Clark v. State
| Decision Date | 25 January 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 32829,32829 |
| Citation | 342 S.W.2d 332,170 Tex.Crim. 456 |
| Parties | James M. CLARK, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Sexton & Owens, by Paul R. Owens, Orange, for appellant.
Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
The offense is driving while intoxicated; the punishment, 5 days in jail and a fine of $150.
The evidence shows that an automobile traveling at a high rate of speed (one witness testified 'doing a good 90 miles an hour') struck the rear of a pickup truck which was pushing an automobile in an effort to get the motor started.
There was but one occupant of the speeding car.
C. M. Darden, Jr., and his father witnessed the collision from their home. Darden Jr. testified that he immediately drove to the scene of the collision, some 600 yards away, where he met appellant between his car and the pickup and asked appellant who was driving the car 'and he said he was * * * He said 'I was driving the car."
Darden Sr. went to the scene after calling one Noguess. He testified that he saw appellant there. 'I started looking for the ones that were hurt for the ambulance to pick up and I run by the pickup and passed the car setting in Mr. Widner's drive, and I saw him coming back.'
Mr. Darden further testified that appellant said: 'Them people ought not to have been in the highway stopped,' and he said 'They wasn't stopped, you was lowering the boom on them;' that appellant asked him to make a statement that the people were stopped. 'I asked him if he was driving the other automobile and he said 'That's right, and I went and made an apology for that wreck."
The witness Darden also testified that the driver was the only person in the speeding car; that he could not 'straight out come out and identify him as he went by;' that appellant told him he was driving and he had some blood on his arm and forehead.
Charles Regusa, who owned the pickup truck and also owned and was driving the car being pushed, testified that while he was looking for his neighbor Morgan Ness, the driver of the truck, and was asking for him, the appellant 'walked up to me and said, 'I was driving the car.' and I said 'Are you hurt?' and he said, 'No."
We overrule the contention that the evidence is insufficient to sustain a finding by the jury that the appellant drove an automobile on a public highway at the time in question, and point out that the appellant's statement that he was the driver of the automobile involved in the collision was a res gestae statement as well as a statement in the nature of an oral confession.
We also overrule the contention that the trial court erred in failing to charge on circumstantial evidence by reason of the proof that he was the driver.
There was sufficient evidence also to sustain the jury's finding that appellant was intoxicated.
The witness Regusa testified that he observed him, smelled alcohol about his breath and saw him 'staggering around.' He expressed the opinion as to his sobriety: ...
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