Adrian v. State
| Decision Date | 17 October 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 57088,No. 1,57088,1 |
| Citation | 587 S.W.2d 733 |
| Parties | Kenneth Walter ADRIAN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Richard W. Crews, Jr., Corpus Christi, for appellant.
William B. Mobley, Jr., Dist. Atty. and Eric G. Brown, Asst. Dist. Atty., Corpus Christi, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
Before ONION, P. J., and ROBERTS and W. C. DAVIS, JJ.
This is an appeal from a conviction of arson pursuant to V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 28.02. Punishment was assessed at three years.
Appellant's sole ground of error on appeal is that the evidence is insufficient to support the judgment of conviction in that the State failed to establish the corpus delicti of arson, independent of appellant's confession. We agree.
The State introduced eight witnesses in its case-in-chief. Iva Carpenter testified that on the afternoon of May 12, 1975, Richard Gaston told her, in the appellant's presence, that he would be gone that night fishing and asked if she would keep an eye on his wife and child. Carpenter testified that at approximately 1:30 a. m. that night, she was awakened by the sound of the appellant's door slamming. At 2:00 a. m., she got out of bed and discovered a ball of fire over the Gaston's trailer. Carpenter said she had been restless and uneasy because of two other fires in the trailer park within the last two months.
Carpenter and her husband were fighting the fire when she saw the appellant enter the burning trailer. She did not see him leave, but shortly thereafter saw him in the crowd, smoking a cigarette. About an hour after the fire was out, ambulance attendants arrived, saying they had received a call from a man who had been overcome by smoke. They went to the appellant's trailer where they found him standing at his desk beating on his chest, hollering, "Nobody cares anything about me, they're just going to let me die."
Carpenter's son-in-law, William Bender, next testified that he was the owner of the damaged trailer and that he had not given anyone permission to burn it.
Janis Gaston testified that she and her son were in the trailer asleep when she awoke and smelled smoke. Shortly thereafter, she heard Iva Carpenter screaming for her. She further testified that the fire appeared to have been started in the garage below the trailer.
Richard Gaston testified that the trailer was on fire when he arrived home. The appellant was standing by the garage door and helped Gaston pull a jeep out of the garage.
A neighbor testified that she had seen the appellant in the crowd, "leering."
Sometime after the fire, a pair of blue jean cut-offs, believed to belong to the appellant, were found on a clothes line.
The last three witnesses for the State testified concerning the confession of the appellant.
The appellant's confession was admitted into evidence. It stated in pertinent part:
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Thomas v. State
...evidence which tended to establish that the fire was incendiary or which corroborated the defendant's statements); Adrian v. State, 587 S.W.2d 733, 735 (Tex.Crim.App.1979) (holding that the state failed to prove the corpus delicti of arson in that there was no evidence to corroborate the ap......
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Troncosa v. State
...is universally recognized that an extra-judicial confession alone is not sufficient to establish the corpus delicti. Adrian v. State, 587 S.W.2d 733, 734 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Duncan v. State, 109 Tex.Cr.R. 668, 7 S.W.2d 79 (1928). But proof of the corpus delicti need not be made independent o......
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Davis v. State, 07-81-0008-CR
...than the appellant who had set the laundry room fire was, if reasonable, excluded by the evidence. Appellant refers to Adrian v. State, 587 S.W.2d 733 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Bussey v. State, 474 S.W.2d 708 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); and Duncan v. State, 109 Tex.Crim. 668, 7 S.W.2d 79 (1929), as arson c......
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Faulk v. State
...no effort to negate the possibility that the fire started from some cause other than being designedly set. Likewise, in Adrian v. State, 587 S.W.2d 733 (Tex.Cr.App.), we found the evidence insufficient to support the arson conviction when apart from the defendant's confession, there was no ......
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Offenses against property
...the State to establish that someone started the fire. A confession alone is not sufficient to prove this requirement. Adrian v. State , 587 S.W.2d 733 (Tex.Crim.App. 1979). §8:60 Attempted Arson The attempt statute only requires an act tending to effect the commission of an offense. Pouring......
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Table of cases
...S.W.2d 210 (Tex. Crim. App. 1993) 3:10 Addington v. State 730 S.W.2d 788 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 1987, pet. ref’d) 11:870 Adrian v. State 587 S.W.2d 733 (Tex. Crim. App. [Panel Op.] 1979) 8:41 Aguilar v. State 682 S.W.2d 556 (Tex. Crim. App. 1985) 8:495 Aguirre v. State 22 S.W.3d 463 (Tex. Cri......