Salinas v. State

625 S.W.2d 397, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4382
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 18, 1981
Docket04-81-00015-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 625 S.W.2d 397 (Salinas 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
Salinas v. State, 625 S.W.2d 397, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4382 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

OPINION

CANTU, Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for the possession of a controlled substance, heroin. Punishment was assessed at 50 years by a jury upon an indictment alleging *399 an enhancement count under the provisions of Tex. Penal Code § 12.42(b). The sufficiency of the evidence is not challenged.

Appellant initially complains about the trial court’s permitting the State’s prosecutor to inform the jury venire, during jury selection, about the punishment applicable to one charged as a habitual offender. Appellant was originally indicted as a habitual offender under Tex. Penal Code § 12.42(d).

During general remarks to the jury ve-nire the State’s prosecutor sought to inform the prospective jurors about the punishment applicable to subsequent offenders under Texas law. Appellant objected to having the enhancement counts revealed to the venire prior to the guilt/innocence phase and further objected to any reading of the enhancement counts in the indictment.

The trial court overruled the objection and the prosecutor, without directly referring to appellant’s case, proceeded to inform the venire of the law applicable generally to repeat offenders and habitual offenders under Tex. Penal Code § 12.42.

The trial court then proceeded, over objection, to personally explain the mechanics of the Texas recidivist laws to the venire, including an explanation about the automatic aspects of the habitual portion of § 12.42.

Only one of the enhancement counts was ultimately submitted to the jury, the middle count being eliminated by the trial court. Thus, appellant’s punishment was set by the jury with instructions permitting punishment only as a repeat offender. Appellant’s objection was sufficiently preserved for our review.

Appellant relies upon the holding in Bevill v. State, 573 S.W.2d 781 (Tex.Cr.App. 1978) for reversal.

In Bevill v. State, supra, our Court of Criminal Appeals held that both the State and the defendant, in cases where the jury is called upon to assess punishment, have a right to qualify the jury on the full range of punishment. In effect, the Court held that in cases where an accused is charged as a repeat offender, facing punishment by a jury, guided by a prescribed penalty range, both the State and defense have a right to qualify the jury on the full range of punishment.

In cases where the accused is charged as a habitual offender, under Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.42(d), no perceivable reason was noted by the Court for allowing the prosecutor or defense attorney to inform the prospective jurors of the automatic imposition of punishment at life imprisonment upon a finding that both enhancement paragraphs were true.

In the instant case, the jury was charged on the law applicable to repeat offenders, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.42(b), and not as to habitual offenders, Id., § 12.42(d). Therefore, the imposition of punishment by the jury was not bridled by the knowledge that appellant’s punishment was set by law automatically at any particular term of years.

In addition, the remarks of the prosecutor during voir dire amounted to nothing more than a general statement of the law applicable to punishment of subsequent offenders.

While we recognize the impropriety of the court in permitting the prosecutor to comment on the habitual aspect of the possible punishment and particularly the trial court’s own interjection, we do not consider it to be reversible error, in view of events which transpired subsequently and to which we now draw our attention.

In submitting its charge to the jury on punishment, the trial court authorized punishment only within the range of punishment prescribed in Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.42(b).

Additionally, the trial court, in its charge to the jury on punishment, instructed them that the second count of the indictment alleged for enhancement had been withdrawn from their consideration and that they should not consider it for any purpose.

We think that the error, if any, was rendered harmless by the withdrawal from the jury of the second count of the indictment.

*400 But even if we are to concede that appellant suffered error during voir dire examination, we would not be justified in ordering a reversal in view of an incident occurring during the State’s case in chief to which we now refer.

During the direct examination of police officer Edward C. Guerra, and in answer to a question by the prosecutor, the witness replied unresponsively to the question asked, but volunteered the information that appellant and his eodefendant had been arrested hundreds of times.

The jury was withdrawn and appellant requested a mistrial. The trial court immediately responded to the motion, granted a mistrial 1 , and asked for a new jury panel.

Counsel for appellant sought a conference with appellant regarding the requested mistrial and immediately urged the trial court to rescind the granting of the mistrial. Appellant personally consented to the withdrawal of the mistrial and simply sought an admonishment of the witness and a ruling of the court on the admissibility of the remark.

An offer to instruct the jury was rejected by appellant, who was apparently satisfied to proceed with the trial from that juncture.

The error giving rise to the granting of the mistrial was a comment upon the criminal record of appellant and was highly prejudicial as recognized by the trial court’s instantaneous response to the motion.

The error complained of during voir dire examination was of a similar nature, touching upon appellant’s prior criminal history, although perhaps not as prejudicial.

By refusing the mistrial we are satisfied that appellant preferred to continue the trial with the same jury and under limited curative relief. An election to proceed to trial after withdrawing a motion for mistrial amounts to a waiver by appellant of any claim of prejudice from the incident thereafter, either on appeal, on motion for new trial, or otherwise. Cardenas v. Superior Court, 14 Cal.Rptr. 657, 363 P.2d 889 (1961); People v. Keagle, 7 Ill.2d 408, 131 N.E.2d 74 (1956); State v.

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Bluebook (online)
625 S.W.2d 397, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4382, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salinas-v-state-texapp-1981.