Richardson v. State

• Decision Date: 28 May 1980
• Docket Number: No. 61322,61322
• Citation: 600 S.W.2d 818
• Parties: James A. RICHARDSON, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 818

600 S.W.2d 818

James A. RICHARDSON, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 61322.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, En Banc.

May 28, 1980.

Rehearing Denied July 16, 1980.

James E. Coate, Pearland, Jim D. Wiginton, Alvin, for appellant.

Doyle W. Neighbours, Dist. Atty., A. B. Crowther, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., Angleton, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

Before the court en banc.

OPINION

CLINTON, Judge.

Appeal is taken from a conviction for the offense of capital murder pursuant to V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 19.03(a)(2). ¹ The jury returned an affirmative finding to each of the three special issues submitted under Article 37.071(b), V.A.C.C.P., and appellant's punishment was accordingly assessed at death. Article 37.071(e), supra.

In two grounds of error, appellant complains of the trial court's failure to submit to the jury his timely requested charge regarding the law of circumstantial evidence at the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. The sufficiency of the evidence to show appellant's guilt for the murder and attempted robbery of Raymond V. Greer is not challenged; however, in light of our disposition of this appeal, a detailed statement of the evidence adduced is necessary.

Arthur Pryor, investigator and crime scene photographer for the City of Clute Police Department, testified that on October 14, 1976 he was called to the scene of an apparent murder in the City of Clute at approximately 9:00 p. m. On arrival at the scene, Pryor found present in addition to the body of the deceased, Raymond Greer, which he described as having "a number" of bullet holes law enforcement officers and the wife ² of deceased. The television in the room, described as a den, was turned on. Pryor described in detail the places in which he found one .32 caliber, one .22 caliber and six .45 caliber spent shell casings in the home of deceased which he stated he identified by looking on the "end or butt" of the casing. None of the casings was introduced into evidence. ³ Pryor described a floor safe in the room which was broken and over which the floor tiles had been broken; under a medium sized dog which was wounded in the hip and lying on a rug, Pryor recovered a spent .32 caliber bullet and further noted that the .32 caliber shell casing was recovered from between a white reclining chair and a brown reclining chair which were separated by a small round coffee table. The only weapon found at the scene was a .22 caliber six shot revolver.

Investigator Pryor also described a "step-up area" in the room which he stated "just steps up into a brick type patio for the pool, for the water purposes, for drainage." The outside of the Greer residence was described by Pryor as "facing south; to the left is a junk yard that is part of Greer Automotives there. To the right is a pawn shop known as Tom's Pawn Shop. To the rear of the building is an extension of the junk yard."

Pryor testified that he received from Dr. Joseph Jachimczyk, Chief Medical Examiner of Harris County, one bullet, the caliber of which Pryor failed to identify, which was recovered from the body of the deceased during an autopsy. Dr. Jachimczyk, also called by the State, testified that the cause of the deceased's death was multiple gunshot wounds. According to Jachimczyk, there were six entry and five exit wounds in the body; one .45 caliber slug was recovered from the body and delivered to Investigator Pryor. Dr. Jachimczyk testified that the one-half inch diameter measurements of five of the wounds would be consistent with those made by a .45 caliber bullet. The other body wound measured one-quarter of an inch and according to Jachimczyk, would be consistent with having been made by a .32 caliber projectile. It was Dr. Jachimczyk's opinion that any of the six gunshots would alone have caused the death of the deceased.

The only evidence introduced which tended to link appellant with the death of Raymond Greer was appellant's written confession which had been taken while appellant was confined in the Harris County Rehabilitation Center on an unrelated charge. James Hinton, Chief of Police of the City of Clute, testified that appellant's confession was reduced to writing and signed on January 14, 1977, at approximately 3:15 a. m. in his presence, as well as the presence of six other law enforcement officers including a woman deputy sheriff who typed the statement at the Harris County Courthouse. After Hinton testified to the salient aspects of appellant's interrogation and confession, ⁴ the prosecutor was permitted to read the confession into the record and it was admitted into evidence. The statement signed by appellant, omitting the formal portions such as recitation of constitutional warnings, reads:

My full names ⁵ is James Acton Richardson and I am 18 years of age. My date of birth is 2-20-58 and I was born in Houston, Texas. My home address is 3313 Campbell Road. My home telephone number is 460-4777. I live at the above address with my mother and sister. I am not employed.

On October 14, 1976 about noon, Billy Jack, I think his last name is Hammett came over to my mothers house and picked me up and we went and ate lunch at a hanburger place in Spring Branch, I think it was Whataburger. We left the hamburger place and went over to Jeanette Sherlock's apartment I do not know her address and sat around for awhile trying to think of something to do in order to get some money. In the apartment at the time were myself, Bill Jack, Curtis McGuffie and Jeanette Sherlock. Curtis and Jeanette and Billy Jack were in the bedroom talking and I was in the living room listening to the stereo. After a little while they came out of the bedroom and Jeanette went on doing housework or something and Billy Jack and Curtis came over to where I was and told me that they had an idea how to make some money, they thought it would be Big Money. I dont know who said what, but they told me that we were suppose to rob a guy that night who lived around Angleton, who has some big money and it would not being nothing to go down there and rob him, the idea was to go down there and walk in on him and throw down on him with guns and tie him up and take his rings and wallet and then make him tell us where the money was. We all agreed to do it that night. We stayed around the apartment for awhile and then went to some Mexican restaurnat around where Jeanette lived and ate and then went back to the apartment and sat around until it started getting dark and discussed what each one of ____ were suppose to do.

While - were back at the apartment discussing the plans, they brought out some tape to use on him while robbing him and said that we would not have to buy any tape because we already had some. Jeanette told us what kind of car he had and told us that if the car was there, then he would be at home. We were discussing the plans and McGuffie said that he could not go in because they knew what he looked like and McGuffie was suppose to drive the car and wait outside for us. Me and Billy Jack were both suppose to go in and Billy Jack was to tie him up and after he was taped up, I was suppose to stand by the front door so that if someone came, I could let them know,, we ____ suppose to rob them, tape them on the floor and then leave. Jeanette was there when we were making the plans, but did not have too much to say about any of it.

When it was getting dark, me, Curtis and Billy Jack all left in a yellow car, I think it was a Pontiac and it was brwn inside and was a two door, possibly a 1970 because it was not new, but not too old. I was sitting in the passenger-side bucket seat and Billy Jack was in the back seat and Curtis was driving. Billy Jack told me to get the guns out from under the seat and so I reached under the seat and pulled out two guns and one was a 45 automatic, black with brown handles and I gave it to Billy Jack, the other one was a 32 automatic and I stuck it back under the seat. We drove down to Angleton and drove up and down the street passing the house and Curtis pointed out the house and stated that was the house which had a big long fense which looked like a junk yard and back off to the side of the junk yard was the house, one story, which looked like it was attached to an auto parts store but I think it was hi office. After driving up and down the street a couple of times, we went down the street to a little restaurant place and drank a coke. We got back into the car and went back towards the house and Curtis let me and Billy Jack off about a block from the house on a road. Curtis was suppose to go to the beer joint and wait for us. We walked around the block, and came up beside a white fence and took a right and walked down and passed the house and there is a kind of alley between the fence and stopped in the alley and I waited there and there was a big trash dumpster and Billy Jack went up and looked in the window and looked in the front or side window and he jumped the big wrecking yard fence and I waited for about two or three minutes and he came back and said that they were sitting in a chair watching tv. He said there was two in there watching tv.

Me and Billy Jack then went up to the front door, I was following him and he opened the door and he went in and I was behind him and when I looked up, he was already quite a ways inside the house. I walked up behind the two people sitting in a lounger chair side by side and Billy Jack walked beside the chair and Billy Jack said "Freeze" They looked up and he said it again "Freeze" and Billy Jack then told them to get on the floor. He told them again to get on the floor, then the lady got up and walked up about two feet and the man got up and had a gun in his hand, I dont remember which hand and started shooting, I think he shot twice. As the man got up out of the chair before he shot, he turned towards Billy Jack, then shot twice. Billy Jack then shot at the man one or two time...