Blake v. State

• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• Citation: Blake v. State, 365 S.W.2d 795 (Tex. Crim. App. 1963)
• Decision Date: 13 March 1963
• Docket Number: No. 35417,35417
• Parties: Leo W. BLAKE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

Page 795

365 S.W.2d 795

Leo W. BLAKE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 35417.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 13, 1963.

Stewart & White by Thomas D. White, Charles M. Leftwich, Houston, for appellant.

Frank Briscoe, Dist. Atty., Carl E. F. Dally and James S. Shatto, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

DICE, Commissioner.

The offense is embezzlement; the punishment, two years in the penitentiary.

The indictment charged that on or about the 15th day of March, 1961, the appellant did unlawfully and fraudulently embezzle $970 in money belonging to one B. J. Stahlman.

It was shown by the state's evidence that appellant was the manager of Cash-Way, Inc., a retail lumber business in the city of Houston. B. J. Stahlman, the injured party, was vice-president and general manager of the company and also president and general manager of Stahlman Lumber Company, which furnished materials to Cash-Way, Inc.

On March 29, 1961, it was brought to Stahlman's attention that a shortage had occurred in the Cash-Way company business around March 15 or 16. Upon investigation it was ascertained that there was a shortage of $970 in the company funds on March 15. The investigation also revealed that on such date a check in the amount $970 given the company by O. C. Meador for purchase of building materials had been deposited to the company account at the bank but no sales ticket was issued for the materials. The investigation further disclosed that other sales on such date totaled the exact amount of the check deposited but that the cash from those sales was not deposited in the bank.

Stahlman, the prosecuting witness, testified that after the shortage was discovered he contacted the appellant, who was out of the city, and requested that he return to Houston as soon as possible; that on March 29, appellant did return and reported to his office around 4 o'clock, p. m., at which time Jim Clegg, an attorney for the company, and Officers Carpenter and Schultea, of the sheriff's department, were present. Stahlman testified that he then proceeded, in the presence of the two officers and the attorney, to engage appellant in conversation relative to the shortage and that in the conversation appellant admitted he had been taking money from the company and that he took the money from the Meador check on March 15.

Following his admission of guilt, appellant was placed under arrest and taken to the sheriff's office, where he made and signed a written confession to Officer H. C. Carpenter, which was introduced in evidence by the state. In his confession appellant admitted taking money from the company from various checks and particularly the $970 Meador check.

Testifying as a...