Borski v. State, 24549

• Decision Date: 21 December 1949
• Docket Number: No. 24549,24549
• Citation: Borski v. State, 225 S.W.2d 180, 154 Tex.Crim. 84 (Tex. Crim. App. 1949)
• Parties: BORSKI v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 180

225 S.W.2d 180

154 Tex.Crim. 84

BORSKI v. STATE.

No. 24549.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Dec. 21, 1949.

Leo Darley, Uvalde, for appellant.

George P. Blackburn, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.

KRUEGER, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of the offense of bigamy, and his punishment was assessed at confinement in the state penitentiary for a period of two years.

Appellant's first complaint relates to the court's action in declining to sustain his motion to quash the indictment. The first count of the indictment upon which the court submitted the case to the jury seems to have been drawn in the language of Art. 490, Vernon's Ann. P. C. Moreover this count is in conformity with Wilson's Texas Criminal Forms and is deemed sufficient to charge the offense. Consequently the conviction rests on the first count of the indictment which charged that on or about the 22nd day of November, 1948, he, the said Steve Borski, did in the State of Coahuila, in the Republic of Mexico, unlawfully marry Violet Tracy; that at said time the said Steve Borski had a former wife, to-wit: Merle Marjorie Goebels Borski, then and there living; that thereafter, on the 24th day of November, 1949, the said Steve Borski and the said Violet Tracy lived and cohabitated together as man and wife in Uvalde County, Texas.

Does the state's evidence support and sustain the allegations? We do not think so. The state offered no documentory evidence showing that a marriage was performed in Mexico. There is, however, a document in the Spanish language brought forward as an exhibit which is not accompanied by a translation thereof into the English language, nor is there any evidence to show what it purports to be, neither does it appear to have been properly authenticated as provided by 28 U.S.C.A. § 1741. Therefore, we cannot consider the same.

Violet Tracy, with whom the alleged bigamous marriage with appellant was charged to have been performed, testified, in substance, as follows: 'On the night of November 22, 1948, I met Steve in a beer joint known as Red's Place where we drank some beer. From Red's Place we went to Shadowland and drank some more beer, and Steve acted like he was intoxicated. From there we went to Del Rio and then into Mexico. We went to a cafe where we talked to some one about getting married and he said he could take us to a man that marries people. We went to a house, I really do not have any idea whether the man we went to see had any...