Yates v. State, 45635
| Decision Date | 24 January 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 45635,45635 |
| Citation | 489 S.W.2d 620 |
| Parties | Samuel Dewey YATES, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Foy Clement, Abilene, for appellant.
Ed Paynter, Dist. Atty. and Lynn Ingalsbe, Asst. Dist. Atty., Abilene and Jim D. Vollers, State's Atty., Robert A. Huttash, Asst. State's Atty., Austin, for the State.
DAVIS, Commissioner.
This is an appeal from a conviction for murder. Punishment was assessed by the jury at ninety-nine years.
Appellant contends that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence at the guilt stage of the trial, over objection, pleadings and temporary restraining orders in a divorce suit between the appellant and the deceased. Appellant argues that the contents of the pleadings and orders are hearsay and remote in time from the transaction on trial.
Among the papers in the divorce action admitted into evidence, over objection, were:
1. A divorce petition filed by the deceased against her husband, the appellant herein, bearing the date of July 10, 1970, which recited that appellant had on numerous occasions been guilty of physical violence toward deceased and unless restrained by the court, the deceased feared that she and her children would suffer from appellant.
2. Temporary restraining order, dated July 10, 1970, issued without notice to appellant reciting, 'and the court, after considering said application, is of the opinion that immediate and irreparable injury will accrue to the petitioner if the following order is not entered . . .' Among other things, the order restrained appellant from seeing or, in any manner, molesting the deceased.
3. A supplemental petition, filed July 27, 1970, reciting that since the filing of the divorce suit that appellant had been guilty of physical violence toward the deceased and had 'abused and frightened her and her children,' and further, that the appellant is known to carry a pistol and that deceased was 'fearful for her safety and that of her children.'
4. A temporary restraining order issued without notice to appellant bearing the date of July 27, 1970, reciting that appellant should be restrained from coming about, seeing, bothering or molesting the deceased and her children.
After the supplemental petition and restraining order of July 27, 1970, appellant and the deceased were reconciled.
Carol Yates, eighteen year old daughter of the deceased, testified that her mother and appellant had an argument on the night of May 7, 1971, concerning appellant undressing in front of Carol. Her room in the trailer house in which the Yates family lived in Taylor County was located next to the bedroom occupied by deceased and appellant and according to Carol Yates, the argument was concluded by the firing of five or six shots.
Appellant, testifying in his own behalf, stated that he and deceased had been arguing on the night in question and that deceased went to the drawer where three loaded guns were kept, opened the drawer, ...
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Williams v. State
...that the defendant had procured the marriage by the infliction of many acts of violence upon former wife); Yates v. State, 489 S.W.2d 620, 621 (Tex.Crim.App.1973)(error to admit pleadings and temporary restraining orders in a divorce suit between the defendant and the We cannot rely solely ......
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Oliver v. State
...pleadings and judgments from other cases are inadmissible as hearsay. Acker v. State, 421 S.W.2d 398 (Tex.Cr.App.1967); Yates v. State, 489 S.W.2d 620 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Brooks v. State, 475 S.W.2d 268 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Busby v. State, 51 Tex.Cr.R. 289, 103 S.W. 638 (1907) (case 3, on moti......
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Jones v. State, 48942
...been held to be inadmissible in uxoricide trials. For example, the contents of divorce petitions filed by the deceased, Yates v. State, 489 S.W.2d 620 (Tex.Cr.App.1973), after remand and new trial, 509 S.W.2d 600 (Tex.Cr.App.1974); Acker v. State, 421 S.W.2d 398 (Tex.Cr.App.1967); Hoyle v. ......
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Yates v. State
...for murder. The jury assessed the punishment at life. A previous conviction for this homicide was before this Court in Yates v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 489 S.W.2d 620. The sufficiency of the evidence is not The proof shows that the appellant shot his wife some six times with a pistol and killed......