State v. Gonzales

638 S.W.2d 841, 1982 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 452
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 28, 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 638 S.W.2d 841 (State v. Gonzales) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gonzales, 638 S.W.2d 841, 1982 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 452 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION

TATUM, Judge.

The appellant, Virginia Gonzales, appeals from a perjury conviction for which she was sentenced to a term of not less than 1 year nor more than 3 years in the State penitentiary. On this appeal, the appellant attacks the sufficiency of the evidence, alleges that the action of the grand jury in returning its presentment was irregular due to the presence of the District Attorney General in the grand, jury room, alleges that the trial [843]*843judge permitted the violation of the witness sequestration rule, and alleges that the trial judge abused his discretion in denying probation. After reviewing the record, we have concluded that the judgment of conviction must be affirmed.

The appellant was convicted of giving false testimony to the Sumner County grand jury in October, 1979. The false testimony of the appellant resulted in the grand jury returning a presentment against Robert Joslin and his wife, Peggy N. Joslin, charging them with the crime of arson.

The foreman and a member of the grand jury that returned the arson presentment against Mr. and Mrs. Joslin were witnesses for the State. They testified that the appellant appeared before the Sumner County grand jury on October 10, 1979, and, after being duly sworn,'testified in substance as follows:

She stated that she was formerly employed by the Valley Hardware Store in Sumner County. The owner, Mr. Robert Joslin, offered to pay her one-third of the insurance proceeds on the hardware store building if she would set the building on fire. She testified to the grand jury that Mr. Joslin told her that all preparations for ignition would be made for her and that all she had to do was to plug in an electric fan. She testified that Joslin had instructed her that after a delay sufficient for her to leave the building, the plugging in of the fan would ignite the building. She testified that Mrs. Joslin telephoned her before the fire and thanked her for her cooperation in burning the building. The appellant further told the grand jury that she entered the building and plugged in the fan as instructed. However, the fire started immediately and she was severely burned before she could leave the building.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Joslin testified at the appellant’s trial that they were awakened the night of August 23, 1979, and learned that the store building was on fire. The appellant had been working for Mr. Joslin for about 6 months as a “computer in-put operator and later as a bookkeeper. Mr. Joslin testified that money was being stolen from his store and that he had started an audit about 7 days before the fire. Both Mr. and Mrs. Joslin denied procuring the appellant to start the fire or of having any knowledge that the building was to be burned.

Gary Chappell and J. K. Parrish, fire investigators, testified that they interviewed the appellant sometime after the fire. At the time of the interview, they had no doubt that the appellant was in the building when the fire was started as she was hospitalized with severe burns and the company truck which she was using was seen parked at the hardware store on the night of the fire. However, the investigators thought that other persons were also involved and suggested to the appellant that she might be given immunity, on condition that she testify truthfully. The appellant gave Chappell and Parrish a detailed statement, the substance of which was the same as the evidence she gave to the grand jury.

Further investigation revealed several facts inconsistent with the initial statement given by the appellant to the investigators and to the grand jury. On the evening before Mr. and Mrs. Joslin were scheduled to be tried for arson, Chappell and Parrish met with the appellant and prosecuting officials in preparation for trial. When the appellant was confronted with the fact that the electric fan was too far from the recep-ticle to plug in without an extension cord and that no remnants of an extension cord were found, the appellant changed her version of the events by saying that she ignited the fire with a match.

After conducting further investigation, the night before the Joslins were to be tried, Chappell and Parrish telephoned the appellant and confronted her with other facts inconsistent with her previous version. At this time, the appellant told the investigators that Mr. Joslin did not know that the store was going to be burned on the night [844]*844of August 23, 1979. She told them that though Joslin had planned to burn the building, she took it upon herself to do it that night.

The next morning, before court convened, the investigators and prosecutors had another conference with the appellant. On this occasion, she told them that Mr. and Mrs. Joslin had nothing to do with starting the fire. She said that she had ordered the accelerants without Joslin’s knowledge and that Joslin did not know she was going to burn the store. She told them that she poured 10 gallons of lighter fluid and 2 gallons of paint thinner on the floor before igniting it with matches. When the accel-erants were ignited, “the place blew up,” caught fire, and the appellant was severely burned about the head and arms.

When court convened to begin the trial of Mr. and Mrs. Joslin, their case was dismissed on motion of the District Attorney General.

The appellant contends in Issue numbers 1 and 3 that her conviction cannot stand because there is no proof in the record showing which of two contradictory statements made by her were false. Her argument is that the State failed to show that her sworn testimony to the grand jury was false and not the unsworn statements that she gave to the investigators. She relies upon Paytes v. State, 137 Tenn. 129, 191 S.W. 975 (1916), a case decided prior to the enactment of T.C.A. § 39-3303. In the Paytes case, the defendant had testified to a grand jury that he had bought whiskey from a certain person and during the trial of that person, Paytes testified that he did not buy whiskey from him. No evidence was introduced to show which of the two accounts were false. The Supreme Court held that when contradictory testimony is established, the State must show which is false by some corroboration, “such as the oath of one witness or circumstances tending fairly to show the truth of the version relied upon to establish that the oath to the opposite was false.”

In the case sub judice, the truth of the appellant’s grand jury testimony is refuted by the testimony of both Mr. and Mrs. Joslin and also by the circumstances described by the investigators which are inconsistent with the facts given by the appellant to the grand jury. The appellant insists that the testimony of Mr. and Mrs. Joslin cannot be considered under the circumstances of this case. We disagree; in all cases the issue of credibility of witnesses is primarily that of the trier of fact, i.e., the jury. Houston v. State, 593 S.W.2d 267 (Tenn.1980).

The evidence that appellant’s testimony before the grand jury violated T.C.A. § 39-3301 is overwhelming; it is not disputed by defense evidence. The evidence of guilt more than meets the standard required by Rule 13(e), T.R.A.P. Issues 1 and 3 are without merit.

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Bluebook (online)
638 S.W.2d 841, 1982 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gonzales-tenncrimapp-1982.