Marion v. State

• Decision Date: 02 December 1964
• Docket Number: No. 37297,37297
• Citation: 387 S.W.2d 56
• Parties: James Lee MARION, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 56

387 S.W.2d 56

James Lee MARION, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 37297.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Dec. 2, 1964.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 3, 1965.

Second Motion for Rehearing Denied March 10, 1965.

Carl Steckelberg, Garland Casebier, Midland, for appellant.

Joseph H. Mims, Dist. Atty., Midland, Alton R. Griffin, Dist. Atty., Lubbock, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

MORRISON, Judge.

The offense is murder; the punishment, death.

The Turner house in Midland occupied an entire city block. Mr. Turner was away and his wife was at home alone. At approximately 4:12 a. m. on October 29, three of the Turners' neighbors heard screams somewhere in that neighborhood. Neighbor Galley notified the police and within four minutes patrols reached the area. They cruised throughout this vicinity until daylight, but were unable to discover anything suspicious. At 7:40 the Turners' maid, Juanita Young, appeared for work and when she observed muddy tracks both outside and inside the house, she retreated to a neighbor's home and called Mr. Scharbauer, Mrs. Turner's son-in-law. He arrived with his wife and asked the neighbor to call the Sheriff, and the Scharbauers and the maid proceeded to the Turner home. He and the maid ascended the stairs and discovered that Mrs. Turner's bedroom door had been battered in with a pinch bar and inside they found her lifeless blood stained body on the floor. They descended the stairs and went outside to greet the Sheriff. Mrs. Scharbauer was left alone in the library crying. An armed colored man, whom she identified as the appellant, entered and asked her if she lived there and when she answered in the negative, hit her on the head with the pistol he was carrying. At this juncture Scharbauer, the Sheriff and a deputy entered and appellant surprised them and, at pistol point and by means of threats to further harm Mrs. Scharbauer, lined them up in the library. After some hesitation appellant abandoned his dominion over the four and ran out the front door. The maid and the yard boy were outside and saw him leave. Chase ensued, but he was able to evade his pursuers. Some four hours later he was apprehended in the attic of a small business armed with a .380 revolver. On the floor in the room below the entrance to the attic was found an identification holder containing a picture of Mr. Turner.

Soon after the discovery of Mrs. Turner's body the coroner arrived. He and a pathologist testified that massive bruises about the face and head, administered by a weapon similar to the .380 pistol, caused Mrs. Turner's death. The pistol was shown by expert testimony to have hair comparable in many respects to samples taken from the corpse imbedded in the butt and clip thereof. Samples of mud taken from appellant's shoes were shown to have the same soil characteristics as that found in the Turner home. Three buttons found in or near Mrs. Turner's bedroom matched those on the shirt appellant was wearing and from which three had been recently torn. Plaster casts were made of footprints outside the Turners' window and appellant's shoes were shown to fit the same perfectly. Appellant's pants had flecks of human blood thereon.

We have concluded that the above is a fair summary of the many witnesses, lay and expert, as to the physical facts of this case which took a week to try.

After appellant's arrest at 11:50 a. m., he was interrogated by Officers Gideon and Morales and at 1:15 p. m. signed a confession in which he recites that the murder occurred as the result of a burglary and attempt to rob Mrs. Turner. The appellant had remained in the big house until the next morning when a loud noise awoke him and he escaped by means of placing the people in the house in fear of being shot. Prior to the taking of the confession appellant was warned by Officer Gideon of his right to remain silent concerning the offense about which this statement is made. Officer Gideon affirmatively answered to appellant's counsel's question, 'Did you suggest to him that he should have counsel?', and stated that appellant had said that he just wanted to get it over with. He testified further that there was a telephone nearby and that he told appellant he might use it if he wanted to call a lawyer. At 3:50 p. m. appellant was arraigned before the Justice of the Peace who testified in answer to appellant's counsel's question that he felt he had performed his duty toward appellant when he told him of his rights as a citizen and asked him if he wanted a lawyer.

Dr. Shaw, a psychiatrist, examined appellant later in the afternoon for 10 or 15 minutes, found no marks or physical injury, and found him to be oriented as to time, place and identity. On October 30, Dr. Shaw and Dr. Youngblood, also a psychiatrist, examined appellant psychiatrically for approximately an hour and again on November 11, for a like period of time and expressed the opinions that appellant knew the consequences of the act at the...