Stelman v. State

• Decision Date: 29 March 1933
• Docket Number: No. 15700.,15700.
• Citation: 58 S.W.2d 831
• Parties: STELMAN v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

58 S.W.2d 831

STELMAN v. STATE.

No. 15700.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

March 29, 1933.

Appeal from District Court, San Augustine County; G. E. Richardson, Judge.

Jim Stelman was convicted for murder, and he appeals.

Reversed and remanded.

J. R. Anderson, of Center, John Henry Minton, of Hemphill, and C. S. Ramsey, of San Augustine, for appellant.

Lloyd W. Davidson, State's Atty., of Austin, for the State.

LATTIMORE, Judge.

Conviction for murder; punishment, ninety-nine years in the penitentiary.

From the testimony we judge appellant was a contractor, having a lot of teams, and that deceased was working for him. It was shown in the testimony that appellant was indebted to deceased several hundred dollars, and the inference is strong that deceased was trying to collect the debt. Appellant had tried to borrow the money from parties who testified.

Discussing the points raised in the order they appear in appellant's brief, we observe that complaint is made of the admission of statements of appellant to one Burnaman, which statements were made while appellant was in jail, the objection being that he was unwarned, in custody, etc. The state's claim was that all the statements were admissible by reason of the fact that part of same were found to be true, and that same conduced to show appellant's guilt. In the early case of Owens v. State, 16 Tex. App. 448, it is said that if but one fact be stated by the defendant while in custody, etc., which is inculpatory of him and conduces to show his guilt, the whole confession will be admissible, if as a result of this statement this one fact be found to be true. We find the principle discussed at length in Weller v. State, 16 Tex. App. 208. The holding in the Owens Case, supra, is approved in Collins v. State, 20 Tex. App. 419; Torrence v. State, 85 Tex. Cr. R. 312, 212 S. W. 957, and others. Appellant insists that all facts stated by him to Burnaman, which might be deemed inculpatory, had already been discovered at the time he made the statement. He is mistaken. Without enumerating or discussing all of the facts so stated, appellant told Burnaman that deceased was shot in the back of the head with a shot gun. At the time this statement was made the body of deceased had not been dug from the place where appellant said he and Johnson put it. During that same day, and after Burnaman had gone from the jail to the point in the woods where the body of deceased was buried, it was exhumed, and it was then found that deceased had been shot in the back of the head with a shot gun. There may be other facts also found to be true, but the one mentioned is enough to make admissible the whole of the alleged confession.

We see no error in the admission of the testimony as to tracks, under the facts in this case. Appellant was shown to have been a large man with some peculiarity in his gait, and witness Nugent said he knew appellant's track. Another witness who had recently put a half sole on appellant's shoe, thus identified appellant's track. Johnson's track was identified by reason of having a torn sole on one shoe. Witnesses testified to the softened condition of the ground made so by recent rains, and that they saw Johnson and deceased start hunting, and saw them go into an old logging road leading into the woods, and in said woods, not far from said road, the body of deceased was later found buried. They testified that soon after Johnson and deceased left going along said road appellant was seen going toward where said road entered the woods, carrying a shot gun. It was shown that that afternoon appellant bought two shot gun shells loaded with buck shot, from a witness, stating at the time that he wanted to go squirrel hunting. Upon witness observing that buck shot were not good to hunt squirrels with, appellant said it did not make much difference as he was not much of a shot. It was also shown that that same afternoon appellant drove three miles over to an adjacent village and bought seven shot gun shells loaded with No. 8 shot; that he borrowed a shot...