Drager v. State
| Citation | 548 S.W.2d 890 |
| Decision Date | 06 April 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 52073,52073 |
| Parties | Raymond DRAGER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
This is an appeal from a conviction for damaging a tractor and destroying a fence used in the production of cattle as denounced by V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Sections 28.03(a)(1) and 28.03(b)(4)(D). Punishment was assessed by the court at four years. The sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction is challenged.
Joe Allen testified that on July 27, 1974, he owned a model 9600 Ford tractor which was located on his farm about ten miles West of Friona. He was notified that his tractor with the engine running and the wheels spinning was up against a barn. He got to the site around 7:00 p. m. The tractor had a 21-foot offset disc plow attached to it. He had given no one consent to move the tractor and plow. That morning his son Danny Allen had been plowing and left for lunch but got busy with other duties and did not return. The tractor was easy to trail. It had been driven a half-mile across his farm, through a fence, into a deep ditch, across another man's land, across the highway and through a barbed wire fence several times. There was an old barn on the property across the road from his farm. The tractor had made a wide circle around the barn and went through the barbed wire fence on both sides of the highway and back across the highway and headed toward the barn. It appeared that the tractor had been "hung" on a telephone pole and that someone had lifted up the plow and backed it and maneuvered it around the pole; that the plow was let down again and was driven directly toward the barn and went through another barbed wire fence and hit the barn. It set there long enough to spin and leave deep ruts. The tracks showed that the tractor had been rammed up against the barn again and left running. There were two sets of holes where the wheels had been spinning. He testified that it would have been impossible for the damage to have been done without someone operating the tractor. He testified that the cost of the tires that were ruined was $635 and that the repair to the front of the tractor cost $372.
Danny Allen testified to substantially the same facts as did his father, Joe Allen.
Kelwin King testified that he was fifteen years of age and was pouring water on some new cement at the entrance to his home from the highway to the road which was about one hundred yards from where the tractor was run into the building. His attention was attracted to the tractor which was against the barn by smoke, dirt and dust. After that he saw a blue four-wheel drive pickup truck leaving the barn "pretty fast." It was one of the Dragers' pickups because he had seen it at the Dragers. He then went to where the tractor was against the building and radioed his mother from his pickup. His father came over and stopped the tractor. His mother notified the Allens.
Mrs. D. T. King testified that she was assisting her daughter load a vehicle to return to school in Lubbock. Her daughter called her attention to someone driving a tractor going down the highway followed closely by someone driving a blue Ford pickup about a half-mile from their house. She had first thought that it was the pickup belonging to the Allens but when Allen came to the house to use the telephone she immediately recognized it as not being the same pickup that had been following the Allens' tractor. She related that someone was driving the tractor and someone was driving the pickup but she could not tell the color of the hair of either driver.
Appellant, who was twenty-six years of age, testified that he saw the tractor without a driver as it crossed the road and saw the plow when it hooked onto the telephone post and the wheels were spinning; he "thought he would try to be a good neighbor and try to go out and try to stop the tractor." When the plow became unhooked from the telephone post and headed for the barn, he "bailed out" just before it got to the barn.
On cross-examination appellant testified that he grew up on a farm and he knew how to operate tractors and he tried to turn the switch off but it would not stop. He knew that one could push in the clutch and take it out of gear but he did not try to do that because he did not want to stay around that long; that he did not stand there and watch the tractor go into the barn because he was on probation for being with another person and having something to do with the tractor that was torn up in Friona and that he had torn up Cotton Renner's tractor by turning it loose. When he got out of the tractor cab, it was headed straight for the barn and he got in his pickup that was parked about where Kelwin King said it was parked and left in a hurry.
He denied Mrs. King's testimony that the tractor was being driven down the road and being followed by a pickup truck. He testified that he was by himself. A beer can or bottle was found in the cab of the tractor that had not been there when Danny Allen left it in the field.
In passing on the sufficiency of the evidence, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. The defendant's evidence, as well as the State's evidence in the case in chief, may be considered in passing on the sufficiency question.
In Davis v. State, 440 S.W.2d 291 (Tex.Cr.App.1969), this Court wrote:
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Rubio v. State
...of a broken zipper. It was held that evidence of an exposure from the preceding day was admissible on the issue of intent. In Drager v. State, 548 S.W.2d 890, the defendant was prosecuted for criminal mischief. It was alleged that he had intentionally driven a tractor into a barn. At trial,......
-
Whittington v. Estelle
...surrounding the defendant's arrest, including his resistance. Miller v. State, 566 S.W.2d 614 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Drager v. State, 548 S.W.2d 890 (Tex.Cr.App.1977); Jones v. State, 471 S.W.2d 413 (Tex.Cr.App.1971). Thus, in this case, evidence concerning extraneous offenses committed during ......
-
Martinez v. State
...will be dealt with initially. We will, therefore, review all the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict. Drager v. State, 548 S.W.2d 890 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Esquivel v. State, 506 S.W.2d 613 Randy West, a neighbor of the appellants, testified that on April 6, 1980, the day befor......
-
Flowers v. State
...admits doing the act but then denies any intent, the case is not made circumstantial because of such testimony. Drager v. State, 548 S.W.2d 890, 893 (Tex.Crim.App.1977); see also Glover v. State, 566 S.W.2d 636, 638 (Tex.Crim.App.1978). Thus, we are not required to apply the reasonable hypo......