Van Zandt v. State

932 S.W.2d 88, 1996 Tex. App. LEXIS 1269, 1996 WL 148735
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 28, 1996
Docket08-94-00385-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by202 cases

This text of 932 S.W.2d 88 (Van Zandt 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 Zandt v. State, 932 S.W.2d 88, 1996 Tex. App. LEXIS 1269, 1996 WL 148735 (Tex. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

BARAJAS, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for the offense of aggravated robbery — enhanced by the allegation of a prior felony conviction. The trial court assessed punishment at 45 years’ imprisonment in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and a $5,000 fine. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

I. SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE

At trial, the State utilized the testimony of Frances Parsons — the fifty-six-year-old victim. She related that she had an antique business and collected jewelry. She testified that on December 20, 1992, a Sunday, she was at her house on County Road in Midland County, Texas. She was packing for a trip and was deciding which jewelry to take on the trip and which jewelry she was going to put in her safety deposit box the next day. Earlier in the day at about 5 p.m., she thought she saw someone in her backyard. After looking out the window into the backyard, she satisfied herself that no one was there.

Just before 7 p.m. she was watering her yard. It began to rain and she went inside to watch a favorite television program. As she came in through the back door of the house, she saw an individual wearing a ski mask and holding a claw hammer. The victim thought the intruder was going to hit her on the head with the hammer. She testified that she grabbed for the hammer with one hand and attempted to gouge his eyes with the other hand. Her fingers slipped to the intruder’s mouth and as she thought the individual would bite her fingers, she pulled her hand away. As a result of this, the mask came off and she recognized Appellant. The victim related that she knew Appellant through his girlfriend. They met at a flea market during the summer of 1991. She testified that she had gone out to dinner with them and they had been to her house on a number of occasions for joint buying and selling endeavors. Appellant had done some hauling for her on various occasions.

A fight ensued between Appellant and the victim. She tried to gain control of the hammer and Appellant stated to her, “If you don’t turn loose of this goddamn hammer, I’m fixing to kill you.” Appellant kicked the victim and she was hit several times with the hammer causing blood to flow onto the carpet and a mirror. It was at that time that the victim gave up the fight. During the attack she called Appellant by name and asked him why he was doing this to her. At some time during the melee, Appellant responded that he was attacking her because she had wrongfully accused him of “doing things” which he had not done. Apparently, the victim had previously communicated these allegations to Appellant’s girlfriend. Appellant left the room and returned with a butcher’s knife. He tied up the victim and then tied her to a doorknob with Venetian blind cord. Appellant then left the room and returned with two blue velvet jewelry bags. These items came from her briefcase. The Appellant left and the victim untied herself and called her son-in-law and the police.

During the course of her testimony, the victim identified two blue velvet jewelry bags as being her property. Contained in these bags were safety pins with blue beads that *91 she recognized as safety pins she had at her house. She also identified a Bulova Accu-tron ™ watch with the inscription, “PFP, on 6-8-67” and “Love, Fran.” This was a watch she had given her husband for his birthday. She had kept this watch in her possession after he passed away.

Detective G.S. Holliday of the Houston Police Department testified that he arrested Appellant in Houston on December 22, 1992. Appellant requested that the arresting officers gather his property in his motel room. Holliday identified the two jewelry bags and the inscribed watch as items he found in Appellant’s motel room.

Charles Homer Cranford, a thrice-convicted federal felon, testified that he met Appellant while both were incarcerated in the Midland County Jail. He spent several hours with Appellant in the same cell. During a lengthy conversation, Appellant offered to sell him some jewelry. Appellant described several pieces of jewelry but Cranford was only interested in buying some large diamonds. While Cranford could not remember the description given of the pieces of jewelry, he related that the jewelry being offered was expensive. Appellant stated that his girlfriend in Odessa would show the items to Cranford’s wife. Appellant purported to call his girlfriend from the cell although Cranford only heard one end of the conversation.

Ed Krevit, a Midland County Sheriffs Officer testified that he and a Texas Ranger interviewed Cranford on December 31, 1992. He also related that he showed a photographic line-up to the victim on January 8, 1993.

The Appellant presented two witnesses in his defense. Susie Mae Foreman, a distant relative of Appellant, testified she resided in San Angelo, Texas. She stated that on the day of the offense Appellant was in San Angelo until approximately 5:30 p.m. During her cross-examination, she indicated she was unsure of the exact day he was there although she stated that she had made notes of the event.

Paul Vanzandt, Appellant’s brother, stated that in the summer of 1992, he saw Appellant in possession of some blue jewelry bags similar to those taken from the Appellant’s house. This occurred when their father had purchased the contents of a storage shed and blue jewelry bags were found in one of the boxes in the shed. The witness also testified that it was approximately 110 to 130 miles from Susie Foreman’s house to the center of Midland, Texas.

II. DISCUSSION

A Jury Argument

In Points of Error Nos. One, Two, and Three, Appellant asserts that counsel for the state violated Appellant’s due process rights by utilizing improper jury argument in that he commented upon Appellant’s courtroom demeanor and thereby commented upon Appellant’s failure to testify. During trial, when first asked to identify Appellant in the courtroom, the victim could not do so. She related that the Appellant was a clean-cut individual who usually wore levis, cowboy shirt, and boots. After a break, the victim was again asked to identify her assailant. She asked Appellant to remove his glasses and stand up. When he stood, she then identified Appellant and stated that he did not usually wear glasses and that she had never seen him wearing glasses. She also stated that she had never seen him wearing a suit and tie and that he, “looks a little different.” The victim testified that no one had suggested to her where to look in the courtroom in order to identify Appellant. Outside the presence of the jury, she related that she had not spoken to anyone other than the prosecutor at the break period.

During her re-direct examination, the victim stated the following concerning Appellant’s appearance in the courtroom:

Yeah, I looked at him a couple of times. But he was sitting over there, and his mouth is covered up. He has got glasses pulled down over his nose. He is slumped down in the chair reading the paper like he is a lawyer. And there was a close resemblance there, but I thought he was the lawyer.
But when he pulls his glasses off and he stands up, and I can see his face, and he *92

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
932 S.W.2d 88, 1996 Tex. App. LEXIS 1269, 1996 WL 148735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/van-zandt-v-state-texapp-1996.