Johnson v. State
| Decision Date | 16 March 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 39348,39348 |
| Citation | 401 S.W.2d 837 |
| Parties | James E. JOHNSON, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
William Goldapp, Houston, John R. Coe (on appeal only), Houston, for appellant.
Carol Vance, Dist. Atty., Edward B. McDonough, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., Houston, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
DICE, Commissioner.
The conviction is for murder with malice; the punishment, fifty years.
The state's testimony shows that the appellant and Alvin Green lived in a small house at 1012 Saulnier in the city of Houston. Appellant worked, and on the day of the killing, while he was away, Green and some others were drinking wine and beer at the house. Between four and five o'clock the deceased came by the house and, after having one drink, left. Shortly thereafter, the appellant returned home from work. He also had a drink and then went to bed. Around 10 p.m., the deceased returned to the house and knocked on the front door. After he identified himself, Green told him that everyone had gone to bed. The deceased replied that it did not make any difference and that he was coming in. Green continued to protest and the deceased lunged against the door, breaking the top hinges from the wall, and came into the room. At this juncture, the appellant got out of bed and said to the deceased, "Man, it looks like you are tryig to run over us." Green testified that the appellant walked toward the deceased, who ran his hand in his pocket, but that the witness did not see any kind of weapon. Appellant then stated, "Well, I got a remedy for this," and ran out the back door. Green stated that after he heard the cracking of a bottle outside, the deceased, who had been standing near the front door, 'come back inside,' bleeding, and said, "Look, you know Jim cut me." Green then advised him to go to the hospital and the deceased left through the back door.
It was shown that when the officers arrived upon the scene, the deceased was lying partially in the street and the driveway in front of the premises and there was a trail of blood leading from the body to the back door of the house and on through the house, stopping in the front doorway. The broken portion of a bottle which had stains of blood on the inside of the neck, about one-half inch from the broken edge, was found on the porch.
Dr. Joseph Alexander Jachimczyk, chief medical examiner of Harris County, who performed the autopsy on the deceased, testified that he found an irregular stab wound in the left shoulder area which was three and one-half inches to the left of the midline and just above the left clavicle or collarbone. The doctor stated that the wound measured one and one-half inches in length and gaped three-quarters of an inch and extended into the left armpit area to a depth of three inches, severing the left axillary vein and artery. The doctor stated that the wound described was the cause of death of the deceased. He further stated that the bottle found on the porch, if used by a person of the same size and physical description of appellant, could have produced death and that the bottle could have broken off during the stabbing. He also testified that it would take considerable force to drive the jagged end of a bottle into a person like the deceased.
Testifying in his own behalf, appellant related that after the deceased forced his way into the house and there had been an exchange of words between them as to his entry, the deceased reached in his pocket and pulled out a knife; that the deceased then came toward him and he (appellant) ran out the back door. Appellant stated that when he got outside he picked up some pieces of glass in one hand and a soda water bottle in the other; that he ran through an alley and when he got to the front of the house the deceased was on the porch and reached out at him as if to cut him. Appellant...
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McGinn v. State
...Villareal as involving fundamental error in the admission of evidence rather than a true sufficiency case. See Johnson v. State, 401 S.W.2d 837, 839 (Tex.Crim.App.1966); Vasquez v. State, 371 S.W.2d 389, 394 (Tex.Crim.App.1963)(on rehearing); Boatwright v. State, 169 Tex.Crim. 280, 343 S.W.......
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Baez v. State
...where he lives," and determining that "adjacent parking lot is not part of the premises where one lives"); see also Johnson v. State, 401 S.W.2d 837, 838 (Tex. Crim. App. 1966) (stating that "[i]t was shown that when the officers arrived upon the scene, the deceased was lying partially in t......
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Ortegon v. State, 43128
...of time for its germination or growth but may be formed immediately before the act is committed and can arise instantly. Johnson v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 401 S.W.2d 837.' Sloan v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 409 S.W.2d The facts and circumstances proved were sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict. ......
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Johnson v. State
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