Gonzales v. State, 38997

• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• Citation: Gonzales v. State, 399 S.W.2d 360 (Tex. Crim. App. 1966)
• Decision Date: 19 January 1966
• Docket Number: No. 38997,38997
• Parties: Ramiro F. GONZALES, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

Page 360

399 S.W.2d 360

Ramiro F. GONZALES, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 38997.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Jan. 19, 1966.

Rehearing Denied March 9, 1966.

Theo Pat Henley (on appeal only), San Antonio, for appellant.

James F. Barlow, Dist. Atty., M. C. Gonzales, Asst. Dist. Atty., San Antonio, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

DICE, Commissioner.

The conviction is for burglary; the punishment, enhanced by reason of a prior conviction for an offense of like character, twelve years.

The indictment charged that the appellant did unlawfully, by force, break and enter a house occupied and controlled by Robert D. Perkins.

Robert D. Perkins, the prosecuting witness, lived at 1503 West Brady, in the city of San Antonio, with his wife and two teen-age children. On the day in question, Mrs. Perkins was the first to leave the house, around 7:30 a. m. Fifteen minutes later, the son and daughter left for school. At 10:30 a. m., Mr. Perkins left to go to his work. At such time, all windows and doors to the house were locked. At 3 p. m., the daughter, Lillian Louise, returned home from school and observed that a side door leading to the carport was open and the casing to the door had been broken. She then went inside and observed that certain items were missing from the house.

In the investigation which followed it was discovered that items of property of a value in excess of $600 had been taken from the house. Included in the missing property was a television set four feet long, three feet high, and two feet wide. Two Chinese figurines and a television lamp which had been kept on top of the television set were found on the floor.

Fingerprints were taken from the television lamp and the two figurines.

Outside the house was found a long tire mark leading from an oil slick in the carport, which mark was not present when Mr. Perkins left the house that morning.

Appellant was arrested a week later on a warrant for burglary and, following his arrest, fingerprints were obtained from him by Officer Hartman, of the San Antonio police department.

Officer Hartman, whose qualification as a fingerprint expert was shown, testified that he had compared appellant's fingerprints with the fingerprints taken from the two figurines and television lamp and found that two of the prints on one of the figurines were identical to prints from two of appellant's fingers. The officer stated that one of the prints was of appellant's left thumb and the other print was of his right middle finger. He further stated that he was unable to identify a third print taken from the figurines or the prints taken from the television lamp.

It was shown by the...