Simmons v. State

629 S.W.2d 38, 1982 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 871
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 17, 1982
Docket60819, 60820
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 629 S.W.2d 38 (Simmons 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
Simmons v. State, 629 S.W.2d 38, 1982 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 871 (Tex. 1982).

Opinions

OPINION

CLINTON, Judge.

Before us are two appeals from convictions for attempted capital murder obtained in a single trial proceeding before a jury. The punishment assessed in each case is 60 years confinement.

The evidence adduced reflects that appellant successively stabbed two Houston police officers as they attempted to persuade him to leave Goofy’s Game Room where the officers were working security at approximately 3:20 a. m. on November 20, 1977. The sufficiency of the evidence is not challenged.

Initially, we confront a matter which must be addressed in the interest of justice. See Article 40.09(13), V.A.C.C.P. The record in Cause No. 60,819 reveals the filing of an indictment against appellant for the attempted capital murder of Officer Glen E. Hutto, on December 5,1977. However, the record before us in Cause No. 60,8201 reflects only a felony information, filed on July 1, 1978, alleging appellant attempted to murder Officer Karl P. Hibchen. Further, a search of the record in this latter cause has not produced a written waiver of indictment personally executed by appellant; neither is there indicia from any other source that appellant, in open court, orally waived his right to be charged with a felony offense by statement of a grand jury in the form of an indictment.

This being the case, the information on which the prosecution was based in Cause No. 60,820, is a nullity. See Article 1.141, V.A.C.C.P.; Lackey v. State, 574 S.W.2d 97 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); and King v. State, 473 S.W.2d 43 (Tex.Cr.App.1971). Absent the filing of an indictment or a valid felony information, the trial court had no jurisdiction over the person of the accused in Cause No. 60,820. Garcia v. Dial, 596 S.W.2d 524 (Tex.Cr.App.1980). Thus, the trial court was without jurisdiction to try appellant in that cause and the judgment of conviction is void. Id.

Accordingly, the judgment of conviction in trial court Cause No. 282,611 (our Cause No. 60,820) will be set aside.

By his first ground of error in Cause No. 60,819 appellant contends that the trial court committed fundamental error by consolidating this cause with Cause No. 60,820 for trial in a single proceeding. This contention is bottomed on the fact that there exists no statutory authority for such a consolidation in view of the rules governing consolidation and joinder of prosecutions set forth in V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 3.01, et seq.

Appellant argues that the two indictments2 were not subject to consolidation for two reasons: (1) the offense of attempt is proscribed in Title 4 of the Penal Code, and thus not subject to the application of § 3.02, supra, for the reason that it [40]*40is not defined in Title 7 of the Penal Code,3 and (2) even if the attempt offenses alleged had been subject to consolidation, the State’s failure to comply with the notice provision of § 3.02(b),4 supra, made the consolidation provision of § 3.02(a) inapplicable.

While we agree with appellant’s argument that there exists no authority whatever for the consolidation of two attempt accusations, see Caughorn v. State, 549 S.W.2d 196 (Tex.Cr.App.1977), we note that appellant makes no suggestion that the consolidation somehow deprived the district court of jurisdiction of the causes. See Garcia v. Dial, supra. Further, the record reflects no objection made to this procedure; neither did appellant move for a severance of the causes. Under V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 3.04(a), the accused has an unqualified right to a severance should he assert it. Waythe v. State, 533 S.W.2d 802 (Tex.Cr.App.1976). And we note that in the instant cases there might well have been important defensive tactical reasons for having the causes tried together. Thus, we are constrained to hold that nothing is presented for review. See Watson v. State, 488 S.W.2d 816 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); and Jones v. State, 480 S.W.2d 623 (Tex.Cr.App.1972).

Appellant’s first ground of error is overruled.

In his second ground of error, appellant contends that the trial court committed reversible error by allowing Michael Simon, a jail inmate, to testify upon rebuttal, to conversations had with appellant while both were in police custody, in violation of Article 38.22, V.A.C.C.P. Specifically, appellate counsel points to the fact that Simon attributed to appellant an admission that the latter had gone to Goofy’s Game Room on the night of the offense to sell drugs. Counsel argues that this admission of an extraneous offense was so “obviously inadmissible” that the offer of it by the State amounted to prosecutorial misconduct which deprived appellant of a fair trial, and required intercession by the trial court, citing Ruth v. State, 522 S.W.2d 517 (Tex.Cr.App.1975).

It is true that this Court has steadfastly interpreted Article 38.22, supra, and its predecessors to prohibit, as a matter of State statutory law, the admission of statements (whether confessions or not) such as the one attributed to appellant here, whether offered on direct or in rebuttal to a defendant’s testimony. See Butler v. State, 493 S.W.2d 190 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); see also 10 Texas Tech.L.Rev. 67 (1978). However, in the instant case, appellant did not object whatever to any part of Simon’s testimony.

Furthermore, we believe appellant’s reliance on Ruth, supra, is misplaced. In that case, the evidence of malice and intent to kill was characterized as “extremely weak” and the prosecutor sought, by use of the accused’s inadmissible juvenile record, to portray him as a violent person upon his cross examination. Even there, the defense voiced some objections to the prosecutor’s conduct. We cannot agree that the prosecutor’s calling Simon to the stand in rebuttal in the instant case was so calculated to prejudice appellant’s right to a fair trial that a duty devolved upon the trial court to interrupt the proceedings in spite of appellant’s apparent acquiescence. See Zillender v. State, 557 S.W.2d 515 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).

Appellant’s second ground of error is overruled.

By his third ground of error, appellant asserts that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel during the trial of the [41]*41instant cause. Specifically, appellant points to the failure of counsel to object to the testimony of Michael Simon, treated in the preceding ground of error, and to the fact that, though counsel attempted to raise the defense of insanity at the time of the offense, he failed to do so through the testimony of Dr. Duard Bok, the defense’s expert psychiatric witness.

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629 S.W.2d 38, 1982 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 871, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simmons-v-state-texcrimapp-1982.