Lavallas v. State
| Decision Date | 18 June 1969 |
| Docket Number | No. 42131,42131 |
| Citation | 444 S.W.2d 931 |
| Parties | Alton Joseph LAVALLAS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Marvin O. Teague, Houston, for appellant.
Carol S. Vance, Dist. Atty., William W. Burge and Richard DeGuerin, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, and Jim D. Vollers, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
The offense is murder; the punishment assessed by the jury, 50 years.
The grounds of error complain: (1) that the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's finding that the killing was with malice aforethought; (2) that the trial court reversibly erred in admitting a confession of appellant; and (3) that the judgment of conviction is void because two different judges presided, one on the main trial and another at the punishment hearing.
The grounds of error will be considered in reverse order.
Judge Wendell Odom presided at the trial on the issue of guilt. Judge Edmund Duggan presided at the punishment hearing before the same jury.
A judge of the district court may hold court for or with any other district judge. Art. 1916 Vernon's Ann.Civ.St.
The record reflects no objection to Judge Duggan presiding at the punishment hearing and no prejudice to appellant.
Ground of error No. 3 is overruled.
Responding to a report from the dispatcher, a police officer of the City of La Porte went to a vacant lot at the corner of Adams Street and North Fourth Street, in said city, about 6:30 A.M. an March 27, 1967, and found the body of Dorothy Kennedy (the deceased) under a 1959 Ford automobile owned by appellant.
The autopsy revealed injuries compatible with the deceased having been hit be the automobile and dragged for some distance. Death resulted from a crushed chest, fractured skull and broken neck.
Appellant walked into the police station and, hearing the broadcasts regarding the investigation at the scene, said to the dispatcher: 'I done that out on North Fourth.'
After he had been taken before a magistrate who warned him of his rights, and had been warned by Chief of Police Freeman, appellant made a statement to Chief Freeman which was reduced to writing and signed by him which reads, in part:
Before admitting the written confession in evidence the court conducted a hearing in the absence of the jury, at the...
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Lavallis v. Estelle
...and knowingly waived his right to counsel. Accordingly, the petition for writ of habeas corpus is denied. 1 Lavallas v. State, 444 S.W.2d 931 (Tex.Cr. App.1969). 2 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). 3 Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.E......
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Woods v. State, 58774
...Balderas v. State, 497 S.W.2d 298 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Joines v. State, 482 S.W.2d 205 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Lavallas v. State, 444 S.W.2d 931 (Tex.Cr.App.1969). No error is Appellant next alleges that the trial court erred in overruling his objections to the hypothetical question posed to the p......
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Dahlkoetter v. State
...See Woods v. State, 569 S.W.2d 901, 903 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Hogan v. State, 529 S.W.2d 515, 517 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); Lavallas v. State, 444 S.W.2d 931, 932 (Tex.Cr.App.1969). We also observe that the construction of article 42.13 § 3d, Tex.Code Cr.P.Ann. (Vernon Supp. 1981), advanced by appell......
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Hogan v. State, 49936
...It is not improper for a different judge to sit at the punishment hearing. Art. 1916, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St.; Lavallas v. State, 444 S.W.2d 931 (Tex.Cr.App.1969). This is true, absent an abuse of discretion, even if an objection is made. Joines v. State, 482 S.W.2d 205 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); see ......