Ransom v. State

630 S.W.2d 904, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4208
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 30, 1982
Docket07-81-0024-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 630 S.W.2d 904 (Ransom 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
Ransom v. State, 630 S.W.2d 904, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4208 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

COUNTISS, Justice.

The offense is prostitution enhanced by a prior prostitution conviction. Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 43.02, (Vernon Supp.1981). Punishment is confinement in jail for one year and a fine of $2,000.00. We affirm.

Acting on information that prostitution was being practiced in a residence in Amarillo, three law enforcement officers, hereafter referred to as Robert, Mike and Louis, donned civilian clothes, purchased some beer, procured a Cadillac and went to the residence. Robert went to the door and knocked, and appellant, dressed in a negli *906 gee, answered the door. Robert told appellant that Freddie the cab driver had sent him and asked if she knew where they could find some women. Appellant said they had come to the right place and sent them to the side door. Mike and Louis then joined Robert and they entered the residence. Mike went back to the car, however, because he recognized appellant from a previous encounter and was afraid she would remember him. Robert, Louis and appellant then engaged in a conversation. Eliminating the street vernacular, appellant asked Robert and Louis what they wanted, they replied that they were looking for sex and she asked them to display their male sex organs so she could be sure they were not “the law.” 1 The officers complied with appellant’s request and money was then discussed. There is some inconsistency in the evidence concerning the initial mention of money. Robert testified on direct examination that Louis asked appellant “how much is it” and appellant replied that it would be $50 each. On re-direct, he testified appellant mentioned money before Louis did. Louis testified that appellant stated her price immediately after he told her what the men were seeking.

After the price was settled, Louis and Robert identified themselves as police officers and arrested appellant. She was charged under § 43.02(a)(1), Tex.Penal Code Ann. (Vernon Supp.1981), with offering to engage in sexual conduct for a fee, enhanced to a Class A misdemeanor under § 43.02(c), Tex.Penal Code Ann. (Vernon Supp.1981), because of a prior prostitution conviction. The jury convicted appellant and assessed the maximum punishment. After sentencing, she perfected her appeal to this court with five grounds of error.

Appellant’s grounds, in the order of her presentation and our consideration are that the trial court erred in (1) refusing to conclude that she was entrapped as a matter of law; (2) granting a motion in limine that improperly restricted her voir dire examination; (3) excusing a prospective juror for cause; (4) admitting testimony, at the guilt or innocence phase of the trial, on the punishment appellant received in her prior prostitution conviction; and (5) denying a mistrial after a State’s witness interjected an extraneous offense.

The entrapment defense 2 advanced by appellant is permitted under § 8.06(a), Tex.Penal Code Ann. (Vernon 1974), which states:

(a) It is a defense to prosecution that the actor engaged in the conduct charged because he was induced to do so by a law enforcement agent using persuasion or other means likely to cause persons to commit the offense. Conduct merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment.

Under U.S. Constitutional standards and Texas law, entrapment as a matter of law 3 occurs when the government representative implants the criminal design in the mind of the defendant and induces the commission of the crime in order to prosecute. United States v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423, 425, 93 S.Ct. 1637, 1639, 36 L.Ed.2d 366 (1973); Redman v. State, 533 S.W.2d 29, 32 (Tex.Cr.App.1976). Our statute embodies the “objec *907 tive” test for determining entrapment, Norman v. State, 588 S.W.2d 340, 346 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), whereby we consider only the nature of the police activity involved, without regard to the criminal tendencies of the defendant. 4

When the objective test is applied to the evidence in this ease, it is apparent that the appellant was not entrapped as a matter of law. The crime in question is committed when a person offers to engage in sexual conduct for a fee. There is evidence that the officers, posing as men out for an evening on the town, simply stated a general desire for sex and appellant then offered sex for a price. The officers’ activity falls far short of implanting the criminal design in appellant’s mind or inducing her to commit the crime. See Redman v. State, 533 S.W.2d 29 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Bolick v. State, 165 Tex.Cr.R. 493, 309 S.W.2d 74 (1958); Dabney v. State, 159 Tex.Cr.R. 494, 265 S.W.2d 603 (1954). Although there is also evidence that an officer made a direct overture to appellant and first mentioned money, and assuming arguendo that uncon-troverted evidence of a direct overture could be entrapment as a matter of law, the evidence to the contrary creates a fact question. Thus, the trial court correctly submitted the matter to the jury. By finding appellant guilty the jury resolved the question against appellant and we cannot disturb that implied finding. Ground of error one is overruled.

In her second ground of error, appellant states that her voir dire examination was improperly restricted by the court when it granted a motion in limine presented by the State. The denying or granting of a motion in limine, standing alone, cannot create reversible error. Romo v. State, 577 S.W.2d 251, 252 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). The specific activity to which the motion is directed must actually be attempted and either permitted or prohibited by the court, and a proper record thereof made, before there is anything for the appellate court to review. In this case we have searched the record and do not find any restriction on appellant’s voir dire examination in the area that was the subject of the motion, nor has appellant referred us to such material in the record. Thus, no error is demonstrated. Ground of error two is overruled.

By her third ground of error, appellant contends a member of the jury panel was erroneously excused after the State had improperly committed her to the specific fact situation that existed in this case.

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Bluebook (online)
630 S.W.2d 904, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ransom-v-state-texapp-1982.