Carroll v. State, 28834

• Decision Date: 06 March 1957
• Docket Number: No. 28834,28834
• Citation: 164 Tex.Crim. 511,301 S.W.2d 108
• Parties: G. W. CARROLL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 108

301 S.W.2d 108

164 Tex.Crim. 511

G. W. CARROLL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 28834.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 6, 1957.

[164 TEXCRIM 511] Ray P. Reeves, W. E. Martin, Houston, for appellant.

Dan Walton, Dist. Atty., Erwin G. Ernst and Thomas D. White, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

BELCHER, Commissioner.

Appellant was convicted of felony theft under an indictment charging the primary offense with two prior convictions of felonies less than capital alleged for enhancement; the punishment, life imprisonment in the penitentiary.

A. W. Parker, owner and operator of a filling station, testified[164 TEXCRIM 512] that he closed the station at 10:30 P.M., and when he returned the next morning, December 30, at 5:30 A.M., he found the front door 'broken open', and that someone had taken thereform, without his consent, merchandise belonging to him of the market value of more than four hundred dollars, and that he next saw said property in cabin No. 1 in a tourist court on Jensen Drive. He identified the property as that taken from his station.

Mrs. Marvin Avery testified that as she was passing the Parker filling station between 4:15 and 4:30 A.M., December 30, she saw a Cadillac automobile which was five or six years old and with the trunk lid up about eighteen inches and tied, come out of said station in front of her at a fast rate of speed with two persons in it, one of whom appeared to have light hair and the other dark hair, and the person on the right hand side of the driver appeared to be 'short or else he was slumped down in the seat', and that she noted the license number of the Cadillac, called the police and gave them its number.

The proof shows that the Houston Police Department received a telephone call at 4:49 A.M., and the person calling gave them the license number 'NF$-5579' of an automobile on which they issued a pick-up.

H. C. Chandler, police officer of the City of Houston, testified that on the morning of December 30 he saw a 1948 Cadillac automobile bearing license number 'NF-5579' parked six or eight feet in front of the door of cabin No. 1 at the Mecca Courts on Jensen Drive, notified the police dispatcher, then parked across the street in front of the Mecca Courts; that he had watched the automobile and the cabin for about fifteen or twenty minutes and when he saw the appellant come out of cabin No. 1 and go to a telephone booth on the outside he arrested him. He further testified that he and officer Romond went to cabin No. 1, knocked on the door, and Kenneth Martin came to the door and invited them inside, and when asked who owned the automobile in front of the cabin, Martin answered that it belonged to him; and that he saw various articles of merchandise in the cabin and remained there until other officers and A. W. Parker, the owner of the filling station, arrived.

W. C. Romond, police officer of the City of Houston, testified that as he was approaching Mecca Courts on Jensen Drive he saw the appellant coming out of cabin No. 1, and he went with Cofficer Chandler to a telephone booth where they arrested appellant[164 TEXCRIM 513] ; and that he saw a 1948 Cadillac, with the trunk lid tied to the rear bumper with a coat hanger, parked in front of cabin No. 1 and bearing license number 'NF-5579.' He testified also that Kenneth Martin lived at 544 Irvington Courts.

W. A. Thompson, police officer of the City of Houston, testified that on December 30, he searched cabin No. 1 of the Mecca Courts located on Jensen Drive and found therein various items of merchandise, and also found in a closet in the cabin a pair of pants with the name 'G. W. Carroll' written in them. On cross-examination it was shown that the name 'G. W. Carroll' had an ink line drawn through it and below there appeared the word 'Boro' which was not marked out.

It was stipulated by and between the state and the appellant and his attorneys that the appellant...