Murray v. State

505 S.W.2d 589, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1380
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 13, 1974
Docket47417
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 505 S.W.2d 589 (Murray 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
Murray v. State, 505 S.W.2d 589, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1380 (Tex. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

DALLY, Commissioner.

The conviction is for murder; the punishment, two hundred years’ imprisonment.

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence.

Twenty-one year old Pat Mahaney was murdered in her apartment in Dallas on the evening of February 18, 1970. The physician who performed the autopsy testified that she had been stabbed and cut nu *591 merous times in the neck, chest, stomach, and back; and that her throat had also been severely slashed. In his opinion, death had resulted from these wounds. The physician also said she may have been choked, but the choking had not caused her death. The victim’s body was discovered by her boyfriend, who found her nude but covered with articles of clothing, lying on the floor of her room between the bed and the wall. Officers investigating the crime found a butcher knife lying atop some of the clothing over her body. They also found a shoe print on her leg. Some Con-form brand prophylactics were lying next to the body. No evidence was found of sexual assault. A tampon was found in the victim’s vagina. There were no signs of a forced entry into the apartment. Other than in the bedroom itself, there was no sign of a struggle.

About six months following the offense, appellant and his wife attended a party given by a friend, Fletcher Bass, where appellant became somewhat intoxicated. As he and his friend were driving in a car later in the evening, appellant confessed to Bass that he had killed the girl. Knowledge of the confession came to the police through appellant’s wife, in whom Bass had confided the information. Police arrested appellant, who shortly thereafter confessed in writing. The substance of the confession is as follows:

“Last February 18, 1970 I was working for the City of Dallas, I got off work about 5 :00 PM and got home about 5 :30 PM. I was home for about 20 or 30 minutes and I decided to go upstairs and visit Pat Mahaney. I knocked on her door and she opened it and I went in. We talked for a few minutes. I do not know how it happened but I go (sic) her on the bed and choked her. This was after she made some statement about my wife. I choked her til she stopped talking. I had a pocket knife in my pocket and I stabbed her and got a butcher knife out of the kitchen and cut her throat. All this time I do not know what came over me. I went to my apartment and cleaned up. The next day I thew (sic) the pocket knife away around R. L. Thornton Expressway. The next day I missed a package of rubbers that I carried and I had a funny feeling that I had dropped it in Pat’s apartment, the brand name of the rub-vers was con-forms.
/S/ Allan W. Murray”

On the same night appellant was arrested, the police went to his apartment, where his wife gave them his tennis shoes. The imprint pattern of the sole matched the imprint found on the leg of the deceased.

The physician who conducted the autopsy estimated that the victim had died sometime between 5:30 and 9:30 p.m. on February 18, 1970. At trial the appellant offered his own and other testimony indicating that he was alone in his apartment, located just below the victim’s, from 5:30 until about 6:20 p.m. on the day in question. His confession implies that the murder occurred sometime just before or just after 6:00 p.m. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence is sufficient to support the conviction. See White v. State, 478 S.W.2d 506 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Pogue v. State, 474 S.W.2d 492 (Tex.Cr.App.1971); Jones v. State, 442 S.W.2d 698 (Tex.Cr.App.1969).

In ground of error two it is urged the written confession was erroneously admitted in evidence because it was obtained after the appellant’s allegedly unlawful warrantless arrest.

Appellant’s arrest came about when a Dallas police officer, Gus Rose, received a telephone call from appellant’s wife. She told Rose her husband had told Fletcher Bass that he had killed Pat Mahaney and he was “fixing to go to Canada.” Rose was entirely familiar with the case because he had been investigating the murder for six months. He considered appellant’s wife a credible person because he *592 had interviewed her a number of times in the course of the murder investigation and had found the information she gave him to be true. There is evidence that a magistrate was unavailable at the time of the arrest. The State contends that under these circumstances the warrantless arrest was lawful, relying upon Article 14.04, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P. 1 We need not decide this question because, even if the arrest was without any process or legal right, the confession is not thereby automatically rendered inadmissible. If it is otherwise shown that the confession was voluntary, it is still admissible. Gonzales v. State, 429 S.W.2d 882 (Tex.Cr.App.1968); Lacefield v. State, 412 S.W.2d 906 (Tex.Cr.App.1967); see also De Leon v. State, 466 S.W.2d 573 (Tex.Cr.App.1971); Davis v. State, 430 S.W.2d 210 (Tex.Cr.App.1968); Pearson v. State, 414 S.W.2d 675 (Tex.Cr.App.1967).

In this case the Court held an extensive voluntariness hearing outside the presence of the jury. Testimony showed that appellant was properly advised of his rights in . compliance with Article 38.22, V.A.C.C.P. and Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) and waived those rights before he gave the statement.

The trial court found that no threats, coercion, or promises were used to get the appellant to give and sign the statement, and this finding is supported by the evidence. Under these circumstances, the Court properly found that the confession was not coerced, but was voluntary and admissible. Cf. Brookins v. State, 499 S.W.2d 320 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Akridge v. State, 493 S.W.2d 928 (Tex.Cr.App.1973).

The eighth and ninth grounds of error complain of the admission of his written confession allegedly made while he was intoxicated or suffering from having been intoxicated and that the Court’s charge on this matter was too abstract. The Court did not err in admitting the confession and the charge submitted adequately protected the appellant’s rights. It reads as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
505 S.W.2d 589, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1380, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-v-state-texcrimapp-1974.