Parish v. State

• Decision Date: 08 January 1919
• Docket Number: (No. 5154.)
• Citation: 209 S.W. 678
• Parties: PARISH v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

209 S.W. 678

PARISH v. STATE.

(No. 5154.)

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

January 8, 1919.

On Motion for Rehearing, March 12, 1919.

Appeal from District Court, Bexar County; W. S. Anderson, Judge.

Ratio P. Parish was convicted of murder, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Abernathy & Smith, of McKinney, for appellant.

E. B. Hendricks, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

MORROW, J.

The conviction is for murder and punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for 20 years. The evidence is circumstantial.

The deceased, Eliseo Ornelas, appears to have been a Mexican, owner of a Ford automobile which he operated for hire; that during the night of October 9th appellant, in company with one Foreman, both of them being soldiers in the United States army, made a contract with the deceased to take them in his car to a point in the vicinity of San Antonio; that the two soldiers entered the car with the driver, one of them sitting on the front and the other on the back seat. The cousin of the deceased suggested or wanted to go along, but the appellant and his companion objected on the ground that they were to bring others back in the car and there would not be room. Deceased appears to have been a boy about 18 years of age. He was found the following morning about 7 o'clock by some persons passing along the road. He had wounds upon his head his skull was crushed, and he was in an unconscious and dying condition. He was in the road, and near his body were automobile tracks corresponding in size and description to those which were on the deceased's car. There was in the road near these tracks, and not far from the body, some blood in several places and evidence of a fight or struggle having taken place. The deceased had a small amount of money, between $7 and $8 at the time he made the contract, and this had been taken from him and his pockets turned inside out, though his watch and chain had not been removed. Near the body there was found some tobacco and cigarettes, and a button from a soldier's coat. The car was found on the morning of the 10th of October at a point some distance from the scene of the homicide. It was located near some buildings that were being newly constructed in Camp Travis. There were stains of blood at various places upon the car, engine, footboard, and running board. In the car was found a cap, which was identified as belonging to deceased, and which had a dent in it, indicating that it had been struck by some object. While the persons in charge of the work and the sheriff were examining the car, some one of them handed the sheriff a coat. This was a military coat, and there was evidence introduced identifying the coat as belonging to the appellant. There was evidence, also, that the coat was of a different character from that used by the other soldiers at Camp Travis, it being similar to those formerly used by soldiers, and it was claimed by the witnesses that it had been brought from another camp, at which the appellant and his companion were formerly stationed. One of the buttons had been torn from the coat, and the button picked up near the body of deceased was of the same character as those remaining on the coat, though there is nothing to show that the buttons on that coat were peculiar or different from those on the clothing worn by the numerous soldiers stationed at Camp Travis. There was a small amount of blood on the coat. The person who handed the coat to the sheriff was not introduced as a witness, and it is only from circumstances that the inference is to be drawn that the coat was picked up by one of the several people who were attracted to the scene of the car after it was found and while it was undergoing examination by the sheriff.

A very short time after the homicide, appellant and Foreman were transferred, with the company to which they belonged, from Camp Travis, at San Antonio, to Camp Bowie, in Ft. Worth, and were there arrested by the sheriff, being identified by the brother of deceased, who was present at the time that the contract between the deceased and the appellant and his companion was entered into.

No questions other than the sufficiency of the evidence are presented. We are unable to reach the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict.

The judgment is affirmed.

On Motion for Rehearing.

The only question raised in the motion for rehearing is whether, tested by the rules of circumstantial evidence, the facts support the verdict.

That the deceased came to his death by violence inflicted by some human agency other than his own was established beyond doubt. The back of his head bore evidence of blows with some blunt instrument, fracturing the skull in several places, and driving the bone into the brain. The only question that can arise is whether the evidence, under the rules of law, shows that the appellant was the guilty agent. The deceased was found in an unconscious and injured condition on the morning of the 10th of October. The exact locality is not disclosed by the record, further than it appears that he was in and at one side of a road designated as the Cassin road, which was a dirt road about three-quarters of a mile in length, with cactus and brush growing on each side, with no houses near it, though there was a field in which there was also cactus. He was near the intersection of this road with what is described as the Quintana road, which is from the city of San Antonio to Von Ormy, and the Quintana road was connected with what is described as the Somerset road by the Cassin road mentioned. As we understand the record, the Somerset road and Quintana road were macadamized, and frequented much more than the Cassin road. From a reading of the statement of facts, we understand that the place where the deceased was found was several miles from the city of San Antonio, though neither the direction nor the distance is proved with any degree of accuracy. In the road near where he was found there were tracks made by an automobile with tires like those used on a Ford car; the front tires being smooth and the back tires nonskid tires. About 30 yards distant from the deceased the tracks indicated that the car had moved a short distance, been turned around, and driven back to the Quintana road. What the witness described as a soldier's button was about 2 feet from the auto tracks and about 1 foot from the body of deceased. The pockets of the deceased were turned inside out, there was no money found on his person, though his watch with a fob containing the initial "R" was found, also some cigarettes and tobacco in the pocket of his coat or jumper, and one cigarette was on the ground some dozen feet from the body. There were pools of blood in the road, and the appearance of a scuffle, or scraping the ground, something like the side of a shoe. One witness described the tracks indicating a scuffle as about 20 feet from the body, and stated there were several puddles of blood, one about 4 feet from the body. Another witness estimated the scuffle as 10 or 12 feet from the body.

It was shown that the Ford automobile was found on the morning of October 10th, at a place, as we understand the record, in Camp Travis where they were building gun sheds and stables. The car had been driven between two of the stables and stopped. There were bloody stains all over the car, the engine, footboard, and running board. A cap was lying in the car, on the floor, between the seat and the dashboard. There was blood on the floor, and the cap was stained with blood. It was a stiff cap, and had a dent in the back of it about 2¼ inches in length. This cap was produced on the trial and identified as belonging to the deceased. The automobile thus found was also identified as belonging to him, and the tires showed to be smooth on the front and nonskid on the back ones. After the car was found by workmen, the sheriff and military police were called, reaching the...