White v. State
| Decision Date | 24 April 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 28879,28879 |
| Citation | 165 Tex.Crim. 339,306 S.W.2d 903 |
| Parties | Charles WHITE, alias Charlie White, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
J. P. Darrouzet, Victor Rogers, Austin, Percy Foreman, Houston (On Appeal Only), for appellant.
Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
BELCHER, Commissioner.
The conviction is for murder, the indictment alleging that appellant killed the deceased 'by strangling him with a wire'; the punishment was assessed at death.
Mrs. Lambert Berkman, daughter of the deceased, testified that the appellant and his brother, Calvin White, came to the farm home where she and her husband lived about 1 p. m., July 21, 1955, in a blue-colored pickup; that appellant asked about her father and brother and where they were living, and she told [165 TEXCRIM 340] him; that he further asked if her brother had married and if they were 'still batching', and she told him 'yes' (her mother had died several years before); that he next asked if her brother was working, where he worked, and what time he went to work in the morning, and she told him that he worked at the Texas Quarry and left home about 7 a. m. because he was due at his place of employment by 8 a. m. She testified that the appellant asked if her brother and father still had some cattle and how many, and she told him they had about 25. She testified also that she had a custom of telephoning her father every morning usually between 7:30 a. m. and 10 a. m., and when she was unable to get him on the telephone on Monday morning, July 25, 1955, she telephoned a neighbor of her father's, asked her to see about him, and the neighbor soon thereafter telephoned from her father's house.
J. C. Robinson testified that he was a neighbor to the Heidel's and that he saw a blue-colored pickup at the hay barn located some distance from the corral and residence on the Heidel farm about 8:30 a. m., July 25, 1955, and shortly thereafter saw it leaving the barn at a fast rate of speed.
D. C. Robbins, a cattle buyer, testified that on Wednesday, July 20, 1955, the appellant and another man came to his home in a blue-colored pickup; that appellant asked about borrowing his trailer which he wanted on the following Friday to haul about 25 head of cattle, and he told him he could have it if he was not using it; that he next saw appellant about 6 p. m., Sunday, July 24, when he came in the blue-colored pickup to his home and told him that the man with him the other day had decided to sell his cattle the next day (Monday); that this man had 24 head, had said he would take $1,200 for them, and they were located on the Burnet highway. He testified that he agreed to go with appellant to see the cattle about 9 or 10 o'clock the next morning; that appellant returned to his home at 9:30 a. m., Monday, July 25, in the blue-colored pickup, and they went in the pickup out on the Burnet road about 6 or 7 miles to the Heidel farm. He further testified that when they arrived at the Heidel place he found 24 head of cattle in a corral with some hay scattered around; that after he had inspected the cattle, a man came to the corral who claimed to be the owner of the cattle and asked what he would give for them; that the owner stated that he wanted $1,200, and he later said: 'I will give you $900 for them, and go to the bank and get the money' because the appellant had told him that the owner wouldn't take a check, and which offer was later accepted. He further testified that he [165 TEXCRIM 341] asked the owner to go with him to the bank for the money and to get Mr. Schwertner's truck to haul them, but the owner declined giving as his reason that a man from Burnet was coming to see him, and that the owner said: 'You bring the money back out here, and I will sell you them when you get back.' The person claiming to be the owner upon being asked stated that his name was Roy C. Poke. Robbins testified that the appellant took him home in the blue-colored pickup, and after appellant left his home, he telephoned Gene Schwertner and they then went to the Heidel place with sufficient money to pay for the cattle; that while they were looking at the cattle in the corral he saw 'the blue pickup' come out of the bushes about one hundred yards to the east which was the same pickup in which he had ridden with the appellant that morning; that he recognized the occupants of the pickup as the appellant and the pretended owner of the cattle, who was in fact Calvin White, as they passed along the road about fifty yards away going west; that he waved his hat and called for them to stop and Schwertner blew the horn on his car, but the appellant and Calvin White never looked in their direction, and that they tried to overtake them in Schwertner's car but were unable to do so.
Ed Heidel, a son of the deceased, Felix Heidel who was 78 years of age, testified that they had lived together on a farm northwest of the City of Austin, and that about 6:45 a. m., July 25, 1955, he left the farm for his job east of Austin; that about 1 p. m. that day in response to a telephone call he returned home, was unable to locate his father, found that a .38 Colt pistol was missing from the house, and also missed a roll of wire for a pickup haybaler from the garage, and that their 24 head of cattle had since morning been placed in the corral and fed some hay from the barn.
Sheriff Lang testified that while he was investigating the disappearance of Felix Heidel he took the appellant into custody, and on July 28 the appellant directed him to a place about six miles east of the City of Bastrop where he pointed to a grave which had been covered with the tops cut from small pine trees; that when they had removed about five feet of soft, damp soil they found the body of Felix Heidel which was swollen and in a state of putrefaction and the tongue was protruding; that at a depth of about two and one-half feet they found a small roll of wire. He further testified that there was a wire around the neck of the body which was brought from the front to the back of the head, ; that the wire was very tightly twisted and impressed into the flesh all around the neck except at the back where the twist was, and that in his opinion the wire around the neck of the body was the same as the wire in the roll found in the grave. He testified also that appellant pointed out a place about three miles east of Bastrop where they, at his direction, found a .38 Colt pistol.
The proof shows that the .38 Colt pistol found by Sheriff Lang on July 28 east of Bastrop under the direction of the appellant was the same .38 Colt pistol which was missing from the Heidel home on July 25,...
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