O'DONALD v. State

492 S.W.2d 584, 1973 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2437
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 4, 1973
Docket45938
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 492 S.W.2d 584 (O'DONALD 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
O'DONALD v. State, 492 S.W.2d 584, 1973 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2437 (Tex. 1973).

Opinions

OPINION

DALLY, Commissioner.

The conviction is for felony theft; the punishment six years imprisonment.

The appellant was charged with the theft of “grain sorghum” from Bruce Lusk, the manager of the Randall County Feed Yard.

The appellant urges that the evidence will not sustain the conviction because it is based upon the testimony of an accomplice witness which is not sufficiently corroborated.

Article 38.14, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P. provides :

“A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the offense committed; and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of the offense.”

The State readily admits that the witness Hudgins who testified he participated in the alleged theft of the grain is an accomplice as a matter of law.

The well known test for determining the evidence required to support a conviction in addition to the testimony of an accomplice witness has recently been stated in Colunga v. State, 481 S.W.2d 866 (Tex.Cr.App.1972) in the following language:

“The test of the sufficiency of such corroboration is to eliminate the evidence of the accomplice from consideration and then to examine the evidence of other witnesses to determine if there is inculpatory evidence, evidence of an incriminating nature which tends to connect the accused with the commission of the offense. Merely showing an offense occurred is not sufficient. Odom v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 438 S.W.2d 912; Edwards v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 427 S.W.2d 629. The corroborative testimony need not supply direct evidence; it must only tend to connect appellant with the crime. Cherb v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 472 S.W.2d 273. It is the combined cumulative weight of the evidence furnished by non-accomplice witnesses which supplies the test. Minor v. State, 108 Tex.Cr.R. 1, 299 S.W. 422.”

See also Bolding v. State, 493 S.W.2d 186 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Reynolds v. State, 489 S.W.2d 866 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Windham v. State, 479 S.W.2d 319 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Chapman v. State, 470 S.W.2d 656 (Tex.Cr.App.1971); Minton v. State, 468 S.W.2d 426 (Tex.Cr.App.1971); Odom v. State, 438 S.W.2d 912 (Tex.Cr.App.1969) and Edwards v. State, 427 S.W.2d 629 (Tex.Cr.App.1968).

The corroborative evidence is not sufficient merely because there is other evidence which coincides with numerous details of the accomplice witness’ testimony unless that corroborative evidence tends to connect the defendant with the offense charged.

Let us now consider the evidence other than that of the accomplice witness to determine if it tends to connect the appellant with the offense alleged.

Bruce Lusk, the manager of the Randall County Feed Yard and the complainant named in the indictment, testified to the following facts. Between sixty-five thousand and sixty-nine thousand head of cattle are kept on feed at the Randall County Feed Yard. Approximately one million pounds of feed are used each day and there is a storage capacity for approximately five million pounds. The basic ingredient of the ration fed is grain sorghum. To make the feed more palatable moisture in the form of steam is added to [586]*586the feed. This also increases its volume and weight. The feed is stored in different types of bins where the equipment will handle one hundred thousand pounds of grain in twenty-five minutes. A truck can be loaded or unloaded in twenty minutes. Some knowledge of the use of the equipment and a key is necessary for the loading and unloading of the grain.

Lusk identified the appellant as a former employee of the feed yard. The appellant was employed at the time of the alleged theft but was not scheduled for duty on the night that the theft was alleged to have occurred. The appellant was not entrusted with a key necessary to move the grain loading equipment. Lusk explained that because of the large quantity of feed handled, the adding of moisture, and other factors, it was difficult to determine if losses were sustained. He said that he could not prove by an inventory the loss of any grain. Under cross-examination he testified, “In this instance I do not know that any grain was taken.” Lusk did not report the theft of any grain to law enforcement personnel, but a deputy sheriff had suggested to him that he might be missing some grain. If grain was taken, Lusk did not give his consent to the appellant nor anyone else for the taking of the grain.

Robert Caldwell, who on December 2, 1970, was the manager of the “Consumers Fuel Association,” a grain elevator in Canyon, testified that when he came to work that morning there was a “Ryder” truck loaded with grain at the elevator. Soon after Caldwell arrived the appellant came to the office. He was accompanied by two other men, one of whom the witness later heard introduced as Hubert Wiley. Caldwell purchased the seventy-five thousand pound load of grain for fifteen hundred dollars. A check payable to the appellant was issued. The check which had been paid was introduced into evidence. Caldwell did not ask the appellant where he got the grain.

Lew Wixom shop foreman and “lease man” for the Ryder Truck Rental Agency in Amarillo, rented a truck (tractor-trailer combination) to the appellant on December 1, 1970. Dave Hindon, a transient rental clerk for the same rental agency in Amarillo, testified the truck was returned by the appellant on December 2, 1970. A copy of the rental contract was introduced into evidence. The time stamped on the contract reflected that the appellant received the truck at 11:24 p. m., December 1, and returned it at 9:09 a. m., December 2, 1970. The truck had been driven sixty miles.

Roy Tinsley, a deputy sheriff of Randall County, testified he saw the appellant O’Donald, Hubert Wiley and Mack Hudg-ins in the offices of the “Consumers Elevator” on the morning of December 2, 1970.1 Tinsley engaged in conversation with the appellant who told the deputy he was selling a load of grain that had come from his farm. The officer who witnessed the grain being unloaded said he didn’t know where the grain came from but testified that it did not, come from the appellant’s farm because “it was too much and this was a nice bright type of maize,” not of the type raised on the appellant’s farm.

L. S. Johnston, the sheriff of Randall County, testified he traced a certain route from the Ryder Truck Rental Agency in Amarillo to the Randall County Feed Yard, the Consumers Elevator, and back to the truck rental agency and found it to be sixty-one and four tenths miles.

Now we will consider the testimony of the accomplice witness Hudgins.

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O'DONALD v. State
492 S.W.2d 584 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
492 S.W.2d 584, 1973 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 2437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/odonald-v-state-texcrimapp-1973.