Van Sickle v. State

634 S.W.2d 946, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4669
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 9, 1982
DocketNo. 2-81-109-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 634 S.W.2d 946 (Van Sickle 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
Van Sickle v. State, 634 S.W.2d 946, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4669 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION

HUGHES, Justice.

Archie Weldon Van Sickle, who was convicted of murder and assessed punishment at life imprisonment in the Texas Department of Corrections, has appealed.

We affirm.

Testimony in this case reflects that Mark Slocum was found inside his store on the morning of April 24, 1979. He was dead from 40 ice pick stab wounds in his head and body. Three of the wounds pierced his heart.

Inez Slocum, widow of the victim, last saw him alive at 9:10 a.m., April 24, 1979, when he was waiting on a customer at their convenience store in the country close to Rendon, Texas.

At or about 9:45 a.m. the same day Carol Schwobel saw a large white man in dark [948]*948clothes (including a bulky jacket) chase a smaller white man in light clothes out of Slocum’s store. The large man caught the smaller man and carried him back into the store. She went to appellant’s store which was across the street from Slocum’s and found it locked. At that place she could see the large man making striking motions at something on the floor of Slocum’s store just inside the door. She could not say positively that the man was the same man she saw outside.

Ms. Schwobel also testified that she wrote down the license number of a red and white vehicle parked in front of Slocum’s store (CXZ-650). Also she wrote the number of a blue vehicle parked there. Thence, she drove down the road and told some Highway Department employees what had happened.

Another witness, Harry Clark, testified to arriving at Slocum’s store at about 9:45 a.m. and finding the door held shut by “the bloodiest hand ever seen”. He saw a red over white vehicle where he parked at the store. He also saw a man go from Slocum’s store to such vehicle carrying something. The man got into the vehicle and drove north on 1088. Mr. Clark then went back to Slocum’s store and found Slocum's body inside same.

Three people testified to seeing a white over red vehicle going south on 1088.

Two of the men were Sheriff’s deputies (Creed and Toy) who passed the vehicle bearing license number CXZ-650. They had received a radio transmission about the killing at 9:47 a.m.

The third man, also a Sheriff’s deputy (Lieutenant Sanders) saw the vehicle a few minutes later still headed south on 1088. He turned his automobile around and followed the vehicle to where it turned in a driveway of a house about .2 miles from Slocum’s store. This turned out to be a rent house of appellant. Lt. Sanders testified that he saw appellant leave the vehicle near the house. He carried an ice pick in his left hand and a shotgun in his right hand with two coats in his arms. As appellant reached the porch of the house, Lt. Sanders drew, his revolver and told him to stop and drop the gun. Appellant then threw down the gun and the other enumerated articles. He was nervous when arrested, perspiring considerably and breathing hard. His hands and clothes were stained with blood.

Lt. Sanders took possession of the items thrown on the ground by appellant. The point of the ice pick was broken off and its handle had damp blood on it. Later, during the autopsy of Slocum’s body, a piece of metal fell out of his skull. Dr. Irving Stone testified it was the broken tip of the ice pick. Of four tests made on the handle of the ice pick three showed the blood on it to match Mr. Slocum’s. Mr. Slocum had rare type A blood. Appellant had type 0 blood.

Blood tests were also run on the jackets. One, a tan jacket showed a match of Mr. Slocum’s blood in all eight tests performed on it. Three of the tests were also consistent with appellant’s blood. Sally Williams, a serologist who testified, said there was one drop of type 0 blood on the tan jacket and all the other stains were type A. In addition to the ice pick and the tan jacket, Ms. Williams testified that the appellant’s shirt had A-positive blood on it. She also testified that human blood was on appellant’s pants and boots and on two of the currency bills found in the tan jacket, but the blood could not be more specifically tested.

Appellant testified. He offered an alibi. He was hunting rabbits at the time of the murder. He testified that he was at the farm of China Lewis at 9:15 a.m. on the date of the killing. Mr. Lewis said appellant arrived at his farm between 9:25 a.m. and 9:28 a.m. This farm was 10 minutes away from Slocum’s store. He said he shot one rabbit with the one shotgun shell he carried hunting with him. The rabbit bled extensively. He took the rabbit with him when he left, putting its bloody carcass on a rag in his automobile. He threw it to a dog at the rent house.

Appellant further testified that he picked up the ice pick and the two coats from the [949]*949side of the highway. He had spied them while driving from Lewis’ farm and turned his vehicle around to pick them up. He thought the moistness on the ice pick handle was paint. He saw a $5.00 bill in the pocket of the tan coat. A pocket of the tan coat contained some paper money (some bloodstained), a pair of Slocum’s spectacles, and two shotgun shells. Two bank bags were wrapped in the coats. The bags contained money and notes from Sheri Tucker to Slocum. Blood speckled the door handle of appellant’s vehicle but no blood was found on the steering wheel. Appellant, at the time of his arrest, had what appeared to be blood on his hands and shirt. He rubbed his hands on his trousers constantly. Officer Lane testified that appellant had a cut on his ear that Lane described as a prick. Appellant said he cut his ear on a thorn and tried to stop the bleeding several times with his hands. He also said the blood soaking the mat in the floor of his pick-up was from his ear.

By Ground of Error Number Nine appellant insists that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict of guilty. We disagree. Witnesses for the State and the appellant gave widely divergent accounts of the events at Slocum’s store on the morning of April 24, 1979. The jury believed the State’s witnesses and so said by its verdict. Johnson v. State, 571 S.W.2d 170 (Tex.Cr.App.1978). Their verdict is understandable in the light of the testimony concerning the ice pick in appellant’s hand, the A-positive blood on his shirt, the Slocum’s bank envelopes with the bloodstained money in his possession and the red and white vehicle at the scene of the crime with his license number. Add the appellant’s unhappiness with losing customers to Mr. Slocum and motive appears. Evidence favorable to the verdict in this case sustains it. Ahearn v. State, 588 S.W.2d 327 (Tex.Cr.App.1979).

We overrule what appellant designates as his Ground of Error Number Nine.

The testimony of Gordon Rainey, put on in the State’s rebuttal, is the basis of Grounds of Error One through Five. In essense they state that such testimony was extraneous to the offense on trial, was remote, and the harm caused far outweighed any probative value. Appellant argues that Rainey should not have been permitted to testify that:

Ground One—Appellant conspired with him to burn down the Slocum’s store;

Ground Two—Appellant asked him to rob the Slocum’s store and blow it up with dynamite after it was rebuilt;

Ground Three—Appellant tried to get him to rob Slocum’s store and kill Herschel Tucker (Slocum’s grandson and manager of Slocum’s store);

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Bluebook (online)
634 S.W.2d 946, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 4669, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-sickle-v-state-texapp-1982.