Davis v. State
Decision Date | 20 February 1980 |
Docket Number | No. 62777,62777 |
Parties | William Prince DAVIS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Appellant was convicted of capital murder, occurring during a robbery. Punishment was assessed by the jury at death.
Michael Lang, the deceased's son, testified that he and his father were closing up the Red Wing Ice Cream Company on the night of June 2, 1978, when Davis entered the building and robbed them. Lang testified that Davis came through the front door, ordered everyone up against the wall, and then immediately shot the deceased. Lang stated that the only thing he could remember was his father raising his hands "like he was going to back up" before he was shot. On cross-examination, Lang testified that he told the police that he did not know if his father had made a move to get Davis' gun.
The State introduced Davis' written confession where Davis stated: Davis also admitted committing at least five robberies and thirteen other burglaries.
At the guilt stage of the trial appellant offered an oral statement made to an officer the day before the written confession was made to another officer. Outside the jury's presence, the first officer testified that Davis said, The statement was excluded on the grounds that it was irrelevant on any issue of Davis' guilt. The prosecutor stated that "if anything, it might tend to show mitigation of punishment, but that would certainly be available to the defendant by way of testimony through the defendant at the punishment hearing . . . ."
Davis argues that the exclusion of this evidence constitutes reversible error under Article 38.24, V.A.C.C.P. We disagree.
In Armour and Wilder v. State, 583 S.W.2d 349 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), we held that the capital murder statute, V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 19.03, applied to a defendant even though it was the co-defendant who committed the murder during a robbery. See Livingston v. State, 542 S.W.2d 655 (Tex.Cr.App.1976).
V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 6.03(a) provides:
"A person acts intentionally, or with intent, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to a result of his conduct when it is his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or cause the result."
V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 6.04, provides:
The evidence shows that Davis went to the Red Wing Ice Cream Company with a pistol in order to commit robbery; the robbery was, thus, intentional conduct as defined in Section 6.03(a), supra. The death of Lang would not have occurred but for Davis' conduct. See Blansett v. State, 556 S.W.2d 322 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). Under the prior penal code, we held that proof of the intentional shooting of one with a gun was sufficient to justify a conviction for murder with malice. Potts v. State, 500 S.W.2d 156 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Ortegon v. State, 459 S.W.2d 646 (Tex.Cr.App.1970). Where the defendant intends to commit a robbery and actually does so, the shooting of the victim, even though accidental, it is still an unlawful killing. Smith v. State, 154 Tex.Cr.R. 234, 225 S.W.2d 846 (Tex.Cr.App.1949).
In Dickson v. State, 463 S.W.2d 20 (Tex.Cr.App.1971), this Court wrote:
Therefore, the issue of why Davis shot Lang is not relevant to the issue of his guilt or innocence for Lang's death. The evidence should have been admitted under Article 38.24, V.A.C.C.P., which provides that when a part of an act is given in evidence by one party the whole on the same subject may be inquired into by the other, the exclusion of Davis' oral statement was error but harmless under Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); Harrington v. California 395 U.S. 250, 89 S.Ct. 1726, 23 L.Ed.2d 284 (1969), because such statement did not affect his guilt.
It was admissible at the penalty stage of the trial, but it was not offered.
Next, he contends that the trial court erred in admitting the details of four prior convictions into evidence at the...
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