Trotter v. State

• Decision Date: 14 December 1960
• Docket Number: No. 32553,32553
• Citation: 170 Tex.Crim. 495,341 S.W.2d 923
• Parties: Bob TROTTER, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 923

341 S.W.2d 923

170 Tex.Crim. 495

Bob TROTTER, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 32553.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

Dec. 14, 1960.

[170 TEXCRIM 495] E. A. Berry, Jr., W. E. Martin, Houston, for appellant.

Dan Walton, Dist. Atty., Carl E. F. Dally, Morgan W. Redd, Asst. Dist. Attys., Houston, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

BELCHER, Commissioner.

[170 TEXCRIM 496] The conviction is for assault with intent to murder; the punishment, four years.

For several months the appellant had been living with Kay Ballard whose husband resided in the same city. During this time Kay had bought a pickup truck which she let the appellant use in his business as if it were his own. After a disagreement with appellant, she went to her husband's residence. James A. Ballard, Kay's husband, asked Garland C. Parker, the injured party, to go to Kay's and the appellant's apartment to get her automobile, the pickup, and her belongings which he did; Kay and Jake Theus accompanied him. Shortly after they arrived, the appellant drove up in the pickup. Apparently, the appellant had been moving and had returned for his tools and equipment. Parker told appellant that he had come with Kay to get her car and belongings, but did not tell him who had made the request. A friendly atmosphere existed between the parties until the pickup was loaded and appellant got in it to leave. This is a general statement of the facts, but from this point there is a conflict in the testimony.

Parker, the state's witness, testified that after appellant called to him and he had arrived at the door of the pickup, the appellant shoved the door open, striking him in the face, jumped out and began to strike him with an ice pick and continued to strike him until he fell over a garbage can, when Jake Theus ran up and asked appellant to stop which he did and immediately drove away in the pickup.

A physician testified that Parker suffered seven stab wounds in the chest and seven in the abdomen; two of them were over the heart area, three in the intestines, and one in the liver; and that such injuries would have been fatal if he had not received prompt and extensive treatment.

Appellant testified that Parker had been trying to get the pickup and he had told him that he would return it when he had unloaded his things; that while he was seated in the pickup, Parker was standing beside it, and Parker told him 'Well, I am going to repossess the truck', and appeared to lose his temper, got mad, and grabbed the door handle, pulled the door open and further said, 'God Damn you I am going to take that truck if I have to take you with it', and ran his hand in his pocket at the same time. He further testified that he was afraid of Parker because he was larger than he was and did not know what Parker had in his pocket and if he did not do something Parker would [170 TEXCRIM 497] 'put me in the hospital', so he grabbed an ice pick on the seat and jumped out and was going to stand there; that as Parker was trying to hit him he stabbed him in the abdomen and chest to protect himself and his equipment and tools in the...