Case Name: BAKER v. STATE
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1929-02-13
Citations: 16 S.W.2d 248
Docket Number: No. 12122
Parties: BAKER v. STATE.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 16
Pages: 248–251

Head Matter:
BAKER v. STATE.
(No. 12122.)
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
Feb. 13, 1929.
Rehearing Granted April 10, 1929.
Lon A. Brooks, of Abilene, for appellant.
A. A. Dawson, State’s Atty., of Austin, for the State.

Opinion:
CHRISTIAN, J.
The offense is murder; the punishment, confinement in the penitentiary for 30 years.
" Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence. Appellant was the wife of deceased. Omitting the formal parts, appellant's confession reads as follows:
"My name is Clyde Baker. I am 20 years old. I am the wife of Charlie Baker. On last Saturday May 21th, 1927, I bought a small bottle of strychnine poison at B. Yates Drug Co. on the west side of the square. I paid 35 cts. for the bottle of poison. I told the man in the drug store I wanted it to kill rats with. I also bought some pills a't this same time. It was a slender curley headed man I bought the articles from. I got a box from Bryant Link Store and fixed up this poison and pills and addressed the package containing the same to Charlie Baker 412 Davenport Street Stamford, Texas. I enclosed a letter with the package and signed Charlie's mothers name to it, that is Pearl McTerrell. I wrote this letter in Mrs. Roy Smith's home. I was asleep Monday 23rd when Charlie received this package, he later told me had taken some of it, that it was bitter and made water taste bitter. In a few minutes after this Charlie was in convulsions and later died. Charlie told me that he had let our baby taste of the stopper to the medicine."
In response to questions by appellant's counsel, the district attorney stated that he showed appellant the letter referred to in her written confession. An employee of Yates Drug Company testified, in substance, that before the. death of deceased appellant bought a bottle of strychnine and some compound cathartic pills from him, stating that she wanted to kill rats with it. The district attorney showed him the bottle and pills found in the home of deceased. Some of the strychnine was gone. The witness stated that the bottle presented to him had contained the strychnine sold appellant, and that the package of pills offered in evidence was similar to the package he had delivered to appellant. Appellant's employer testified that his wife took a package from their mail box, which was addressed to Charlie Baker, the deceased, and that about an hour and a half later he found deceased in the yard in a dying condition. He stated that deceased was in convulsions and' was vomiting; that with the help of a negro he carried deceased to his bed; that there was a bottle on the table in deceased's room, which contained a white powder, and near it a box of compound cathartic pills; that before he discovered deceased, appellant, who had been present, had gone to the hospital, carrying her oldest child with her; that she made the remark that she was going to take the baby to the doctor, inasmuch as it was sick. The bottle of stryeh- nine and package of compound cathartic pills found by appellant's employer in deceased's home were shown by the state to have been the same articles purchased by appellant at the drug store. A letter addressed to deceased was found in the home of appellant's employer on the shelf under his library table between some books. Appellant, who is a negress, was cooking for the family of her employer and had access to the house at all times. This letter, which was offered in evidence, roads as follows :
"Dear Son: How are you all this leaves us fine. Charlie I am sending you some medican ted told me you were sick I sure would like to see you all now you take your medican it is powered quinine love to ted and the babys Would write more but in a hurry. I am in Hillsboro now. Answer soon to your Mother Pearl McTerrell. All are well."
Appellant's employer found a piece of paper near the box of strychnine in appellant's home. It was addressed as follows: "Mr. Charlie Baker, 412 East Davenport St., Stamford, Texas." He testified that he thought it was the paper the package taken from his mail box had been wrapped in, as it carried the same address and was of the. same color. Appellant offered no testimony.
We deem it unnecessary to further point out the many facts and, circumstances independent of the confession which tend to show that deceased came to his death by an act of violence on the part of appellant. It is the announcement of the decisions that the evidence of death by violence independent of the confession need not be in itself conclusive, but that it may be supplemented or aided by the confession and made conclusive if accepted by the jury under proper charge as to proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Kugadt v. State, 38 Tex. Cr. R. 681, 44 S. W. 989; Aven v. State, 95 Tex. Cr. R. 155, 253 S. W. 521. Giving application here to the rule referred to, we are constrained to hold the evidence sufficient to establish the corpus delicti.
Bill of exception No. 2 deals with the action of the court in receiving in evidence the letter referred to in appellant's confession ; it being appellant's contention, as shown by her objections, that a sufficient predicate had not been laid for the introduction of the letter and "that it had not been shown that appellant wrote said letter or had anything to do with the writing of same." The court qualified the bill by stating that he gave a charge on circumstantial evidence. The district attorney had testified prior to the introduction of the letter that he showed the letter to appellant. Appellant admitted in her confession that she wrote the letter. We think, a proper predicate had been established.
Bill of exception No. 3 is concerned with the action of the court in permitting the state to offer in evidence the strychnine, compound cathartic pills, and paper bearing the address of deceased. The bill is qualified in the same manner as the foregoing bill. In our opinion a sufficient predicate was laid for the introduction in evidence of these articles.
Finding no error, the judgment is affirmed.
PER CURIAM. The foregoing opinion of the Comipission of Appeals has been examined by the Judges of the Court of Criminal Appeals, and approved by the court.