Silba v. State, 27179
| Decision Date | 24 November 1954 |
| Docket Number | No. 27179,27179 |
| Citation | 161 Tex.Crim. 135,275 S.W.2d 108 |
| Parties | Dan SILBA alias Dan Silva, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Ray Stevens, Austin, for appellant.
Bob Long, Dist. Atty., Sam Kimberlin, Jr., Asst. Dist. Atty., Austin, Wesley Dice, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
The offense is murder; the punishment, life.
Five young men left a bar and encountered a sixth. The sixth was stabbed in the heart and died. Two of the five testified for the State. The court charged that Trevino was an accomplice witness as a matter of law but refused to submit to the jury the question of whether the other, one Guzman, was an accomplice.
The appellant did not testify or offer any evidence in his behalf, and this appeal is predicated upon the alleged error in the court's ruling as to Guzman.
Guzman, age 16, testified that he met the appellant and his companions in the bar and asked for a ride home; that as they left they encountered deceased; that four of the young men attacked the deceased, some with knives and some with their fists; that he had not expected trouble and did not participate in the attack; that after the deceased fell somebody said, 'Let's go'; that they all got in an automobile and drove away. Guzman stated that the automobile was intercepted by the officers before they had gotten to his home; that he was carried to jail with the others; that on the following day he went to the juvenile home, where he remained about a week, and was then carried to the district attorney's office, where he made a statement, and was then released.
Trevino, the acknowledged accomplice, testified that he and the others assaulted the deceased but that Guzman took no part in the attack.
No witness testified that Guzman did anything to cause the death of the deceased or that he did anything to aid or encourage the attackers or assisted them in any way to evade arrest or ever made any false statement about their guilt to the properly constituted investigating authorities or was ever indicted as being a party to the crime.
Appellant urges that, since Guzman left the scene of the homicide with the attackers and since he was arrested and detained in the juvenile home, this raised an inference that the witness was connected with the offense and that this is sufficient to require the court to submit the issue of whether or not he was an accomplice to the jury.
We think this is a misconception...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Harris v. State
...need be given the jury thereon. Villarreal v. State, supra, at 51; Danny Harris v. State, supra, 645 S.W.2d at 456; Silba v. State, 161 Tex.Cr.R. 135, 275 S.W.2d 108 (1954). Appellant argues that by her testimony Valerie Rencher established "(1) she was present at time of alleged murder; (2......
-
Easter v. State
...the witness was present when the crime was committed does not compel the conclusion that she is an accomplice witness. Silba v. State, 275 S.W.2d 108 (Tex.Cr.App.1954); 24 Tex.Jur.2d, Evidence, Sec. 690, p. 312, and cases there cited. As stated in 16 Tex.Jur.2d, Criminal Law, Sec. 83, p. 20......
-
Carrillo v. State
...Easter v. State, 536 S.W.2d 223 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Morgan v. State, 171 Tex.Cr.R. 187, 346 S.W.2d 116 (1961); Silba v. State, 161 Tex.Cr.R. 135, 275 S.W.2d 108 (1954); Liegois v. State, 73 Tex.Cr.R. 142, 164 S.W. 382 (1914). A witness is not deemed an accomplice witness because he knew of t......
-
Villarreal v. State
...Easter v. State, 536 S.W.2d 223 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Morgan v. State, 171 Tex.Cr.R. 187, 346 S.W.2d 116 (1961); Silba v. State, 161 Tex.Cr.R. 135, 275 S.W.2d 108 (1954); Liegois v. State, 73 Tex.Cr.R. 142, 164 S.W. 382 (1914). A witness is not deemed an accomplice witness because he knew of t......