Thayer v. State, 38519
| Decision Date | 10 November 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 38519,38519 |
| Parties | George E. THAYER, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Clyde W. Woody (on appeal only), Houston, for appellant.
Frank Briscoe, Dist. Atty., Carl E. F. Dally, James C. Brough and Frederick M. Stove, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
The offense is possession of marihuana; the punishment, two years.
Officers Farrar and Tissue of the Houston Police Narcotic Squad, testifying in the absence of the jury on the question of probable cause authorizing an arrest without a warrant, stated that at 8:55 p. m. on the night in question they received information from a source, whom they considered to be a credible and reliable person, that Henry Zepeda, Louis Cerreno and appellant would meet at Prince's Drive In within a very few minutes and that a narcotic drug transaction would there be consummated. They further testified that they went at once to Prince's Drive In and there saw the three named individuals, whom they already knew, in their respective automobiles.
Before the jury they testified that Zepeda got out of his automobile and approached appellant's automobile, that they saw appellant reach out and secure from Zepeda a penny match box and that they immediately placed both parties under arrest. The match box which was recovered from appellant's hand was shown by the testimony of an expert to contain sufficient marihuana to make 12 to 15 cigarettes. From Zepeda's person they recovered three similar boxes. Traces of marihuana were discovered in appellant's shirt and pants pockets as well as in empty sacks found in the garage of the home where appellant resided with his mother.
Appellant, testifying in his own behalf, admitted being at the place at the time in question, but denied that he had received any box from Zepeda and stated that Zepeda had only passed his automobile and had spoken to him before he (Zepeda) was arrested and the boxes were found on his person.
The jury chose to accept the officers' version of the transaction, and we find the evidence sufficient to sustain the conviction.
The one serious question with which we are met in this case is the correctness of the trial court's ruling when he sustained the State's objection to appellant's question to the officers, in the absence of the jury, as to whether or not they knew if the person whom th...
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