Brown v. State

• Decision Date: 06 December 1950
• Docket Number: No. 25012,25012
• Parties: BROWN v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 142

235 S.W.2d 142

155 Tex.Crim. 347

BROWN v. STATE.

No. 25012.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Dec. 6, 1950.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 10, 1951.

Frank Ivey, A. S. Baskett, Dallas, for appellant.

Will R. Wilson, Jr., Criminal Dist. Atty., Tom Farmer, Asst. Dist. Atty., Dallas, George P. Blackburn, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.

GRAVES, Judge.

Appellant was charged with the offense of robbery and upon his conviction therefor he was given a term of twenty years in the state penitentiary. He appeals.

The State's testimony shows that on December 21, 1949, appellant and a companion, Ras Duke Hardy, entered the Safeway Store No. 124 in Dallas, Texas, and at the point of a pistol, they compelled an employee to open the safe and turn over to them $6,870 in money with which they fled, leaving two of the employees on the floor in fear of their lives. This took place about 9:20 o'clock at night just as these employees were closing up the store. Two days thereafter Hardy was taken into custody in Dallas, and appellant was soon apprehended in San Antonio and charged herein. The two witnesses who were robbed positively identified appellant as one of the robbers, and Ras Duke Hardy as the other.

Bill No. 3 relates to proof that an automobile with a license No. FD 2958 was found two days after this alleged robbery in front of a certain house in Dallas, where a Mrs. Brown resided; that this house was searched by the officers and therein was found $1,098 hidden inside a double door of a refrigerator; that while they were in such house, Ras Duke Hardy drove up in the automobile containing license No. FD 2958, and he was there taken into custody, and the $1,098 was also taken in charge by the officers. This lost money consisted of $20s, $10s, $5s, and $1s. The money taken in the robbery had no $20s, but did consist of $10s, $5s, and $1s.

The cause for the officers tracing the automobile with with license No. FD 2958 was that they had been told by two witnesses that such numbered automobile had been used in a further robbery of a Safeway Store two days after the present Safeway robbery.

The bill complaining of the introduction of this testimony is multifarious and cannot be considered. See Miller v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 209 S.W.2d 603; Granado v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 228 S.W.2d 530; Middleton v. State, 86 Tex.Cr.R. 307, 217 S.W. 1046. However, the bill in question reads as follows:

'Now comes the defendant Raymond Carl Brown and requests that the following testimony which is improperly before the jury be stricken from the record and the jury be instructed to disregard the same:

'That this defendant owned or had possession of a certain automobile with License No. FD 2958 because no automobile was connected with the robbery Dec. 21, 1949, because the title certificate is the best evidence and was never produced; because no witness testified that the defendant had ever been seen in said automobile. The witness Baker testified that said automobile had been used in another robbery (while the jury was retired) but not on Dec. 21, 1949. Baker had obtained this information from 2 boys and it was hearsay.

'That $1090.00 or more cash (currency) was found in the 2500 Block W. Davis St., Dallas, Texas, in a tourist court, because it was never shown, except by hearsay that the defendant ever lived there, because the defendant was not there at the time of the search and further because defendant's so called wife was present and it was never proved that such person was defendant's wife or that defendant had any wife; further said officers did not have a search warrant.'

We are of the opinion that much, if not all, of such testimony was admissible for what it might have been worth to the jury, and not having singled out the objectionable testimony, the bill fails to show error.

The State's testimony is clear that appellant and Hardy were acting together in the commission of this alleged offense; that Hardy was found in possession of an automobile belonging to appellant, and that a large sum of money was concealed in the house where Hardy was apprehended. It is true that it was not shown that this lady who occupied this house was appellant's wife, nor was it shown that she was Hardy's wife, but she was shown to be named Mrs. Brown. If this was appellant's residence, he did not show such in the proof; but upon the motion for a new trial he testified at length, and never did he say that this searched place was his home or that the lady at such place was his wife. Under these circumstances we find no...