398 S.W.2d 281 | Tex. Crim. App. | 1966
The offense is murder without malice under Article 802c, Vernon’s Ann.P.C.; the punishment, five years.
The witness Holley testified that as he proceeded into an intersection on a green light his companion Grantham exclaimed, “Look out, we are going to get hit”, that he' looked to his right and saw an automobile so close upon him that he was unable to do anything to prevent it from crashing' into his right front door. After the collision, Holley, Grantham, appellant and another Latin American were carried to the hospital. During the journey both Holley and appellant charged each other with having run a red light. Soon after arrival at the hospital, Grantham died. While the parties were at the hospital, Officer Hiltbruner asked appellant if he was the driver of the
Numerous pictures were ' introduced which demonstrated that the Buick had rammed the Lincoln in the right front door. A number of witnesses observed the Buick run numerous red lights before it ran through the one at the intersection where the collision occurred.
The above is a brief summary of this 500 page record. The facts will be discussed more fully in passing upon appellant’s contentions raised by brief and in argument. His first contention is that the evidence is insufficient to corroborate his confessions that he was the driver of the Buick. He points to the testimony of the State’s witnesses who witnessed the speeding and the collision and stresses that appellant was in the back seat of the Buick, that another young man was in the front seat when they first approached it after the accident, and that his other companion was nowhere in sight. Much of the weight of his argument is destroyed when we look to appellant’s confession and there find the recitation “When I hit the car, I was thrown into the back seat and knocked out.” We find the facts sufficient to corroborate appellant’s confession that he was the driver at the time of the collision and to take this case out of the rule announced in Threet v. State, 157 Tex.Cr.R. 497, 250 S.W.2d 200, Spinks v. State, 156 Tex.Cr.R. 418, 243 S.W.2d 173, and the other cases upon which he relies. Bosquez v. State, 166 Tex.Cr.R. 147, 311 S.W.2d 855, supports the conclusion that the circumstantial evidence was sufficient to corroborate the confession.
He next contends that the Court erred in failing to instruct the jury of the necessity of the State’s corroborating the confessions. In Hernandez v. State, 165 Tex.Cr.R. 329, 307. S.W.2d 88, we quoted from Johnson v. State, 117 Tex.Cr.R. 103, 36 S.W.2d 748, as follows:
“ * * * It is the general rule that, ‘where there is no doubt that the crime has been committed by somebody, and defendant’s agency with it is shown alone by his confession, it is not reversible error to fail to charge that a conviction could not be had upon a confession alone.’ ”
Appellant’s next contention is that the court commented on the weight of the evidence when he used the expression “his automobile” throughout the charge. This complaint is predicated on the assumption stated above that there was no proof to corroborate the confession. While no proof was introduced that appellant owned the Buick, we have concluded as shown above, that his confession that he was driving has
Finding the evidence sufficient to sustain the conviction and no reversible error appearing, the judgment is affirmed.