Hester v. State, s. 49924
| Decision Date | 14 April 1976 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 49924,s. 49924 |
| Parties | Roger Dale HESTER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. Randall Lewis NYMAN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. to 49929. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Bill Bender, Seguin, for Roger Dale Hester.
Malcolm C. Halbardier, San Antonio, for Randall Lewis Nyman.
Ted Butler, Dist. Atty., Charles T. Conaway, Lucien B. Campbell and Susan D. Reed, Asst. Dist. Attys., San Antonio, Jim D. Vollers, State's Atty., and David S. McAngus, Asst. State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
Each appellant was convicted for two murders and one burglary of a private residence at night. Punishment was assessed at life for each murder conviction and at sixty years for each burglary.
Each appellant contends the trial court erred in admitting written confessions into evidence. Each filed a motion to suppress his own confession. Following a hearing on the motions they were overruled by the trial court and the evidence was subsequently admitted. In their briefs appellants challenge that ruling on several different grounds.
The transcribed court reporter's notes for the hearing on the motions to suppress exceed 400 pages. Twenty-two witnesses testified to events occurring over a period of several hours at different locations with different people present at different times and for different periods of time. While the cold record is before us in its entirety, it remains but a cold record. It is the trial court that is charged with finding the facts and applying the law. Art. 38.22, Sec. 2, V.A.C.C.P., requires the trial court to enter an order stating its findings. On appeal challenges to the trial court's ruling generally should be directed to whether the trial court abused its discretion in one of its findings of fact or to whether the trial court properly applied the law to those facts found by it. This Court is not the proper forum for the initial fact-finding process, but should restrict its review of the facts to any issues raised in challenge to the trial court's findings. Without adequate findings of fact this Court is much handicapped in its review upon appeal of the trial court's ruling, because it lacks an adequate record of the basis for that ruling. One purpose for requiring the trial court to 'enter an order stating (its) findings' (Art. 38.22, Sec. 2, V.A.C.C.P.) is to make the record reflect, for the parties and for possible appellate review, the basis for the ruling.
The trial court's order in the instant case reads as follows:
'ORDER
'The Court finds that the statement of confession of the defendant, RANDALL LEWIS NYMAN, marked State's Exhibit NO. 2, to have been voluntarily made contemporaneously with a knowledgeable waiver of right to assistance of counsel and is held to be admissible as a matter of law and fact.
'The court further finds that the statement of the defendant, ROGER DALE HESTER, marked State's Exhibit NO. 3, to have been voluntarily made contemporaneously...
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Bradley v. State
... ... Consequently, we conclude the judgment need not be reversed as it was in Garcia v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 488 S.W.2d 448. In Hester v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 535 S.W.2d 354, it was necessary to abate the appeal and direct the trial judge to reduce to writing his findings on the ... ...
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Guidry v. Dretke
... ... Howard Paul Guidry was convicted in Texas state court of murder for remuneration in Harris County, Texas, and sentenced to death. He was granted ... specific findings of fact when the voluntariness of a confession is raised, see, e.g., Hester v. State, 535 S.W.2d 354, 356 (Tex.Crim.App.1976), "the trial court's findings were sufficiently ... ...
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Guerra v. State
... ... Appellant cites Hester v. State, 535 S.W.2d 354 (Tex.Crim.App.1976) for support. Hester, however, is not controlling as it deals with a challenge to a defendant's ... ...
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Wicker v. State
... ... Hester v. State, 535 S.W.2d 354, 356 (Tex.Cr.App.1976) ... The court of appeals also erred in concluding that Article 38.22, § 6, supra, ... ...
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Error Preservation and Appeal
...counsel should ask the Court of Appeals to abate the appeal until the indings are entered by the trial court. [See Hester v. State , 535 S.W.2d 354, 356 (Tex. Crim. App. 1976); Quinn v. State , 558 S.W.2d 10, 11-12 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977).] A reviewing court has the power to abate an appeal ......
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Error Preservation and Appeal
...counsel should ask the Court of Appeals to abate the appeal until the findings are entered by the trial court. [See Hester v. State , 535 S.W.2d 354, 356 (Tex. Crim. App. 1976); Quinn v. State , 558 S.W.2d 10, 11-12 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977).] A reviewing court has the power to abate an appeal......
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Error Preservation and Appeal
...counsel should ask the Court of Appeals to abate the appeal until the findings are entered by the trial court. [See Hester v. State , 535 S.W.2d 354, 356 (Tex. Crim. App. 1976); Quinn v. State , 558 S.W.2d 10, 11-12 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977).] A reviewing court has the power to abate an appeal......
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Error Preservation and Appeal
...counsel should ask the Court of Appeals to abate the appeal until the findings are entered by the trial court. [See Hester v. State , 535 S.W.2d 354, 356 (Tex. Crim. App. 1976); Quinn v. State , 558 S.W.2d 10, 11-12 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977).] A reviewing court has the power to abate an appeal......