Vasquez v. State

371 S.W.2d 389, 1963 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 977
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 20, 1963
Docket35443
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 371 S.W.2d 389 (Vasquez 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
Vasquez v. State, 371 S.W.2d 389, 1963 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 977 (Tex. 1963).

Opinions

McDonald, judge.

The offense is murder with malice; the punishment, confinement in the penitentiary for twenty years.

It is undisputed that on April 15, 1961, the appellant stabbed the deceased, Roger Alvarado, with a knife, and that Alvarado died as a result of those wounds.

The homicide was the termination of a series of minor fights and “fracases” between appellant and the deceased. Both parties were only sixteen years of age at the time of the offense and had been involved in three separate “bits of trouble” prior to the homicide. Appellant testified that the fight at school had begun by deceased coming up behind him and hitting him in the back; that it had stopped when a teacher approached; that after school that day he was walking home when deceased caught up with him and began the [391]*391fight anew. Raymond Contraías testified that he came upon this fight after it had started and that it appeared the deceased was the most angry and was pushing the fight. This affray ended when a neighbor threatened to call the police. Following this, several of deceased’s friends and members of the same “gang,” the “Road Devils,” saw appellant walking along, and chased him. The deceased came up and they tried to get him and the appellant to fight but both refused. Then three weeks to a month before the homicide (one witness testified that it was the night preceding the homicide), appellant was at a dance when Rosendo Cruz and Roger tried to start a fight with him but he refused to fight.

The state’s evidence showed that on the night of the homicide the appellant had been walking around a carnival for some time, when he met Sylvia Hernandez, a girl with whom the deceased had been going “steady.” The two went on several rides, bought some popcorn, and were standing around talking, when the deceased, accompanied by Rosendo Cruz, came up. They talked for a minute; then the three boys left for the edge of the carnival grounds. Stopping behind a truck and an elephant ride, in a dimly lighted area, the two (appellant and deceased) faced each other.

Rosendo testified that the appellant then pulled out a “big knife” and tried to cut the deceased; that Roger (deceased) then picked up a stick from the ground and tried to defend himself; that appellant lunged again, and then fell; and that “Then he got up again and he went where Roger was again and he stuck the knife in him.” Rosendo then saw appellant turn and run, and he (Rosendo) ran for help.

The sheriff and a Texas Ranger were called to the scene and found a crowd of people gathered around the boy’s body. The appellant was there, held by Arturo Rodriguez. After being told that appellant was the one who did the stabbing, the two law-enforcement officers took him into custody and led him from the grounds.

The evidence reflects that they took him first to the hospital, where he was checked for injury, and then to the courthouse, where he gave two statements to the district attorney, admitting that he had stabbed the deceased. In the first statement he said he had thrown the knife away. It was later discovered that the appellant had walked about fifty feet from the scene of the crime and had given the knife to some friends before returning and surrendering himself. These facts were incorporated in the second statement. The knife was recovered and positively indenti-fied as the murder weapon.

The appellant’s version is considerably different from that developed by the state. He said that the deceased came up to him and said, “Let’s go outside.” Appellant asked, “What for ?” and then told deceased to wait a minute, that he would be right back. But deceased persisted, so appellant said, “Okay, let’s go.” Upon arriving at the scene of the fight, he testified, Rosendo reached under his coat and pulled out something. Appellant then pulled out a knife, which he had previously borrowed from a friend, and stood his ground. He testified that the deceased then hit him on the forehead with a weighted “cue stick” (apparently passed by Rosendo to the deceased). He further testified:

“Well, it sort of shook me up a little and then he was going to make another pass at me and that is when I sort of made a pass at him, so he wouldn’t be too ambitious * * * and after he made another pass, I just ran, I didn’t run, I moved forward like that and just sort of went with the knife like that. I didn’t know I had stabbed him then but afterward I knew that I had stabbed him.”

Several defense witnesses testified to seeing the fight, or parts of it, and that they saw the club used, and that the deceased had struck the first blows. One witness testified to hearing a sound which could have been produced by a blow from a club or a fist, at the time of the fight.

[392]*392Alejandro Alvarado, one of these witnesses, testified that he had seen the same club in the hands of Pete Compás, another “Road Devil,” earlier. And at the time of the fight, he testified, he had seen the club pass from Rosendo Cruz to the deceased. The witness further testified that after the fight:

“Then I didn’t see who picked up the stick, but after that they wanted to give it to me.”

The testimony continued:

[“Q Who wanted to give it to you ?] A. Lydia Rodriguez.
[“Q Did she say anything?] A. Yes, she said, ‘Lets give it to Polly,’ that is me.
[“Q All right, then what happened?] A. Then Tony Rodriguez said, ‘Don’t give it to him because if the policemen come they’re going to search him and find the stick on him, they’re going to find the stick on him.
[“Q All right, so did Lydia keep the stick?] A. Yes.
* * * * * *
“A. She sticked it under her coat.”

The appellant introduced a facsimile of the stock into evidence. None of the state’s witnesses could remember seeing the club around the scene after the fight, and Lydia Rodriguez specifically denied that the transaction had occurred.

Much of the testimony was directed at determining who was at the scene of the fight and who saw it. The testimony varied from Rosendo Cruz’s that he was the only witness, to that of Alejandro’s that there were about fifteen boys pushing Roger and Esteban into the fight.

The conflicts in the testimony were resolved against the appellant, and we find the evidence sufficient to support the conviction.

Appellant has raised some eighteen points of error, all of which have been carefully reviewed. We need discuss only five of these.

Appellant first complains of the admission of certain statements made by him at the scene of the crime and shortly after being taken away by the sheriff. We need not determine whether these were admissible res gestae statements or not, or whether they were made while under arrest, since the same remarks were testified to by Ranger Zeno Smith, without objection. Davis v. State, 168 Tex.Cr.R. 588, 330 S.W.2d 443.

Error is next assigned for the failure of the court to require the district attorney to produce any written statements made by Rosendo Cruz for the purpose of cross-examination. However, nowhere in the record is it shown that the witness gave any written statement, and therefore there can be no error.

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McGinn v. State
961 S.W.2d 161 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1998)
Taylor v. State
470 S.W.2d 693 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1971)
Brown v. State
464 S.W.2d 134 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1971)
Fennell v. State
460 S.W.2d 417 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1970)
Vasquez v. State
371 S.W.2d 389 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
371 S.W.2d 389, 1963 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 977, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vasquez-v-state-texcrimapp-1963.