Edwards v. State

• Decision Date: 27 March 1968
• Docket Number: No. 41108,41108
• Citation: 427 S.W.2d 629
• Parties: Claude Dean EDWARDS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 629

427 S.W.2d 629

Claude Dean EDWARDS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 41108.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 27, 1968.

Rehearing Denied May 8, 1968.

Charles E. Brownfield, Jr., Stamford, and R. E. Thornton of Thornton, Thornton & Fisher, Olney, by appointment, for appellant.

T. J. Rodgers, Dist. Atty., Graham, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

OPINION

ONION, Judge.

The offense is Murder with Malice; the punishment, death. Appellant's trial was conducted in Young County following a change of venue from Stephens County.

In his first four grounds of error appellant urges that the evidence to corroborate the testimony of the accomplice witness is not sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict.

Arthur Eugene McCain, called as a witness by the State, testified to an intricate sequence of events involving appellant, one Ronnie Wilhelm, and himself beginning July 3, 1966, and ending July 7, 1966, when they were arrested. The three men were together at practically all times. His testimony is summarized as follows:

McCain was at his mother's house near Mangrum, Texas on July 3, 1966, with appellant and Wilhelm whom he had known for seven or eight years. The three men left the house at 10:00 a.m. in McCain's mother's 1947 Chevrolet to travel to Ivan, Texas for the purpose of attempting to secure a 1959 Oldsmobile belonging to Ronnie Wilhelm's father, Irby Wilhelm, for a planned trip to San Antonio. The three arrived at Foots-Collins beer joint in Ivan at approximately 1 p.m. and met Irby Wilhelm and Eva Bradford. A six-pack of beer was purchased and at 1:30 the five adjourned to Eva Bradford's house near Graham, Texas. During their stay, McCain showed a .38 caliber revolver to the rest of the group and subsequently the gun was test-fired outside until there were only three cartridges remaining, one lead and two steel jackets. Wilhelm's father showed some interest in the purchase of the pistol but after consultation the three decided not to sell as the pistol would be needed for a planned robbery. Consent was then obtained from Irby Wilhelm to use his 1959 Oldsmobile, and in said car the three left and returned to the Foots-Collins Place, arriving at approximately 3 p.m. Staying only several minutes, they resumed their travels and arrived in Ranger, Texas near 4 p.m. to visit with McCain's aunt, May Kitchens. They stayed there only about 5 minutes before going to an ice house in Ranger to buy some beer. Upon being refused by Clarence Mitchell, the proprietor, in their request to purchase beer, the three departed at approximately 5:30 p.m. and returned to McCain's mother's house. They rested there until approximately 1 a.m., July 4, 1966, at which time they left to go to Breckenridge, Texas to rob a service station. They arrived in Breckenridge at approximately 2 a.m. and stopped at a service station, filled the car with gasoline and had the oil checked. They then drove past the Reed Oil Station at which time Wilhelm stated, 'That's the station we're going to rob,' and the appellant (Edwards) said, 'We're going to have to kill the son-of-a-bitch to keep him from identifying us.' They then drove out to the Necessity Road turnoff where they decided that they would leave the attendant after the robbery. As they again drove past the Reed Oil Station on the way to the Maridee Motel Coffee Shop in Breckenridge, the appellant observed the attendant and stated, 'I know the guy.' * * * 'I don't mind killing that son-of-a-bitch, because he has caused me plenty of trouble.' They arrived at the Maridee Coffee Shop at approximately 2:30 a.m. While there appellant and a waitress had an argument; they ate some food and departed at 2:50 a.m. to carry out their previous plans. The three men drove past the Reed Oil Station several times waiting for a customer to leave, then they drove in. With the .38 caliber pistol appellant forced the deceased, Clarence Swaim, the sole attendant at the Reed Oil Station, into the automobile where McCain held a .22 rifle on him while Wilhelm emptied the cash register. After causing the deceased to remove his cap and his eye glasses so that he would not be easily recognizable, they traveled to a field near the Necessity Road cutoff where the appellant shot the deceased three times with the .38 caliber revolver and Wilhelm contributed seven or eight shots from a .380 caliber automatic pistol which Wilhelm had taken from the deceased moments earlier. Shortly after leaving the scene of the killing, the money taken during the robbery, being approximately $260, was divided among the three men. They then proceeded by back roads to McCain's mother's house where they obtained some clothing and secured some rifles which had been 'stashed' away at such place. Then they proceeded again by back roads, some of them being dirt ones, to Comanche and then to Hamilton and then on to San Antonio. While en route to San Antonio the three stopped at a service station just outside of Hamilton, Texas at approximately 6:15 on the morning of July 4, 1966, and filled the car with gasoline and had the oil checked. At 9 a.m. they entered the Travis Motel in San Antonio seeking a room but none was available at the time. An hour later they rented a room at the Mayfield Motel in San Antonio and on July 5, 1966, at approximately 12:30 or 1 p.m. they checked out of the Mayfield Motel and rented a room at the Maria Motel, also located in the city of San Antonio. On that same date the three men attempted to trade the deceased's .380 automatic pistol on a newer one at a pawn shop located in San Antonio but being unable to do so, decided to hide both the .38 caliber revolver and the .380 automatic pistol. The three men were arrested in San Antonio on July 7, 1966, and shortly thereafter McCain led the police officers to the hidden pistols which were recovered at that time.

To corroborate the testimony of the accomplice McCain, the State offered the following: Dr. B. B. Trotter testified that Clarence Swaim, the deceased, was killed by multiple gunshot wounds from .38 and .380 caliber pistols. Numerous witnesses testified to the discovery of the deceased's body sometime between 8:30 and 9 a.m. on July 4, 1966, lying in a field outside of Breckenridge with his eye glasses in his pocket and his shoulder holster empty. Donald F. Melton, a local mortician who viewed the body between 9:30 and 9:45 a.m. on July 4, 1966, testified that based upon his experience and training the deceased had been dead about seven or eight hours.

McCain's testimony outlining the July 3, 1966, itinerary as to time and place that the three men were together was fully corroborated by numerous witnesses who positively identified them in the 1959 Oldsmobile they were driving. They were seen in the presence of each other practically at all times.

The three men were not again identified until the early morning hours of July 4, 1966, at approximately 2 a.m. when the testimony of McCain is corroborated by D. F. Bufkin, who was employed as a night service man, at a service station in Breckenridge located approximately 2 miles west of the Reed Oil Station. Bufkin identified the three men and the 1959 Oldsmobile and testified that he sold them gas at that time.

Ethel Smith, a night waitress at the Maridee Coffee Shop in Breckenridge, Texas corroborated McCain's testimony when she identified appellant, McCain and Wilhelm as customers upon whom she waited on July 4, 1966, between the hours of 2 and 3 a.m. She had waited upon all of them before and she testified that on the occasion in question appellant started a disturbance when she asked the three men to move out of the dining room into the coffee shop area for service.

Kenneth Brady, a delivery man for an Abilene newspaper, testified that he knew the deceased, Clarence Swaim, and that at approximately 2:30 a.m., July 4, 1966, he had occasion to stop at the Reed Oil Station; that he stayed there about 10 minutes and that at such time the deceased was in good health.

Jack W. Pruett, a building contractor in Abilene, testified that he found the station in question unattended after he drove in and that he then awakened the owner of the station who lived nearby. He estimated his arrival in Breckenridge somewhere near 2:30 a.m. on July 4, 1966. Numerous witnesses testified that the cash register of the Reed Oil Station was discovered open and that the station was found unattended at approximately 3 a.m., July 4, 1966. The owner of the station testified that approximately $271.05 was missing.

C. A. Hanson, owner of a service station located approximately 3 miles south of Hamilton, Texas, identified appellant and his companions as being in his service station some time between 6 and 6:30 a.m., July 4, 1966. He further identified the 1959 Oldsmobile as the automobile in which they were riding.

The desk clerks at the Travis and Maria Motels in San Antonio both identified the appellant, McCain, Wilhelm and the automobile in which they were traveling.

Ballistic evidence proved that the .38 caliber revolver and the .380 automatic pistol recovered by the San Antonio police officers aided by McCain were the murder weapons. Irby Wilhelm and Eva Bradford identified the .38 caliber revolver as the one shown to them by McCain in the presence of appellant and Ronnie Wilhelm. The .380 caliber automatic pistol was identified by the deceased's wife as the pistol he always carried by work with him.

Lawrence Weigold, a clerk at a pawn shop in San Antonio, Texas, identified the .380 automatic pistol as the one appellant and his two companions attempted to trade on a newer model. He testified that three men talked among themselves and shopped around for thirty or forty-five minutes. He related that no trade was made. On cross-examination he testified that it was not appellant who had personal possession of the pistol at the time but that it was the accomplice witness McCain.

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