Wallace v. State

• Decision Date: 06 May 1970
• Docket Number: No. 42858,42858
• Citation: 458 S.W.2d 67
• Parties: Darlene Yevone WALLACE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 67

458 S.W.2d 67

Darlene Yevone WALLACE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 42858.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

May 6, 1970.

Rehearing Denied July 15, 1970.

Second Rehearing Denied Oct. 14, 1970.

Gerald K. Fugit, Odessa, Stayton, Maloney, Black, Hearne & Babb, by Frank Maloney, Austin (on motion for rehearing only), for appellant.

Royal Hart, Dist. Atty., San Angelo, John Harrod, County Atty., Eden, and Jim D. Vollers, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

OPINION

ONION, Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction for robbery by assault with the punishment assessed at 15 years.

The record reflects that while on a trip from Texarkana to Sheffield on March 1, 1968, the complaining witness, Lawrence Cadenhead, was flagged down a few miles east of Ballinger by the 21 year old appellant, who stated she and 'her husband' had a flat tire on their automobile parked near a roadside park and requested a ride into Ballinger. Once in Ballinger the couple requested they be carried to San Angelo where they had relatives. Cadenhead agreed. After a number of miles on the San Angelo-Paint Rock highway Cadenhead was struck by appellant's companion, Hobart Barrington, and a watch and two rings were taken from him. At the point of a screw driver he was forced to drive to a remote area where he was taken from his pickup truck, had his clothes stripped from him and was tied to a tree. While in such condition the appellant struck the complainant in the head with a 12 inch wrench. She asked him if he had heard of 'Bonnie and Clyde' and when Cadenhead replied 'Yes, and lots of others' she responded, 'We are them and a lot meaner.' During this interim the appellant or her companion took from Cadenhead's billfold two gasoline credit cards and some cash. Eventually, Cadenhead was released from the tree and permitted to put on his tattered clothes. After getting gas in Paint Rock the couple drove to a deserted ranch house where Cadenhead was again forced to disrobe, was tied hand and foot, struck again in the head with a wrench, choked and left for dead. The couple departed in Cadenhead's pickup truck. After a night of 36 temperature a rancher, looking for sheep, observed new looking shoes in front of the deserted house, heard hollering inside and discovered Cadenhead in the condition in which he had been left.

Cadenhead made a positive in-court identification of the appellant as the woman who had assaulted him.

The appellant called one witness who testified that the appellant was with him in San Antonio at the time of the alleged offense. The jury by their verdict ¹ rejected the defense of alibi.

In her first ground of error appellant urges the trial court erred in failing to grant her motion for change of venue. In such motion she alleged that there existed in Concho County so great a prejudice against her that she could not obtain a fair and impartial trial. See Article 31.03, Vernon's Ann.C.C.P.

At the hearing on the motion to change venue the appellant did not call either one of the two compurgators. Instead, she called the District Attorney and her great aunt, both residents of Tom Green County. By these witnesses it was merely established that there was a newspaper, a television station and several radio stations in San Angelo in Tom Green County adjoining the county of the prosecution. The extent of the coverage in Concho County of the news media was not shown. The appellant also offered into evidence approximately 19 newspaper stories that had appeared in the San Angelo Standard Times and one that had appeared in the Eden Echo concerning the alleged offense during a period of approximately three months. These news accounts appeared to have been published merely to inform the public of current events. They certainly were not inflammatory in nature.

The State relied upon the testimony of the Sheriff that appellant could receive a fair and impartial trial in Concho County.

We cannot agree that the court abused its discretion in denying the motion for change of venue.

In 16 Tex.Jur.2d, Criminal Law, Sec. 246, p. 398, it is written:

'The mere fact that a matter has been presented by the press and discussed by the public does not conclusively establish prejudgment of the cause. And an inference of prejudice, requiring a change of venue, is not to be drawn from the fact alone that newspapers published in the vicinity have contained articles descriptive of the offense, or editorials denunciatory of the accused, provided the accounts are fair, not inflammatory, and apparently published for the purpose of informing the public of current events. It is not enough for one seeking a change of venue to show the publication of newspaper articles in respect of the case; he must go further and show that by reason thereof there has been created in the public mind so great a prejudice as will prevent him from receiving a fair trial.

'At times, the courts do encounter situations in which printed publicity has been an important factor in creating such prejudice as would render it improbable that, pursuing the methods provided by law, an impartial trial could be had. And evidence of such publications and their circulation is relevant on the issue of prejudice.'

Although the appellant introduced newspaper clippings, she did not go further and show that by reason thereof there had been created in the public mind so great a prejudice as would prevent her from receiving a fair trial.

The motion for change of venue was renewed after the voir dire examination of the jury panel and was again denied. We have carefully examined the jury voir dire and have concluded the trial court correctly ruled.

Next, appellant advances the contention that '(t)he court erred in not permitting the defendant to have a full discovery.'

The appellant was accorded a pre-trial hearing on her motion or motions for discovery under Article 39.14, V.A.C.C.P. The careful trial judge went over each item requested and granted most of what the appellant asked.

On the morning the trial commenced a deputy sheriff called the Sheriff's and District Attorney's attention to a box of items collected as evidence in the case which had been stored in the Sheriff's office. The court and the appellant's counsel were notified and counsel was given a few minutes to examine the items which the prosecutor stated he would not introduce. Later, an examination of the items in the box was held in the presence of the court in the jury's absence. At the court's suggestion some clothing (apparently of the complaining witness) which bore stains resembling blood were sent to the Department of Public Safety for analysis. The appellant refused the court's offer to take a portion of the clothing for use in a similar analysis. Later it was shown by a chemist's testimony that the stains were in fact blood, but the stains were too old to determine if it was human or animal blood.

Appellant's chief complaint appears to be that the State suppressed evidence by failing to produce the box of items at the time of the pre-trial hearing rather than upon the discovery of the box on the morning of the trial. There is nothing, however, to show that the Sheriff or District Attorney acted except in good faith.

The items having been called to appellant's attention prior to trial, appellant cannot now claim suppression of evidence of which she was aware prior to the jury's retirement. See Means v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 429 S.W.2d 490, 496. Further, she has failed to point out how any of this evidence was favorable to her on either the issue of guilt or punishment. Her reliance upon Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, is misplaced.

Ground of error #2 is overruled.

Next, appellant contends the 'court erred in permitting the testimony of Witness Jack Jones.'

Jones, a deputy sheriff from Tom Green County, testified that known fingerprints of the appellant matched a partial print lifted from an abandoned Mercury automobile found at a roadside park several miles east of Ballinger. Appellant does not challenge Jones' qualifications as a fingerprint expert but complains that (1) the photographs of the fingerprints were not full blown photographs and (2) the points of comparison were seven or eight rather than twelve which would have been preferable for a partial print. Further, she complains that she was unable on cross-examination to make the witness Jones clearly delineate the seven or eight points of comparison he testified he found. The record reveals that appellant's counsel possessed considerable knowledge of identification by the use of fingerprints. The fact, however, that an expert witness' testimony has been shaken on cross-examination goes to its weight, not to its admissibility. Grooms v. State, 40 Tex.Cr.R. 319, 50 S.W. 370.

There does not appear to be any hard and fast rule as to the minimum number of identical characteristics or points of comparison for a positive identification. Moses, Scientific Proof in Criminal Cases, Sec. 706, VII--9. While some law enforcement agencies require more, the Houston Police Department requires only seven, Moses, supra,...