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. An autopsy of the body of Rebecca Hampton revealed that the cause of death was massive bleeding due to multiple stab wounds to the chest, abdomen and pelvic region. Ms. Hampton had been stabbed twelve times.

On May 5 and 6,1980, appellant had been living at 4817 South Hughes, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. On the morning of May 6, 1980, appellant’s landlady, Fay Lias, noticed that appellant had stains on his shoes. These stains appeared to be a combination of blood and mud. In response to her inquiry, appellant stated that he had been in a fight with a man over the man’s wife. Ms. Lias also noticed bloodstains on the back of appellant’s pants.

That evening when Ms. Lias returned home from work, she noticed that the lock on the garage had been broken and appellant’s car had been parked inside the garage. Ms. Lias looked inside appellant’s car and saw bloodstains on the seat and in the back of the car. On May 7, 1980, Ms. Lias reported what she had seen to the police, and requested that they come to her home.

On May 7,1980, plainclothes police officer Richard Sylvest and five other plainclothes police officers arrived at appellant’s residence. A search of appellant’s car revealed what appeared to be blood on the front and rear seats, on the inside of the windows and in the trunk. This prompted Officer Syl-vest to give appellant his Constitutional warnings and place him under arrest.

In the early morning hours of May 8, 1980, appellant confessed to killing two women whom he had picked up downtown at Commerce and 13th Street. Appellant stated that the girls informed him that they were looking for a place to stay. Appellant told the girls to get inside the car, and they proceeded to drive to the North Side. Appellant parked his car at McKinley and Long Street and fell asleep. Appellant claims that he awoke to find one of the girls going through his things. According to appellant, this girl had a knife in her right hand. A scuffle ensued, and appellant stabbed the shorter, heavier set girl who was sitting in the front seat. Appellant admitted to stabbing this girl in the chest, neck, and several times in the back.

Appellant then turned to the girl in the back seat, who he claims had her arm around his neck. Appellant pushed her into the seat and began to stab her. This girl grabbed at the knife, and appellant stated that he continued to stab her.

The first ground of error contends that the State’s evidence was not sufficient to prove venue. Appellant also contends that he was entitled to a circumstantial evidence charge on the venue issue.

The indictment alleges that the appellant, on or about the 6th day of May, 1980, in Tarrant County, Texas, intentionally and knowingly caused the death of Rebecca Hampton by stabbing her to death with a knife.

The burden of objecting to the prosecution’s failure to prove venue is on the defendant. Vasquez v. State, 491 S.W.2d 173 (Tex.Cr.App.1973). When the *216 issue of venue is not raised in the trial court, it is presumed that proper venue was proved. Crocker v. State, 573 S.W.2d 190, 204 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); V.A.C.C.P. art. 44.-24.

Appellant contends that this burden was met in the instant case by the motion for instructed verdict. In his motion for instructed verdict, appellant complains of the State’s failure to “prove the elements of the offense as set forth in the indictment” and their failure “to prove the elements of the corpus delicti as set forth in the indictment.”

We hold that such a conclusive statement of grounds is insufficient to preserve the issue of venue now raised on appeal. It is well settled that general objections are insufficient to preserve error for review. Quinones v. State, 592 S.W.2d 933 (Tex.Cr.App.1980). It is also axiomatic that objections must be timely made at trial, and that such objections must comport with the complaint subsequently raised on appeal. See Crocker, supra, at 204.

In his motion for new trial, appellant did make a more specific objection to the State’s proof regarding venue; however such was not timely for purposes of preserving this issue for appellant review. Gonzales v. State, 486 S.W.2d 380 (Tex.Cr.App.1972). The Court in Gonzales,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
643 S.W.2d 212, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5380, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mosley-v-state-texapp-1982.