O'DELL v. State

651 S.W.2d 48, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4395
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 27, 1983
Docket2-82-055-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 651 S.W.2d 48 (O'DELL 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
O'DELL v. State, 651 S.W.2d 48, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4395 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

SPURLOCK, Justice.

Appellant, Vernon Alvin O’Dell, was convicted by a jury of the offense of murder. V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 19.02. That jury assessed punishment at forty (40) years imprisonment.

We affirm.

O’Dell asserts in five grounds of error that the trial court erred in refusing to: (1) grant his challenge for cause on a juror for the reason that this juror expressed a bias or prejudice against him; (2) charge the jury upon the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter; (3) disqualify himself due to the fact that the judge had prosecuted O’Dell on the prior felony conviction which the State utilized for enhancement purposes; (4) grant O’Dell’s motion for mistrial after the nonresponsive answer of a State’s witness during the punishment phase of trial to the effect that O’Dell had been a suspect in other cases; and, (5) grant his motion for mistrial after the State exceeded the scope of V.A.C.C.P. art. 37.07 in the testimony of witness Walker during the punishment phase of trial.

O’Dell’s first ground of error alleges that the trial court erred in refusing to grant his challenge for cause upon juror Donald James Garman on the basis that Garman expressed a bias or prejudice against O’Dell when he allegedly indicated that he would believe a police officer’s testimony simply because that witness was a police officer. Juror Garman was questioned upon this point at the bench and answered as follows:

[PROSECUTOR]: If I may, your Hon- or. In other words, Mr. Garman, I don’t take it to mean that you don’t believe or it’s not your belief that the police officer is not capable of telling a lie. That’s not what you are saying at all, is it?
JUROR: No. I’m not saying that at all. I’m sure some police officers are capable of telling a lie and maybe do tell lies, but I believe a man in that position is more apt to tell the truth, is more apt to portray something as it actually happened because he’s trained to do it that way.
[PROSECUTOR]: Now, I take it, also, that if you were on the jury, you would evaluate a lay witness, someone who is not a police officer, the same way you would anyone else as to whether they are telling you the truth in circumstances simply because you might feel a police officer is telling — probably has a greater obligation to tell the truth; you are not *50 going to use a separate standard for your witnesses as they come before you?
JUROR: Well, the standard that evaluates what the witness said would be the same.
[PROSECUTOR]: Okay. That was the question; what was the credibility of the witness.
Okay. That’s the State’s point, your Honor, and we submit that this man is qualified.
THE COURT: I don’t think he’s disqualified. If you want to ask him something else, well, go ahead.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: We’ll stand on our challenge at this time.
THE COURT: Okay. I won’t excuse you.

We find that the record of the voir dire of juror Garman does not indicate that Gar-man would believe a police officer’s testimony over that of any other citizen simply because of the officer’s status as a policeman. Garman was not subject to a challenge for cause. The trial court properly refused to exclude Garman from the jury panel, since bias as a matter of law has not been established by this record. See Kennard v. State, 649 S.W.2d 752 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth, 1988). As the denial of O’Dell’s challenge for cause was proper, we do not reach the question of whether an accused must show (1) that he was denied a requested additional peremptory challenge, along with (2) exhaustion of his peremptory challenges, and (3) the seating of a juror upon whom appellant would have exercised a peremptory challenge, in order to show harm where a juror should properly have been excused due to appellant’s proper challenge for cause. 1 O’Dell’s first ground of error is overruled.

O’Dell’s second ground of error contends that the trial court erred in refusing to charge the jury upon the law of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter.

[I]n determining whether a charge on a lesser included offense is required, a two step analysis is to be used. First, the lesser included offense must be included within the proof necessary to establish the offense charged. Secondly, there must be some evidence in the record that if the defendant is guilty, he is guilty of only the lesser offense....

Royster v. State, 622 S.W.2d 442, 446 (Tex.Cr.App.1981).

The settled Texas law on this issue is that the trial court need not give a jury charge upon a lesser included offense merely because proof of that lesser offense is included within proof of the greater offense. McBrayer v. State, 504 S.W.2d 445 (Tex.Cr.App.1974). While the proof necessary to establish various lesser included offenses may have been presented at trial, there is no evidence in the record that if O’Dell is guilty, he is guilty only of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter, as required in the second step of the Royster, supra, test. We therefore sustain the decision of the trial court not to charge upon voluntary manslaughter, and overrule ground of error two.

O’Dell’s third ground of error maintains that the trial court erred in refusing to disqualify himself, due to the fact that he had personally prosecuted O’Dell on the prior felony conviction that the State utilized for enhancement purposes.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled on this issue:

The appellant cites and relies upon Article 30.01, Y.A.C.C.P., which provides that no judge shall sit in any case where he has been of counsel for the state, and *51 he also cites and relies upon Pennington v. State, 169 Tex.Cr.R. 183, 332 S.W.2d 569 (1960). Pennington v. State, supra, was overruled in Hathorne v. State, 459 S.W.2d 826 (Tex.Cr.App.1970). Griffin v. State, 487 S.W.2d 81 (Tex.Cr.App.1972) and Hathorne v. State, supra, are authority for holding that the appellant’s contention is without merit and such contention is overruled.

Nichols v. State, 494 S.W.2d 830, 836 (Tex.Cr.App.1973). We therefore overrule O’Dell’s third ground of error.

Grounds of error four and five were briefed together by both counsel, and we shall also treat them together.

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Bluebook (online)
651 S.W.2d 48, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/odell-v-state-texapp-1983.