Chaverea v. State, 21484.

• Decision Date: 26 March 1941
• Docket Number: No. 21484.,21484.
• Citation: 150 S.W.2d 241
• Parties: CHAVEREA v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

150 S.W.2d 241

CHAVEREA v. STATE.

No. 21484.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 26, 1941.

Rehearing Denied May 7, 1941.

Appeal from District Court, Falls County; Terry Dickens, Judge.

Cruze Chaverea was convicted of murder, and he appeals.

Judgment affirmed.

Robert D. Peterson, of Marlin, for appellant.

Lloyd W. Davidson, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.

HAWKINS, Presiding Judge.

Conviction is for murder; punishment assessed at two years in the penitentiary.

Deceased was shot at a dance given by one Guererro. A number of invited guests attended the dance and some attended who had not been invited. Some of the guests became intoxicated. A fight ensued. The facts are confusing and it is difficult to determine therefrom who started the fight, or why. The State's evidence justified a more severe penalty than the jury assessed. Appellant claimed to have acted in defense of himself and brothers. If the jury had accepted the version of appellant and his witnesses, a verdict of acquittal would have resulted. The jury settled the issues of fact in favor of the State.

It was alleged in the indictment that the name of the person killed was Joe Rodrequez. Appellant raised the question that such was not the name of deceased and sought on that ground to have the court charge the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.

We observe that in the statement of facts, whenever reference is made to deceased, his names appears as Joe Rodriquez or Joe Rodrequez. Of course, we have no way of knowing how the witnesses, most of whom were Mexicans, pronounced the name, but presumptively the court reporter wrote it as it sounded to him in English. It is certified in Bill of Exception No. 2 that three Mexican witnesses testified that the name of deceased was Jose or Joe Rodrigues, and one of them wrote it as "Rodriges." We note from the statement of facts that the one who spelled it as last shown, after so spelling it, said: "I call that a Q. As to whether or not there is another way to spell it, I don't know—I just use a Q or a G whatever you call it." It is certified in the same bill that a lady witness was a graduate of Columbia University and had done her major college work there in French and her minor work in Spanish, and had taken three months in Spanish in the University of Madrid, and had taught Spanish in the High School at Mineola, Long Island, New York. She testified that "Rodrequez" would be pronounced in Spanish "Roh-dray-kess" and that "Rodriguez" would in Spanish be pronounced "Roh-dree-guess." She further testified: "I would not call it Rodriquez in English. As to whether or not I could read it off, well, in English it might be. In that case, even in English, I would give the Q the sound of the letter K and it would not be the...