Jackson v. State, 26889

• Decision Date: 17 March 1954
• Docket Number: No. 26889,26889
• Citation: 159 Tex.Crim. 524,265 S.W.2d 829
• Parties: JACKSON v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 829

265 S.W.2d 829

159 Tex.Crim. 524

JACKSON v. STATE.

No. 26889.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 17, 1954.

John P. Spiller, Houston, for appellant.

William H. Scott, Dist. Atty., King C. Haynie, Asst. Dist. Atty., Houston, Wesley Dice, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

GRAVES, Presiding Judge.

Appellant was charged by complaint and information with the offense of misdemeanor theft, and upon a trial before a jury he was convicted thereof and assessed a punishment of 90 days in the county jail.

The testimony is short and shows that appellant was a porter at the Houston Country Club, and by virtue of the fact that certain sums of money had been missed at such place, the manager of the club obtained a certain number of bills of money and placed thereon a fluorescent powder that left a blue stain wherever the same might touch; that he placed seven $1 bills in a wallet after having taken the serial number of these bills. He then placed the wallet within the confines of said club. After an hour or so he discovered that the wallet containing the bills was missing. He called a police officer who questioned the appellant relative to such bills. It seems that appellant had certain stains on his face and nose, and eventually he handed the wallet to the officers and they found therein the bills that were identified by the manager as those which he had placed in the wallet.

Appellant objected to the introduction of these bills in evidence because the search of the appellant was illegal. Unquestionably the appellant was placed under arrest at the time the stains on his face and nose were observed by the police officer.

In his brief appellant complains in what he calls assignments of error, the first assignment being found in his informal bill of exception which relates to the arrest of the appellant without a warrant of arrest. We think it was shown that the officer had probable cause for the search of the appellant, especially after he noticed that appellant had the same kind of blue stains on his nose and face that had been placed upon the stolen bills of money.

The second point, which is also found in an informal bill of exception, seems to relate to the claimed inadequacy of the testimony herein presented to establish the appellant's guilt in that the seven $1 bills found in the appellant's possession were not properly identified as the seven $1 bills that had been placed in this wallet and left inside the club building. We think...