Flores v. State
| Decision Date | 30 October 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 35851,35851 |
| Citation | 372 S.W.2d 687 |
| Parties | Jose Roberto FLORES, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Albert Armendariz, El Paso, for appellant.
Edwin F. Berliner, Dist. Atty., Jack N. Ferguson and Sam W. Callan, Asst. Dist. Attys., El Paso, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
DICE, Commissioner.
By supplemental transcript it is now shown that notice of appeal was given in open court and entered of record, as required by Art. 827, Vernon's Ann.C.C.P.; therefore our opinion dismissing the appeal is withdrawn and the appeal is reinstated.
The appellant and four codefendants were jointly indicted for the murder of Francisco Puente, the indictment charging that the defendants did voluntarily and with malice aforethought kill the deceased by cutting and stabbing him with a knife.
A severance being granted, appellant was separately tried and convicted, and his punishment assessed by the jury at forty years' confinement in the penitentiary.
A companion case, in which a judgment of conviction of one of the codefendants, Antonio Parra Pineda, was affirmed by this court, is found in Pineda v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 367 S.W.2d 862.
The facts in the two cases are substantially the same, with the exception that no confession was introduced in evidence in the instant case.
Briefly, the state's testimony shows that on the day in question the state's witness Elodia Ontiveras observed five men beating a man who was lying on the ground across the street from her home. She proceeded outside and across the street, where she observed the man on the ground covered with blood and the five men cursing and beating him. She testified that during the altercation one of the men had an automobile bumper jack handle in his hand and that she saw a jack and stick lying on the ground near the deceased. Mrs. Ontiveras identified the appellant as one of the men beating the deceased and testified that during the altercation she heard the appellant say: "Show that you're just as brave as you used to be; show you are brave as you used to be."
Ricardo Galaviz testified that he observed the five men beating the deceased; that one had a bumper jack, one a stick, and one had a knife. He further testified that he was present when the five men got in a car and left the scene.
Officer Rodney Craig testified that he and his partner, Officer O'Leal, stopped a car with five subjects in it, which fit a description given in a radio broadcast; that Raul Aguilera was driving the automobile and appellant was one of the occupants. The officer stated that at such time some of the men had bloody clothing but appellant had no blood on him. He further testified that on the back seat of the automobile he and his partner found two knives, a letter opener, and a car jack and that one of the knives had fresh blood on it.
It was shown that the deceased suffered more than twenty slashing and stab wounds to the body, some of the wounds penetrating vital organs in the abdomen, which was the cause of death. In addition to the body wounds there were two blunt wounds on the deceased's head.
Appellant did not testify or present any defensive testimony to the charge.
Appellant's first contention is that the testimony of the state's witness Elodia Ontiveras was not credible as a matter of law and that, for such reason, the court erred in refusing to grant his motion to strike her testimony and declare a mistrial. Appellant insists that the witness's testimony was in material conflict with earlier testimony given by her, because she positively identified him in the present trial as one of the assailants and in another trial she identified by name two other assailants and for the further reason that when testifying in the instant trial she swore that five men were beating the deceased, whereas she stated to the police there were three men striking the deceased, and at the preliminary hearing she stated there were about five striking him.
An examination of the witness's testimony discloses no such conflict. On her cross-examination the witness swore that appellant was one of the two men whom she identified at the former trial. She also swore that she did not remember telling the police that there were only three men striking the deceased but that if she did, such was wrong, as there were five...
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Bowden v. State
...that principal witnesses for the State contradicted each other in the description of the men who robbed them. And in Flores v. State, 372 S.W.2d 687 (Tex.Cr.App.1963), it was held that resolution of conflicts between testimony of a State's witness and her prior testimony was for the jury. V......
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Reed v. State
...(Tex.Crim.App.1982). The jury resolves any conflicts between testimony of a State's witness and his prior testimony. Flores v. State, 372 S.W.2d 687, 689 (Tex.Crim.App.1963). Thus, any conflicts between J.M.'s trial testimony and his prior statements are matters for the jury to reconcile. P......
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Lopez v. State
...severe bleeding. This testimony constituted direct evidence of the assaults (the stabbings) upon both complainants. Flores v. State, 372 S.W.2d 687 (Tex.Cr.App.1963); Miers v. State, 157 Tex.Cr.R. 572, 251 S.W.2d 404 As to Rodriguez, the evidence was entirely direct since he testified that ......
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Penn v. Com.
...the admission of the pistol in evidence under such circumstances and conditions does not constitute reversible error. Flores v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 372 S.W.2d 687 (1963). The judgment appealed from Affirmed. ...