Case ID: sw_276/html/1105-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "HAWKINS, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

CHILES v. STATE.
    (No. 9416.)
    (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    Nov. 4, 1925.)
    1. Criminal law <&wkey;37i (2) — Proof that accused was being held for murder when he escaped from jail and stole automobile not error.
    In prosecution for theft of an automobile, which accused and others had taken on escaping from jail, where accused contended that he had no intention of appropriating it to his own use at time of theft, admission of evidence that he was being held for murder at time of escape held not error, as it was relevant on question of intent.
    2. Criminal law <§ro686(2) — Reopening of case after state had rested, not abuse of discretion.
    In prosecution for theft of automobile, where state proved accused had testified in another case that he and others had stolen car, and- no objection was interposed until after the state bad rested its case, whereupon tlie evidence was withdrawn, permitting state to reopen ease and to introduce further testimony held not an abuse of discretion allowed under Code Or. Pi-oe. 1925, art. 643.
    
      Appeal from District Court, Lamar County; R. L. Lattimore, Special Judge.
    Odell Chiles was convicted for theft of an automobile, and he appeals.
    Affirmed.
    Aaron Sturgeon and H. B. Birmingham, both of Paris, for appellant.
    Sam D. Stinson, State’s Atty., of Green-ville, and Nat Gentry, Jr., Asst. State’s Atty., of Tyler, for the State.
   HAWKINS, J.

Conviction is'for the theft of an automobile. Punishment is three years in the penitentiary.

The evidence shows that appellant, with eight other parties, were confined in the jail of Lamar county. They effected an escape. Appellant, with four others, then took an automobile from the street and drove it into the state of Arkansas, where they attempted to sell it. Learning that suspicion had been aroused in the mind of the party with- whom they were negotiating, they drove the car some distance farther and abandoned it. A few days later appellant and others who escaped with him were captured and the automobile recovered.

Over objection the court permitted proof that appellant was being held in jail on a charge of murder, and that the other prisoners who escaped with him were charged with various offenses ranging from murder to violations of the liquor law. The bill complaining of this matter bears explanation of the learned trial judge that he admitted such evidence in support of the state’s theory that appellant had no intention of returning the car to the owner, it being, appellant’s contention that at the time the car was taken he entertained nó fraudulent intent to steal it, and that, if a fraudulent intent to appropriate it to his own use was afterwards formed, it would not constitute theft. These questions were submitted to the jury for solution. To aid them in this respect we think no error was committed in receiving the evidence complained of. See Welk v. State, 99 Tex. Cr. R. 235, 265 S. W. 914, and cases cited therein;. also see authorities collated under section 166, Branch’s Ann. Tex. Penal Code.

Complaint is made because the court permitted the state to reopen the case and introduce other testimony. The state proved that appellant had testified in the trial of another case that he and others “had all stolen the car together.” No objection was interposed to this testimony at the time it was introduced. The state then rested its case. After this was done, appellant urged objection to the evidence just referred to, and requested its withdrawal. The court complied with' this request, whereupon the state was granted permission to reopen its case, and placed upon the witness stand an accomplice, who testified in detail to the escape 1 from jail, the taking of the car, and the effort to sell it. Article 643, C. C. P. 1925 (formerly article 718), provides:

“The court shall allow testimony to be introduced at any time before the argument of a cause is concluded, if it appear that it is nec-essai-y to a due administration of justice.”

At the time the court permitted the state to reopen, the case in the present instance argument had not commenced. In matters of this kind the trial judge must exercise his sound discretion. We observe nothing in the present record showing any abuse thereof. Many cases are cited in the notes under article 718, Vernon’s C. C. P.

We think there is no merit in the contention that the evidence fails to support the verdict and judgment.

Finding no error in the record, the judgment is affirmed. 
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