Brown v. State

• Citation: 158 S.W. 533
• Parties: BROWN v. STATE.
• Decision Date: 18 June 1913
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

158 S.W. 533

BROWN v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

June 18, 1913.

Appeal from District Court, Jones County; Jno. B. Thomas, Judge.

Sam E. Brown alias R. L. Jones was convicted of forgery, and he appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Brooks & Brooks, of Anson, and T. S. Whiteley and C. P. Chastain, both of Hamlin, for appellant. C. E. Lane, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

DAVIDSON, P. J.

Appellant was charged by indictment with forgery.

The second count charges him with passing a forged instrument to O. C. Brown. In a general way, it appears from the evidence that appellant had been working for W. L. and E. B. Harrison during the spring of 1912, and had been paid by them checks on different occasions; that during the year 1912 appellant was in the town of Hamlin, Jones county, and went into the store of D. J. Payne in which O. C. Brown was the clerk. Appellant told Brown that he wanted to purchase a suit case and collar. Brown showed appellant a suit case and collar, and appellant told him he would take the articles, whereupon Brown took the suit case and collar to the cashier's stand, which was located in the rear of the building, and set it down in front of the cashier's stand. It is further shown that at this time appellant presented the check in question to O. C. Brown in payment of the goods; that the check was drawn in favor of R. L. Jones for the sum of $23.50, and indorsed on the back by R. L. Jones, and signed by Harrison Bros. Brown, who was clerk for Payne, testified he made out a ticket for the goods, which amounted to $4, and handed the ticket to the cashier of the Payne Mercantile Company. He cashed the check, taking out $4, handing appellant the remaining $19.50. After this transaction appellant left the store, and was next seen at Sweetwater, where he was arrested by Johnson, the city marshal. During the trial appellant took the stand in his own behalf, admitted buying the goods from Brown, and giving him the check, and the other facts attending the purchase of the goods. He also testified two or three days before the check was cashed that he was at the home of W. L. and E. B. Harrison; that he occupied a room with one of the Harrison boys, and saw a piece of paper on the floor in the room, picked it up, examined it, and found that it was a check. This was the check he gave subsequently to Brown. Appellant also testified the check was given for $23.50 to R. L. Jones signed by Harrison Bros., and indorsed on the back by R. L. Jones. He denied forging the check, or putting anything in the body or on the back of it. It is also shown two checks in the record were photographed, which were admitted by the two Harrisons to be genuine, and apparently bearing the same signature as the alleged forged check. The cashier of the First National Bank of Anson, after examining the two checks admitted to be genuine, and the alleged forged check, testified that in his opinion the same person signed all three checks. This is substantially the testimony, or a sufficient amount of it to dispose of the case.

Appellant testified in his own behalf. On cross-examination the district attorney was permitted to ask questions and elicit answers as follows: "Q. Where did you tell Mr. Johnson where you got the check, as to how you came by it? A. I didn't tell Mr. Johnson that I know of how I came by it. Q. Well, did you tell him that you found it? A. No, sir; I did not. Q. Did you tell him where Harrison Bros. lived? A. No, I don't remember that I did; no, sir. Q. Didn't you tell Mr. Johnson there that you wanted to go to Harrison to see if you could fix this thing? A. I don't remember it. Q. Didn't you want to call up Harrison Bros. to see what you could do about fixing this check then and there? A. I don't remember what I did ask him now. Q. Well, will you say yes or no to it? A. I will say no. Q. Will you say no, that you did not offer to, that you did not try to get Mr. Johnson to let you call up Harrison Bros. to straighten up this matter with them? A. I might have wanted to. I did want to pay it. Q. What did you want to do about it? A. I wanted to settle it off. Q. What did you tell Mr. Milsap about where you got this check? A. I did not tell him where I got the check. Q. Did you tell O. C. Brown that you found it? A. No, sir; I didn't. Q. What did you tell O. C. Brown about fixing or squaring the matter with Harrison Bros.?" Defendant objected to all these questions and answers, because it was an attempt upon the part of the state to get a confession before the jury that would not be a legal confession; and it is further recited as a fact that at the time these statements were made defendant was under arrest and in charge of an officer. These matters were not in writing, and this was urged as an objection. Defendant was not warned, and this was urged as an objection, and further that it was a pretense to lay a predicate to impeach defendant by illegal testimony and because said testimony was irrelevant, immaterial, and inadmissible for any purpose and highly prejudicial to the rights of defendant. These objections were all overruled and the testimony admitted, and the bill is signed without qualification.

Another bill recites that, after defendant had testified and denied making the statements to the deputy sheriff, the state was permitted to call him, and over objections the following matters occurred: "Q. Just tell what he said about the check. A. He did make this explanation; he wanted to see Harrison Bros. He wanted to straighten it up and he wanted to know if I would carry him by to see Harrison Bros. by the ranch as I came on bringing him to jail. Q. Did you see Harrison Bros.? A. No, sir; I did not. Q. Did he say anything about finding the check? A. No, sir; he didn't. He just talked continually. I could hardly tell all about paying the check, and he wanted to straighten it up and he wanted to see Harrison Bros., and he wanted to pay this difference, and he wanted to turn in the money, and go and get the suit case, and then go and see Harrison Bros. That he thought he could straighten it up with them, and he also said on the way down there that he was R. L. Jones; that is, from Hamlin down to the ranch. Mr. Bigby asked him the direct question, who R. L. Jones was, and he said that was...