Paris v. State, 25861
| Decision Date | 04 June 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 25861,25861 |
| Citation | 249 S.W.2d 217,157 Tex.Crim. 580 |
| Parties | PARIS v. STATE. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Mandell & Wright, Ben N. Ramey, Houston, of counsel, for appellant.
George P. Blackburn, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.
The offense is murder; the punishment, death.
The deceased was a wild life biologist at the Cat Fish Game Preserve in Anderson County. He was last seen alive by State's witnesses at a time when he went into the marsh to investigate duck shooting which was evidently taking place therein. When the deceased did not return from the marsh, a searching party was organized; and, after three days of searching under the direction of the Air Force, his body, riddled with shot gun pellets, was found in shallow water under a log, apparently weighted down by a chunk of wood.
While the searching party was at work, the Sheriff began his investigation. This led him to the home of appellant, adjacent to the game preserve, who was known to be a hunter and trapper and who had frequented the marsh in question prior to the time it became a game preserve. Three days later, when the body of deceased was found and appellant was notified of the discovery, the appellant confessed.
Appellant's confession and his testimony in his own behalf on the trial recite substantially the same facts, with the following exceptions:
1. In his confession, the appellant related that, after he had shot two ducks on the game preserve, the deceased came upon the scene, inquired if he 'was having any luck', and picked up the two ducks; whereupon, the appellant fled. He further related that deceased began to chase him, and 'I just whirled my gun around back and fired the gun and he threw my ducks up in the air and fell.'
In his testimony, appellant stated that, as he was running from the deceased, he was carrying his gun with the stock forward; that the safety on the gun came off in some inexplicable manner; that the gun discharged accidentally; that after the gun discharged he circled back over his trail, picked up his ducks and ran home. He admitted that deceased had been carrying the ducks immediately before the shot was fired, but refused to admit that he saw the body of deceased when he went back to retrieve the ducks.
2. In his confession, he related that he had returned to the scene of the killing on the day following and while the search was in progress and concealed the body of deceased under a log and a chunk of wood.
In his testimony, he denied any such return to the scene of the homicide.
On the day following the homicide, the Sheriff asked appellant to show him in which part of the preserve he had been hunting the preceding day. Appellant admitted in his confession and while testifying that he had designedly directed the Sheriff to another section of the marsh. Appellant admitted that the eye glasses found by the searching party near the body of deceased were his own.
It is with this background that we approach the question of the admissibility of the confession.
It is undisputed that there was no force, cruelty or brutality inflicted upon the appellant by those who had him in custody. Appellant testified that everybody had been 'very nice to him all the way through.' On cross-examination by the State, the appellant testified as follows concerning his decision to tell the officers about his presence at the scene of the homicide:
We think the above, together with the testimony of those who witnessed the signing of the confession, disposes of the question of its voluntary nature, but we go further and discuss appellant's contention that he was illegally arrested and illegally detained prior to the making of the confession and that such renders the confession inadmissible.
The primary question for our determination is whether a causal connection was shown between such arrest and detention and the making of the confession.
According to all the evidence, including the testimony of appellant, the deceased was killed in the forenoon of Thursday, December 13, though his body was not found until the following Sunday. Shortly before dark on Thursday, some of the officers came to the home of appellant and questioned him about where he had been that day and as to what firearms he owned. A peace officer, testifying as an expert, said that the appellant's shot gun had been recently fired. Some few hours later, the officers returned, informed the appellant that a man was missing, and carried him to jail. He makes no claim that he was questioned at this time. The following morning, appe...
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