Casey v. State, 50010
Decision Date | 04 June 1975 |
Docket Number | No. 50010,50010 |
Citation | 523 S.W.2d 658 |
Parties | Christopher Woods CASEY, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Kerry P. Fitzgerald, Dallas, for appellant.
Henry Wade, Dist. Atty., Richard W. Wilhelm and Jim Burnham, Asst. Dist. Attys., Dallas, Jim D. Vollers, State's Atty., and David S. McAngus, Asst. State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
GREEN, Commissioner.
In a trial before a jury, appellant was convicted of murder. Punishment was assessed at life.
In his second ground, appellant argues that the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the law of circumstantial evidence. We agree.
The record reflects without dispute that during the night of May 22, 1973, or early morning hours of May 23, 1973, a robbery occurred at the Bray Car Care Center, a Gulf service station, located at the intersection of Forest Lane and Abrams just south of L.B.J. Freeway in Dallas, and that Richard Allen O'Neill, the night attendant, was shot in the head and killed. Jim Bray, proprietor of the station, testified that the sum of $93.74 was taken in the robbery.
The direct evidence sufficiently proved the corpus delicti of the offense. The remaining element of proof essential to the State's case was that appellant was the guilty agent in causing deceased's death. Self v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 513 S.W.2d 832; Brantley v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 522 S.W.2d 519 (1975).
The State relied entirely on the testimony of Deborah Ann Simmons and the written confession to connect appellant with the crime.
Simmons, a State's witness, testified that 'back in May of 1973' she, her brother Clifton Currie and appellant were in a motel in Dallas. Some time during the night, appellant and Clifton Currie left the motel. She testified:
'
'Q. Casey was right there in the room when he said this, is that right?
The witness did not at any time identify the place at which the robbery and killing happened, or who was robbed or who was shot. She did not even fix the date of the occurrence, except to say 'back in May, 1973,' although on cross-examination she was asked a couple of questions about May 23, 1973. While her testimony was direct evidence that appellant had committed an offense, it was not direct evidence that appellant was guilty of the murder of Richard Allen O'Neill, the deceased in the instant case.
In his written confession, appellant admitted that 'in the latter part of May of this year (1973)' he and Clifton Currie left a motel room in Dallas together and, using a .32 caliber pistol, committed a robbery at a Gulf or Exxon service station 'out north' close to a big freeway, shot the attendant (not named or identified), took between sixty and seventy dollars from the cash box, and drove back to the motel. There is nothing in the statement to identify the service station or the attendant who was shot or the date of the shooting other than as just stated. There is no fingerprint evidence in the record. Although the confession admits to guilt of a robbery and shooting, there is nothing in it which directly connects...
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