Randolph v. State

54 S.W.2d 104, 122 Tex. Crim. 151, 1932 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 664
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 9, 1932
DocketNo. 14985.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 54 S.W.2d 104 (Randolph 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
Randolph v. State, 54 S.W.2d 104, 122 Tex. Crim. 151, 1932 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 664 (Tex. 1932).

Opinion

*152 CALHOUN, Judge.

Conviction is for burglary; punishment, seven years in the penitentiary.

The testimony offered by the state in brief was as follows: The witness, J. D. McCardell, the person alleged in the indictment to be the person who owned and occupied the house alleged to have been burglarized, testified that he had lived in Camden about 16 or 17 years and had charge of the store at Camden which was alleged to have been burglarized; that he was the store manager during the entire year 1929. He further testified that he had missed goods out of the store during the fall and summer of 1929, and the kind of goods he missed during said time were groceries, dry goods, clothing, and shoes. He further testified that either L. M. Phillips or himself closed the store at night, and when he was not there Phillips superintended the closing of the store. He, the witness, always saw that the store was closed before leaving when he was there. When he missed the articles out of the store, he did not find any evidence of the building having been entered. The evidence further showed that on the night of October 14, 1929, the store was broken into and articles taken therefrom, and on the morning after the robbery goods were found that had come out of the store and he identified them by their cost mark. The goods found were new goods, and had never been used. They were found right back of the house of J. Randolph, the father of Houston Randolph, the appellant, who was living with his father. It is further shown by the evidence that the appellant was employed in said store as a porter during the day time and had access to the keys of the store during the day time but not after the store had closed at night.

Another witness testified that she knew the appellant, Houston Randolph, and she saw him during the summer of 1929 in Carmona and he was there selling goods, and he sold her husband some things; that the things he brought there for sale were some bacon, lard, sugar, coffee, rice, and also some hose; that she did not know exactly how many times he came to Carmona and sold stuff there, but it was four or five times; that her husband at one time bought from the appellant a pair of silk hose for the witness. She further testified that her husband would tell appellant and Farris King what he wanted from them, and sometimes they would bring some of the things he had ordered and sometimes they would not; that some of the things they bought from the appellant and King were sold very cheap; that it was cheaper than they could buy them at other places.

*153 The state also offered in evidence a purported written confession of the appellant. The confession itself shows that it was in conformity with the statutory requirements to entitle the confession to be offered in evidence. Omitting the formal parts, the confession is as follows: “My name is Houston Randolph. I am 21 years old. My birthday is Jan. 10th. I am at present living in Houston, Harris County, Texas. I have worked in the store at Camden, Polk County, Texas, for about 7 years. I was called ‘Porter’ in the store. I went into the store at Camden during the year 1929 altogether between 15 and 20 times. I always went in there at night. Each time that I went in the store I got some merchandise out of there. No one gave me permission to go in there and take this stuff. I knew it was wrong every time that I went in there and stole this stuff. I would get groceries and dry goods whenever I wanted them. I got several men’s leather coats out of there and would sell them to different parties. I got numerous. articles of ladies silk underwear, including teddies, etc. I also got a number of pair of shoes and would sell them to different parties.

“Every time that I went in the store to take this stuff, Farris King would go with me. We would go over to Carmona and there take orders for what our customers wanted, and then go back, and when convenient steal it out of the store, and fill the orders and collect our money. People at Carmona have also written us letters, telling us what they wanted, and we would go to the store and steal it and take it over there and sell it to them. We have also carried some stuff to Diboll. We have carried some stuff to Pearl Tolston and sold it to her, this stuff being out of the store at Camden also. Tommy Sholars went with me on this last trip to. carry groceries to Pearl. Tommy knew that this was stuff that was stolen out of the store at Camden at that time. We were in Tommy Sholar’s car that last trip and had used his car numbers and numbers of times in delivering this stuff to our different customers. Tommy Sholars went with us a number of times to deliver this stuff to different places. I believe that I gave Tommy two dollars of the money that I got from Pearl. I would always give Tommy money on every trip that he went with us to deliver stuff. We also gave Tommy and his wife a number of different articles of clothing and shoes that we had taken out of the store. This went on between Tommy and his wife and us 'for a number of months. Ozay Boatright went with us on several of these trips. Farris and I had bought a new Chevrolet, that is, traded an old one in, and we had a note coming due about a week after *154 Mr. Holliday arrested all of us. We would keep a considerable amount of this stuff that we got out of the store locked up in a little house in my father’s back yard.”

Z. L. Foreman, the county attorney before whom the alleged confession was made, testified before the introduction of said purported confession of the circumstances under which the .confession was taken. Said testimony showed that appellant had been properly warned before said confession was taken and that it was freely and voluntarily made and signed by appellant. Said witness also testified to a verbal statement made by appellant to him, while not under arrest, as to how he got in the store; that he would get the key in the day time and unlock the door, push the door to so he could go back- there at night find get in.

The state in its election stated that it did not rely upon the alleged burglary on the night of October 14, 1931, but elected to rely upon the date between June 7 and October 14, 1929. The appellant did not testify and offered no testimony.

Appellant made a motion to quash the indictment, claiming that it was duplicitous in charging in the same count a burglary committed in the daytime and at night. The indictment specifically averred that the burglary was committed by force, threats, and fraud, and also that appellant did break and enter a house without the consent of the owner and with the intent then and there to fraudulently commit the offense of theft. In the case of Young v. State, 84 Texas Crim. Rep., 232, 206 S. W., 529, the appellant made a motion to quash the indictment, claiming that it was duplicitous in charging in the- same count a burglary both in the daytime and at night. The indictment specifically averred also that the burglary was committed by force, threats, and fraud, and also that he did break and enter a house with the intent to commit the offense of theft. In passing upon said question, this court used the following language:

“It has been the settled law of this state, since the decision of this court in the Carr case, 19 Texas App., 635, 53 Am.

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Related

Lyles v. State
351 S.W.2d 886 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1961)
Reed v. State
149 S.W.2d 119 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1941)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 S.W.2d 104, 122 Tex. Crim. 151, 1932 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 664, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/randolph-v-state-texcrimapp-1932.