Rodriguez v. State, 28619

• Decision Date: 02 January 1957
• Docket Number: No. 28619,28619
• Citation: 164 Tex.Crim. 377,298 S.W.2d 835
• Parties: Francisco F. RODRIGUEZ, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 835

298 S.W.2d 835

164 Tex.Crim. 377

Francisco F. RODRIGUEZ, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 28619.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Jan. 2, 1957.

[164 TEXCRIM 377] Roy A. Scott, Corpus Christi, for appellant.

Sam L. Jones, Jr., Dist. Atty., and George Shaffer, Asst. Dist. Atty., Corpus Christi, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

MORRISON, Presiding Justice.

[164 TEXCRIM 378] The offense is the possession of marijuana; the punishment, seven years.

The prior conviction in this case was reversed because of an error in the court's charge. Rodriguez v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 285 S.W.2d 757.

Lieutenant Jackson of the narcotic section of the Corpus Christi police force testified that, in company with other officers under his command and pursuant to information which he had received, he went to a remote spot on the edge of the city on the day in question and lay in wait for several hours. After dark, he observed a pickup truck containing two men pass at a slow rate of speed, turn around, and leave the area. A short while thereafter, a Nash automobile approached his hiding place at a slow rate of speed, turned around, and parked; and five minutes later the pickup truck returned, cutting off its lights as it turned the corner, and parked a short distance from the Nash. A man got out of the pickup, walked up to the Nash, said something to the driver, returned to the pickup, where he got a beer case, and had again started toward the Nash when Jackson and his fellow officers made their presence known and placed the two men under arrest. The Nash hurriedly left the scene, and its driver was not apprehended. The man with the beer case was Rudolfo Rodriguez, no relation of the appellant, and the man who owned the pickup and who was seated therein at the time of his arrest was the appellant. Jackson's testimony was corroborated by officer Lampl.

In the beer case and other boxes in the pickup were found 50 pounds of crude marijuana.

Rudolfo Rodriguez testified that he had known the appellant for a number of years, that some time before the day charged in the indictment he told the appellant that he had a colored man who was willing to pay $1,800 for 50 pounds of marijuana, that the appellant told him that he could fill the order but that it would take some time to do so. He stated further that on the day in question the appellant notified him that he was ready to deliver and would do so that night, that he in turn notified the colored man, and the two of them selected a point of delivery. Later on that day, he drove the appellant to the designated spot, returned, and got in appellant's pickup with him, and again drove to the transfer point at the designated hour. When contact was made, the appellant told him to see if the purchaser was equipped with the necessary cash. After seeing the money in [164 TEXCRIM 379] the colored man's possession, he returned to the pickup, got a box, and was in the process of delivering it when h...