Case ID: sw_145/html/0607-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PRENDERGÁST, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

BAKER v. STATE.
    (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    Oct. 18, 1911.
    Rehearing Denied April 3, 1912.)
    1. CRIMINAL Law (§ 1091) — Appeal and-Error — Bill of Exceptions — Sufficiency.
    In a prosecution for the theft of cattle, a bill of exceptions, reciting that the state offered in evidence a brand of one M., recorded in the brand book of the county, whereupon defendant objected to its admission, because, when recorded, the law required the county clerk to designate the part of the animal on-which it should be placed, and the record did not indicate where the animal should be branded, and that the record further disclosed that five brands were recorded at that time, when the law allowed a recordation of only one, and that the objections were overruled, to which1 action accused excepted, is fatally defective, not furnishiüg the court with all matters sufficient to pass on the question involved.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal’ Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 2803, 2815, 2816, 2818, 2819, 2823, 2824, 2828-2833, 2843, 2931-2933, 2943;: Dec, Dig. § 1091.]
    2. Criminal Law (§ 1091) — Appeal—Bill, of Exceptions — Sufficiency.
    A bill of exceptions must be so full in its. statements that it will disclose all that is necessary to show the supposed error, and must state enough of the evidence or facts to render-intelligible the rulings excepted to.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 2803, 2815, 2816, 2818, 2819, 2823, 2824, 2828-2833, 2843, 2931-2933, 2943;. Dec. Dig. § 1091.]
    3. Criminal Law (§ 1091) — Appeai>-Bill. of Exceptions.
    A bill of exceptions cannot be aided either by a statement in reply to a motion for new-trial, or by the statement of facts.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 2803, 2815, 2816, 2818, 2819, 2823, 2824, 2828-2833, 2843, 2931-2933, 2943 r Dee. Dig. § 1091.]
    4. Criminal Law (§ 1111) — Appeal—Bill of Exceptions.
    The bill of exceptions controls the statement of facts.
    [Ed. Note. — For other eases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 2894-2896; Dec. Dig. S; 1111.]
    
      8. Oeimistal Law (§ 1092) — Appeal — Bill op Exceptions.
    Objections in the bill of exceptions, or the mere statement of the ground of objection, is not equivalent to the certificate of the trial judge that what is stated is true.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 2829, 2834-2861, 2919; Dec. Dig. § 1092.]
    6. Larceny (§ 75) — Prosecution — Construction.
    In a prosecution for the theft of cattle, a charge that, if the animal in question was the property of the prosecuting witness, yet defendant cannot be convicted if it went voluntarily into his lot or pasture, or got in there •otherwise than through the act or agency of defendant, is not erroneous in authorizing a conviction if defendant drove the animal into his .pasture, though not intending to steal it, or if the agent of defendant drove the animal into the pasture.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Larceny, •Cent. Dig. §§ 190, 198; Dec. Dig. § 75.]
    '7. Criminal Law (§ 822) — Trial—Instructions.
    The whole of a charge in a prosecution must be considered together.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 3158; Dec. Dig. § 822.]
    8. Criminal Law (§ 1086) — Appeal—Questions Presented eor Review.
    Though special charges requested by ae-■eused appear in the record, the refusal of such charges cannot be reviewed, where the record does not show that the trial judge either gave or refused them; the refusal not being authenticated'by the official signature of the judge.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. §§ 2736-2769, 2770, 2772, 2794; Dec. Dig. § 1086.]
    :9. Criminal Law (§ 829) — Triai>-Reeusal oe Instructions.
    The refusal of requested special charges is not error, where they were covered by the • charge as given.
    [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. § 2011; Dec. Dig. § 829.]
    Appeal from District Court, Chambers ■County; L. B. Hightower, Judge.
    Harrison Baker was convicted of cattle theft, and appeals.
    Affirmed.
    R. J. McMurrey and Stevens & Pickett, for appellant. C. E. Lane, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
    
      
       For other cases see same topic and section NUMBER in Dec. Dig.-& Am. Dig. Key No. Series & Rep’r Indexes:
    
    
      
       For other cases see same topic and section NUMBER in Dec. Dig. & Am. Dig. Key No. Series & Rep'r Indexes
    
   PRENDERGÁST, J.

On March 16, 1910, the appellant was indicted by the grand jury •of Chambers county for the theft of one head of cattle on or about February 8, 1910, the property of A. D. Middleton. He was •convicted and given the lowest penalty — two years in the penitentiary.

The0 testimony clearly sustains the conviction. We do not propose to give but a brief statement from the evidence. Middleton, the alleged owner of the one head of cattle, testified that on February 8, 1910, he saw •some cattle of his in appellant’s possession; that since his father’s death he had been ■giving the J. H. 9 brand — “that top brand there in the book, and the brand my father gave;” that some time in February, 1910, he found one head of cattle in the -possession of the appellant at his (appellant’s) place; that when he first saw the yearling it was in appellant’s lot. He then describes the lot as at appellant’s house, and the testimony by the state’s witnesses Shows that the appellant’s house was some 100 to 150 yards from the public road, and that the lot and cattle were back of the' house, and could not be seen from the road because of shrubbery, bushes, etc., which prevented. It was also shown by other witnesses that the appellant, on the same day and repeatedly for two or three weeks before then, had claimed this particular yearling and some 24 or more others, and had repeatedly driven them up from the outside into his lot and little pasture.

This witness Middleton further testified: “The color of the yearling I found was, I call it, a yellow red. It was about a year old. With reference to whether there was any other brand on that brute, except mine, well, there was ‘J. H. U.’ or ‘U. H. U.’ on it, part of it fresh. Some of it looked to be burned over; some had not been burned but once, and some twice. I could tell it had been defaced before that. Before it had been defaced, the J. H. 9 brand was on it, and that was my brand. That was my brute. I did not give this defendant my consent to take it, or any one else. I was looking after those cattle at that time, and I had charge of them. When I first saw my yearling, Henderson Baker was not there. We went up there, and Henderson Baker was not there; but his boy was there. He finally came before I left. * * * I saw the yearling in his lot when I first got there — not right around his barn, but in a small lot outside. That lot was completely inclosed. * * * This lot that I found this yearling in when I first got there was Henderson Baker’s lot. It was closed up and had gates, and they were shut.” This witness and several others show clearly that there were 25 head of yearlings in appellant’s lot, including this one, at this same time; and he is shown by other witnesses to have been claiming and driving up from out of others’ fields these cattle, from time to time, for two or three weeks immediately preceding this particular date. This witness further shows that he had some seven or eight hundred head of cattle running around in this same country, and that this particular yearling and others of his cattle were gentle, and that most of his cattle around in that neighborhood were gentle; that it would eat cotton seed hulls, and did so on this occasion, when a test was made at the time; that wild cattle would not eat cotton seed hulls, unless they were somewhat starved to it; and that it took several days before they would do so.

Sid Wilcox, another witness for the state, showed that on the morning of February 8, 1910, he, with others, including Middleton, went to appellant's house and found about 25 head of cattle, including this one, alleged to be Middleton’s, and that they were penned up in a lot back of appellant’s house; that the lot was inclosed with a fence, so that it not only held a cow, but yearlings away from their'mothers. “I found in that pen one of Mr. Middleton’s cattle. The brute was a bull yearling, branded, but unmarked. The original brand on that brute was J. H. 9, which was Archie Middleton’s brand. That brand had been defaced into something else. That which appeared on the brute at that time was U. H. U., I would call it. There was a difference in that part of the brand and the other. The J. H. 9 part was the older. The J. H. 9 had been well, and the other part, I think it was peeled off, but not well yet. * * * The old brand showed plain to me as day. I could tell the new from the old brand, as it had been burned over, and you could tell it.”

This witness further shows that after he found these yearlings in appellant’s pen he left there and went to a store, the distance not given, where he met appellant and talked about buying his yearlings. The appellant then claimed that he had 25 yearlings belonging to him in his pen which he wanted to sell, and upon this witness offering to buy them he claimed that he could not then make a trade with him, because he had given another party the opportunity to first buy, and could not sell to this witness until he heard from the other party. This witness then went with him from this store to appellant’s residence, and he talked about the yearlings and claimed them all until he got there and found Middleton, the sheriff, and others there. Thereupon he claimed only one of them. After they got back to the pen where the yearlings were, the appellant claimed that they would not eat cotton seed hulls, and that he had no feed of that kind. Some one present then went to appellant’s crib and got a sack of hulls to test whether the yearlings would eat them or not, and took it out and poured it in the troughs. All of the yearlings, including Middleton’s, at once ran up to the troughs and began to eat the hulls.

Both of these witnesses, Middleton and Wilcox, the first 34 years of age, and the latter 40 years of age, testified that they had been in the cattle business all their lives and showed their familiarity therewith.

In the presentation of this case in appellant’s brief, his attorneys claim that the ownership of Middleton of the yearling charged to have been stolen was attempted to be established solely by his brand. We have gone over the testimony several times, and especially on this point; and it is our opinion that the contention of the appellant on this point, from the testimony, is not borne out, but that the testimony • tends to show that the witnesses identified the yearling as Middleton’s, without restricting their testimony to the brand alone.

Appellant has four bills of exceptions in the record. The state objects to the consideration of each of them by this court, because they do not comply with the rules and are insufficient, and are so indefinite that this court cannot determine properly the questions attempted to be raised thereby. We will give practically in full the first bill, so that therefrom it can be determined whether they should be considered by this court. The first bill, omitting the style, number, and court, is: “Be it remembered that on the trial of the above-styled cause in this court on September 13, 1910, the following proceedings were had, to wit: The state proposed to offer in evidence a brand of Dave Middleton, recorded on page 18 of the brand record of Chambers county, Tex., said brand the state so proposed to offer in evidence being *J — f ’; whereupon defendant objected to the admission of said brand and the record thereof, for the reason that when same was recorded, on January 7, 1876, the law provided that the county clerk of Chambers county, when recording a brand, should designate the part of the animal on which it should be placed, and subjected him to a penalty for failure to do so, and this record does not indicate the part of the animal said brand should be placed on; and it is therefore illegally registered and not admissible in evidence. And defendant further objected to such evidence, on the ground that the record disclosed that the same party, Dave Middleton, recorded at that same time five brands in his own name, in violation of law, as the law provided that he could only record one brand. The said page 18 of the brand record, showing said five brands were so recorded by Dave Middleton at the same time, is as follows: ‘David Middleton Brand (thus) J — f.’ Then under this there is a ditto mark under each of the words ‘David Middleton,’ ‘Brand,’ ‘thus,’ and then a character indicating a brand right under the one first just given. It is unnecessary to give these, as they would throw no light on the question. Then follows this: ‘David Middleton’s earmarks, to wit: Earmark. Swallow fork in right ear, crop in the left ear. Earmark. Swallow fork and underbit in one ear, crop and under half crop in the other. Recorded January 7, 1876.’ ” The signs for ears and the marks are included in this last quotation in the record; but they are unnecessary to be given here, as they would serve to illustrate no question. Then the bill concludes: “Which objections the court overruled and admitted said brand in evidence. To which action of the court in admitting said evidence over said objections, defendant then and there, in open court, excepted, and now tenders this as his bill of exceptions No. 1, and prays that same be approved and ordered filed as a part of the record in this cause.”

We have recently had occasion to investigate' and restate the rules that have uniformly been followed by this court as to the necessary requisites of a bill of exceptions. We will not cite all the authorities again, but will merely briefly state the substance of these rules.

The allegations in the bill must be full and explicit, so that the matters presented to the court may be comprehended without recourse to inference.

They must be so explicit as to enable the Court of Appeals to fully understand all the facts upon which the correctness or error of the ruling depends; otherwise it will hot be considered.

It must set out the proceedings in the court below sufficiently to enable the court, on appeal, to know that an error has been committed.

It must be so full in its statements that, in and of itself, it will disclose all that is necessary to manifest the supposed error, and must state enough of the evidence or facts proven to render intelligible the rulings excepted to.

It cannot be aided either by a statement in reply to a motion for new trial, or by the statement of facts.

It controls even the statement of facts.

Objections in the bill, or the mere statement of the ground of objection .in it, is not the certificate of the judge that what is stated is true.

Por a collation of the authorities establishing these rules and some of the cases following th^m, see White’s C. C. P. arts. 857 and 1123, and many recent cases decided by this court since these cases were collated by Judge White, among them James v. State, 138 S. W. 612; Conger v. State, 140 S. W. 1112, not yet officially reported.

Tested by these rules, this bill is so fatally defective and so patent that it is unnecessary to specifically point out its defects. We deem it unnecessary to give either of the other three bills by appellant. Each of them are as fatally defective, if not more so, than the one above copied. We therefore sustain the state’s contention that these bills are insufficient to require this court to consider them. However, we desire to state that in the investigation of the record and these bills that, even if they could be considered as raising the points attempted to be raised thereby, they do not show any reversible error. Appellant’s attorneys have presented an able brief and cited many cases. It may be that the propositions of law asserted by them in their presentation of these several bills are correct, but their application to this .case is by no means conceded.

The appellant, by his brief, presents but five assignments of error, though many grounds are set up in the motion for new trial. Under the first three of these assignments are presented three of said bills of exceptions. Under the fourth assignment is presented an objection to the court’s charge, and under the fifth is presented the refusal of three special charges claimed to have been requested by appellant, and in the same connection some complaints are made of the court’s charge.

By his fourth assignment, he attacks this portion of the court’s charge, which is a separate paragraph thereof: “You are further charged that, should you find from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the animal in question [the one claimed by Middleton] was the property of said A. D. Middleton, yet you find that the said animal voluntarily went into the defendant’s lot or pasture, or got in there otherwise than through the act or agency of defendant, then you will acquit the defendant, • or if you entertain a reasonable doubt upon this point — that is, as to whether or not the said animal went of its own will into the defendant’s lot or pasture, or got there otherwise than by the act of the defendant— then you will give the defendant the benefit of such doubt and acquit him.” The attack on this charge is that thereby the jury was permitted to convict appellant if they found that he simply drove the cattle into his pasture, although at the time of such driving he had no intention to steal them. Also that it allowed a conviction if the jury found that an agent of defendant drove the animal into his pasture, and claims that there is no testimony whatever in the record upon which to place such an issue; that is, that' there was no evidence that any agent of the defendant, at any time, had anything to do with the animal. We have carefully considered the whole charge of the court, and, in our opinion, it presents clearly the law of the case to the jury and applies the law to the facts properly. We believe that this particular portion of the charge complained of does not authorize the jury to do either or any of the things claimed in the attack thereof. On the contrary, we think it is very favorable.to the appellant, as much, if not more so, than the facts and the law authorized. It is elementary that the whole of a charge in a case must be considered together; that different paragraphs or sentences thereof must be considered in connection with the whole.

Appellant, in his fifth assignment, complains of the refusal of the court to give three special charges which he claims to have requested, and which were refused by the lower court. There appears in the record what purports to be three special charges, requested by the appellant; but neither of them shows that the judge either refused or gave them. Certainly the judge did not, as shown by either, authenticate it by his official signature as having been refused. Under such circumstances, we cannot consider the charges as having been requested and refused. We have carefully considered each one of these charges, however ; and it is our opinion that, in so far as either was proper to he given, it was substantially covered by the court in the main charge given, and, even if they had been requested and refused, their refusal does not show reversible error.

The judgment will therefore, in all things, be affirmed.

DAVIDSON, P. J., absent.