Simpson v. State

507 S.W.2d 530, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1589
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 27, 1974
Docket47898
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 507 S.W.2d 530 (Simpson 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
Simpson v. State, 507 S.W.2d 530, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1589 (Tex. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

DAVIS, Commissioner.

Appeal is taken from a conviction for sale of marihuana. After the jury returned a verdict of guilty, punishment was assessed by the court at five years,

ihe sufficiency of the evidence is not challenged.

The record reflects that undercover agents of the Department of Public Safety purchased three hundred pounds of marihuana from appellant on March 5, 1971, in an orchard near McAllen.

At the outset, appellant contends the court erred in allowing the State during direct examination of its witness Imbert, a narcotics agent, to divulge the existence of a telephone conversation between the appellant and another person, in which said narcotics agent obtained knowledge by eavesdropping on an extension telephone in an adjoining room, without the consent of the sender or receiver, thereby intercepting the telephone conversation in violation of federal statutes which prohibit the interception and divulgence of the existence and contents of such conversation.

Officer Imbert was contacted on March 1, 1971, by an attorney representing one Clifton Sparks, who had a marihuana charge pending against him. Imbert agreed to meet with Sparks at a motel in Austin the next day. At that meeting it was agreed that Imbert and Sparks would go to an apartment in Austin the following day. Upon going with Sparks to the apartment of someone unknown to Imbert the next day, the narcotics agent posed as a buyer of marihuana from Dallas. While in the apartment, Sparks received a telephone call. Imbert asked another individual present, who had answered the phone, if there was an extension and if Imbert could use it. Imbert was given permission by this unidentified person to use an extension and the agent then listened in on the conversation.

Imbert stated after the telephone conversation in the apartment that he, other D.P. S. undercover agents and Sparks went to McAllen, where arrangements were made with appellant for the purchase of the marihuana.

*532 The testimony elicited from Imbert on direct examination, which gives rise to appellant’s contention, is as follows:

“Q. Now, what was the purpose of going there at that time, if anything? What was the purpose of going to the apartment about that time, if any?
“A. I was going to try to listen to the conversation between two individuals.
“MR. RAMSEY: Now, Your Honor, I object to this as going into hearsay, and obviously founded on hearsay, and I do object to any testimony about what purportedly the conversation was supposed to be about.
“THE COURT: The objection be sustained as to conversation, but I don’t think the objection is good as to the statement, Counsel.
“Q. (By Mr. Weaver) You were going to try to listen to a telephone conversation, is that right?
“A. That’s correct, sir.
“Q. All right, sir. Okay, after you got there what happened, if anything, after the introductions?
“A. I listened to a telephone conversation.”

It is noted that the objection to the telephone conversation was sustained and no evidence was offered by the State as to what Imbert overheard while listening on the extension telephone. Appellant recognizes this, but argues that the testimony of Imbert divulging the existence of a telephone conversation which he overheard on an extension telephone without the prior consent of either of the parties to the conversation was in violation of federal statutes and Article 38.23, Vernon’s Ann.C.C. P. 1 This was not the basis on which appellant voiced an objection in the trial court. As heretofore noted, appellant’s objection in the trial court was grounded on hearsay.

The appellant, not having objected to the complained of testimony in the trial court on the grounds he now urges, waived such objection, and error, if any, is not preserved for review. Gondek v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 491 S.W.2d 676; Rawlinson v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 487 S.W.2d 341; Salas v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 486 S.W.2d 956.

If it be appellant’s contention that he preserved error by his oral motion in limine, based on lack of proper predicate for introduction of evidence relative to the telephone conversation in question, it is noted that the court deferred ruling on the motion until the time such question might arise in trial and counsel for appellant stated, “I will interpose a proper objection at the time.” This court has held, even when the trial court has granted defendant’s motion in limine requesting exclusion of evidence, error is generally not preserved without proper objection being made during trial. Whatley v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 488 S.W.2d 422; Brazzell v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 481 S.W.2d 130.

Error, if any, is not preserved for review.

Appellant next contends the court erred in instructing the jury on the law of entrapment in light of the facts of this *533 case, in that the jury was instructed that in order to find entrapment, they must find that Sparks had as his motive for inducement the mere purpose of instituting a criminal prosecution against the appellant,

The instruction 2 given by the court reads as follows:

“You are instructed that ‘entrapment’ is the improper inducement of a person by an officer or agent of the State to commit a crime not contemplated by such person for the mere purpose of instituting a criminal prosecution against such person. Where the criminal intent originates in the mind of the officer or agent of the State and he induces a person to commit a crime which such person would not otherwise have committed except for such inducement this is entrapment; however, where the criminal intent originates in the mind of the accused, the fact that the officer or agent of the State furnishes the opportunity for or aids the accused in the commission of a crime is no defense to such prosecution.
“NOW, THEREFORE, if you find from the evidence, or if you have a reasonable doubt thereof, that on the occasion in question that CLIFFORD SPARKS was acting as an agent of the State and further, that the criminal design, if any, originated in the mind of CLIFFORD SPARKS, and that he induced the Defendant to commit the crime charged in the indictment, for the mere purpose of instituting a criminal prosecution against the Defendant, and that the Defendant had not contemplated the commission of said crime, if any, until such inducement, then you will find the Defendant not guilty.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
507 S.W.2d 530, 1974 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1589, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simpson-v-state-texcrimapp-1974.