McLaughlin v. State

• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
• Writing for the Court: BELCHER
• Citation: McLaughlin v. State, 426 S.W.2d 244 (Tex. Crim. App. 1968)
• Decision Date: 20 March 1968
• Docket Number: No. 41117,41117
• Parties: Victor McLAUGHLIN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

Page 244

426 S.W.2d 244

Victor McLAUGHLIN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 41117.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 20, 1968.

Rehearing Denied April 24, 1968.

Fred D. Moore, Dallas, for appellant.

Henry Wade, Dist. Atty., Joe K. Hendley, Myron Garner and Kerry P. Fitz-Gerald, Asst. Dist. Attys., Dallas, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

OPINION

BELCHER, Judge.

The conviction is for robbery with firearms; the punishment, fifty years.

The appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction.

The testimony of the state reveals that about 2:05 a.m., January 4, 1967, Thelma Brown, night manager of a 40 lane bowling alley, sold two cigars to a colored man who appeared 'like he was looking in the cash register.' This man was wearing a red, maroon-colored shirt, gray hat, gray coat and gloves. About 2:15 a.m., Thelma again saw this man holding a pistol in the back of the porter, Harold Gooch, as they approached her at the cash register. The robber made Gooch lie on the floor and demanded of Thelma to get the 'big money' which was kept in a drawer beneath the cash register or he would shoot her and when she opened the drawer he took the big brown envelope and placed it under his coat. The robber took the money out of the cash register and placed it in a stocking cap. The man pulled the telephone from the wall and then forced Thelma and Gooch into a back storeroom where he told them to stay ten minutes or he would start shooting.

Thelma and Gooch left the storeroom after about five minutes and notified the police. About 3 a.m., January 4, 1967, Thelma identified the appellant in a four-man lineup as having previously worked at the bowling alley and she further testified that it had been a week since he had worked there. Thelma stated that while working there the appellant had gone near the cash register, and that the 'big money' was kept in a drawer under the cash register. Thelma also identified a man in the lineup as the man who held the pistol on her during the robbery. The robber took about $600 in money from Thelma without her consent as she was in fear of her life and bodily injury. While testifying, Thelma identified State's Exhibits Nos. 1 through 4 and No. 6 which included the pistol, the hat, gloves, and sweater worn by the man with the pistol; and she identified State's Exhibit No. 5 as the brown envelope kept under the cash register which the robber took from her.

Officer Smith testified that while with Officer Bryant about 2:25 a.m., January 4, 1967, they observed an automobile travelling at an excessive rate of speed which they pursued and after seeing it 'run a blinking light,' they turned on the red light and pursued it until it stopped. Officer Smith asked the appellant, who was driving the car, for his driver's license, and after telling him that he had been stopped 'for going too fast,' the appellant replied that, 'I don't have a driver's license, but it's all right, it's not my car.' Smith had to walk around the appellant twice in going to the car where he saw a colored man lying down in the back seat, and when Smith asked, the appellant told him the car belonged to the other occupant of the car. Officer Smith testified that as he walked around the car,...