Williams v. State
| Decision Date | 22 January 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 36293,36293 |
| Citation | 375 S.W.2d 449 |
| Parties | Hubert Otto WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
L. Clayton Rivers, Jr., El Paso, for appellant.
Edwin F. Berliner, Dist. Atty., Sam W. Callan, Asst. Dist. Atty., El Paso, and Leon B. Douglas, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
The offense is incest; the punishment, 8 years.
The indictment alleged that the appellant, on or about December 12, 1962, did unlawfully and incestuously, carnally know and have carnal knowledge of his daughter.
The daughter named in the indictment was the principal state's witness. The court correctly instructed the jury that she was an accomplice and that her testimony required corroboration.
She testified that she was 17 years old and was the daughter of the appellant; that she had sexual intercourse with him at their home in El Paso on December 12, 1962, and on many prior occasions in El Paso and elsewhere. She admitted having sexual relations with other males, and testified that her first sexual intercourse was with the appellant when she was about 11 years old. She also testified that the appellant had committed acts of sodomy with his mouth upon her.
Dr. Frederick P. Bornstein testified that he examined the girl on December 20, 1962 and that her hymen and genitals indicated that she had had repeated sexual intercourse over a protracted period of time, but he found no evidence of violence on the body or of recent sexual intercourse.
The written statement of the appellant made on December 20, 1962, was introduced in evidence, in which he confessed to having sexual relations with his daughter beginning some 4 years previously and continuing off and on since that time. He recounted certain specific acts of intercourse and where they occurred, the last being in December 12, 1962, in his bedroom.
The appellant testified in his own behalf and called his 16 year old son as a witness.
The boy testified that he did not recall the night of December 12, 1962; that he saw his father and his sister in bed together once; that he never slept with his father; that because of limited covering his sister would sleep with his father on cold nights; that he never saw anything go on wrong between his sister and father.
The appellant testified that he was not not guilty of the charge against him; had never had sexual relations with the girl; that she was not his natural child, but was conceived while he was overseas, that he considered and treated her as a daughter. He also testified that she had slept with him once or twice on a real cold night.
The appellant also testified that the warning appearing at the head of the statement was not given or read to him; that he had no warning other than '* * * we would be up all night if I didn't sign the statement.'
The issue as to the voluntary nature of the confession and the giving of proper warning was submitted to the jury and was resolved against the appellant.
The testimony of the 17 year old girl, corroborated by the confession of the appellant, is sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict.
The serious and difficult question raised on the appeal relates to the overruling of appellant's motion for new trial which was based upon the affidavit and testimony of the daughter to the effect that her testimony at the trial was false and in fact the appellant had never had sexual intercourse with her.
The state challenges the consideration of the statement of facts on the motion for new trial which was forwarded to this court attached to and forming a part of the statement of facts on the main trial.
The statement of facts having been prepared upon oath of inability of the appellant to pay for it, we granted the request that it be returned to the trial court. This was done and the statement of facts on the motion for new trial was separately filed in the trial court. Such statement of facts, approved by the trial judge after the expiration of the 90 days allowed for filing same, is before us and will be considered. Art. 759a, Sec. 4, Vernon's Ann.C.C.P.
The general rule is that where a witness has testified to material inculpatory facts against an accused and after verdict, and before motion for new trial has been acted upon, such witness makes affidavit that he...
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May v. Collins
...accept the earlier testimony as true," Banda v. State, 727 S.W.2d 679, 682 (Tex.App.--Austin 1987, no writ) (citing Williams v. State, 375 S.W.2d 449, 452 (Tex.Cr.App.1964)), and denial of a new trial based on affidavits of recantation will be upheld unless there is an abuse of discretion. ......
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Keeter v. State
...it can be construed as supporting the Court of Appeals's idea that some basis in the record must exist to disbelieve a recantation. In Williams v. State, we said: "The general rule is that where a has testified to material inculpatory facts against an accused and after verdict, and before m......
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Moreno, Jr. v. State
...new trial that he or she testified falsely in the trial, the trial court should grant the motion for new trial. Williams v. State, 375 S.W.2d 449, 451 (Tex. Crim. App. 1964). An exception exists where evidence is produced at the new trial hearing that the recantation is not credible or is p......
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Eisenman v. State, No. 13-05-705-CR (Tex. App. 1/10/2008)
...evidence adduced at trial, affidavits, and the testimony at the hearing on the motion for new trial." Id. (citing Williams v. State, 375 S.W.2d 449, 451 (Tex. Crim. App. 1964)). Should it appear to the trial court that, under the circumstances, the weight or credibility of the new evidence ......