Court Opinion

ID: 9778419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:03:52.141988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:18:27.641980
License: Public Domain

PHILLIPS, Judge,
dissenting.
I concur in the dissent of Judge Roberts except that part which holds that the confessions of John Wilder and Artie Armour are admissible evidence. Such a conclusion should be left to the trial judge after conducting a hearing on whether the taint of the warningless interrogation was sufficiently “attenuated.” Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975), requires more than the single determination that the confession was voluntary. It also eliminates the provision of warnings as the sine qua non of an admissible confession. If we only today conclude that unconstitutional conduct tainted a part of this police investigation, the trial court should make an initial determination of the extent the tree (the police investigation) was poisoned and whether any antidote intervened before the appellants confessed.
I further dissent on an additional ground raised by appellant Armour. Assuming ar-guendo that both appellants’ confessions were admissible as voluntary and untainted, I dissent from the majority’s disposition of appellant Armour’s ground of error which contends that the introduction of the confession given by his co-defendant, John Wilder, violated his right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him. See *370United States Constitution, Amendments VI and XIV; Bruton v. U. S., 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968). Unlike the majority, I cannot conclude that the confession of appellant Armour’s co-defendant, John Wilder, in this joint trial did not contribute to the jury’s rendering a guilty verdict against the appellant Armour.
As an introductory matter, it is noted that the following provisions of the court’s charge were of material importance to the jury’s deliberation concerning appellant Armour.
IV.
A person is criminally responsible as a party to an offense if the offense is committed by his own conduct, by the conduct of another for which he is criminally responsible, or by both.
Each party to an offense may be charged with commission of the offense.
Each party to an offense may be charged and convicted without alleging that he acted as a principal or accomplice.
A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy.
XI.
You are instructed that the statement of the Defendant, Artie Armour, cannot be used as evidence against the Defendant, John Lewis Wilder, nor can the statement of John Lewis Wilder be used, or considered by you, as evidence against Artie Armour, the Defendant. You are further instructed that the statement of one Defendant does not constitute corroboration of the statement of the other Defendant, nor does the statement of one Defendant constitute the proof of the offense which is necessary to corroborate the statement of either or both of the Defendants.
XII.
You are instructed that under our law a confession, standing alone, is not sufficient to authorize a conviction for the alleged offense. So, if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant, John Lewis Wilder, made a confession to the commission of the offense, you cannot convict the Defendant, John Lewis Wilder, unless you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that there is other evidence before you in this case which, of itself, tends to connect the Defendant, John Lewis Wilder, with the offense committed, if any, separate and apart from his alleged confession, if any, and if you have a reasonable doubt that there is such other corroborative evidence, then you will acquit the Defendant, John Lewis Wilder; and if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant, Artie Armour, made a confession to the commission of the offense, you cannot convict the Defendant, Artie Armour, unless you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that there is other evidence before you in this case which, of itself, tends to connect the Defendant, Artie Armour, with the offense committed, if any, separate and apart from his alleged confession, if any, and if you have a reasonable doubt that there is such other corroborative evidence, then you will acquit the Defendant, Artie Armour.

******

Now, also bearing in mind the foregoing instructions, if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 23rd day of December, 1975, in the County of Bowie, State of Texas, the Defendant, Artie Armour, did then and there conspire with the said John Lewis Wilder to commit the offense of robbery, as defined herein, and the said John Lewis Wilder, in furtherance of *371such conspiracy, if any, did then and there intentionally or knowingly cause the death of an individual, to-wit: Duane Jaixen, by shooting him with a gun in the course of the commission of the said offense of robbery, and you further find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that such conduct on the part of the said John Lewis Wilder should have been anticipated by the said Artie Armour as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy, if any, then you will find the Defendant, Artie Armour, guilty of the offense of capital murder, and so say by your verdict, but if you do not so believe, or if you have a reasonable doubt thereof, you will acquit the Defendant and say by your verdict, “not guilty”.
The confession of Artie Armour, introduced in this joint trial, omitting the formal parts, reads as follows:
I understand what Judge Ben Grigson has told me. I understand the warning and I still want to talk to you and tell you the truth. I don’t really remember the date we came up here, December 22nd or 23rd. By we, I mean John Wilder, Robert Lovelace and myself. We were on our way back home to Mt. Pleasant. We had come from Mt. Pleasant to Texar-kana. John rode by his girlfriend’s house. I don't know her name, I think it is Harris or something. She is kind of skinny. We stayed over at her house for a little while and then rode around. We were in John’s mother’s car, a black Tori-no, Ford. ’68 or ’69,1 think was the year. We rode around and went back home. We went back to Mt. Pleasant on Interstate 30. John pulled over to the service station, he was driving. John said he was going to get gas. We drove past the station that had diesel trucks parked in it, we turned around in the truck stop parking lot then we drove over to the next service station right across the street. I don’t know what kind of service station. We drove across the street from the truck stop. I don’t remember what the name of the truck stop was. We stayed in the street, not the service station lot. We didn’t stop at the first service station. John drove on past the second service station. I don’t know exactly how many yards. You could see the service station from there. He drove past the station and stopped. John told me to get behind the wheel and he got out of the car walked into the station because it was on up a little bit further. He said he was going to hit it . that meant to me that he was going to rob it. After John got out I moved the car farther from the station. John stayed a minute maybe two minutes. He came back out with a TV in his hand and money in his picket. He took the money out of his pocket and showed it to me. He didn’t let Robert see it, though. He had his gun inside his coat. He held the gun up against my nose and told me to smell it and I did and it smelled like it had been fired, the gun barrel had been fired. We were talking real low and John said he had to shoot him. He said he was acting allright at first but he was going to try to run and John said he had to shoot him. He said he had to shoot him two times. He threw the hulls out the window on Interstate. A pretty good piece up the road. He threw the hulls out of his gun through the passenger side of the car. When John got in with the TV he told Robert he had got him a TV and Robert asked him if he ripped the man off and John said no he had bought it from him for $.45 and Robert said that he thought that he had ripped the man off. I knew he had the gun with him all the time. We kept on going home and I started thinking about it and kind of figured he was lying about shooting him.. We got off the Interstate on a Farm to Market Road to Naples and came on home. All 3 of us went to my house. We got out and went inside and drank some beer. John got up and went out to the car and got the TV and gave it to me and told me “here, Merle, he calls me Merle, you can have the TV you have been needing one.” We split up the money 70 something dollars. I was supposed to get half of the money. Robert didn’t get nothing. I think Rob*372ert suspected something because he asked me if John stole that TV and I said probably knowing him. That was the same TV that they found at my house, the same one that John got at the service station and the same TV that the officers took from my house on February 19, 1976. John had a .38 pistol. I didn’t have the other pistol with me, it was at my house. We parked on the street by the service station already going to to the Interstate. I forgot what time of night it was. We had gone riding around in Tex-arkana on Lake Drive we went by Brenda’s house, a (Used to be) girlfriend of mine, and her mother said she was asleep. Me, John and Robert went there and then we went riding around in Arkansas. No cops stopped us that night. I know kind of where John’s girlfriend lives where we were earlier. Same area as my uncle lives. I think I could take the officers there. I don’t remember the time of night we was at the service station. We hadn’t talked about doing it before we got to Hooks. We knew we was going to divide the money in half. Before John went to the service station he just said he was going to pull in and get some gas. We turned around then we saw that the boy was in the station by himself. The boy was white and kind of chubby looking to me. We didn’t pull through the service station parking lot. We stayed on the street. There were no other cars at the station. I didn’t hear any shots. We didn’t meet an ambulance coming back on Interstate. I went to High School, IIV2 years. I can read and write. The Social Security Card I have is No. 464 17 0292. I am 21 years of age and my date of birth is October 10, 1954. I never got out of the car at the service station. All I did was drive. I never saw John pull his gun. I never saw him take it out. He was carrying his gun inside his pants kind of in front and had his coat around it, with the barrel down in his pants. John told me he had to shoot him twice, once in the chest and once in the stomach. I couldn’t see from where we were parked inside the service station. John said he had to shoot him twice because he was trying to run, he said he acted allright at first but then he tried to run away, tried to get out and John had to shoot him. John told me “I had to kill him because he was trying to run from me.” I got 70 something dollars and when John got in the car he told me that he robbed that service station and had this TV in his hand. When he got in the car he acted normal, cool. We had been drinking. We bought the stuff to drink in Monticello. John shot him after he got the money. I don’t know why he had to shoot him in the chest and the stomach because he was trying to run. That is what John said. I had never seen this man in the service station before. John said that he didn’t know him one day when we was sitting at the house and I said I was sort of worried about it and John said that “it didn’t bother him much, because that guy in Texarkana I didn’t know him.” I have never pulled a job in Texarkana. John never has pulled a job in Texarkana, not with me anyway. He took the shells out of his gun it holds six.
This confession does not clearly establish that the robbery of the station attendant at Hooks was the result of a conspiracy. He states expressly that the matter had not been talked about before getting to Hooks and that it appeared to be a spontaneous matter since his co-defendant stated he was going to “hit it” as they were driving along looking for gas.
On the other hand, the confession of the co-defendant, John Wilder, omitting the formal parts, reads as follows:
We, Robert Lovelace, Artie Burl Armour and myself we came to Texarkana about three days before Christmas. We was going to see Artie’s girl by the name of Brenda Cartwright but she wasn’t at the same place Artie thought she was so we went to my girlfriends and my ex-girlfriends, Emma James. We talked there for at least 20 or 30 minutes. Robert Lovelace he didn’t know anything about anything. He was just in the car with us. Anyway we was drinking gin *373and some beers and I think Robert got high or drunk because he was leaning over. We decided to go back to see Carolyn Harris, my girlfriend but she was home but asleep so we left her house about 11:30 or 12:00. We got on Interstate 30 instead of taking the old highway home. Artie said “Well are we going to do it”. I said we couldn’t with Robert in the car. Artie said “Oh he is asleep anyway. So I said it was up to Artie and about that time my car started running hot and I needed to get some water. We went to this truck stop and turned there it was beside Interstate 30. We turned there and went up the lot to get back on the Interstate. Artie said “Stop there is a guy over there and he is by himself” so we stopped. I looked over there and there wasn’t nobody in there but him. I couldn’t tell you how old he was or what he looked like. He was white. So after we went over there Artie offered me his little gun. It was a .22 but it looked like a .32. I took my gun, I didn’t want Artie’s he had borrowed it from some guy and I didn’t want to get that guy in trouble. So I went in the service station and my gun was in my belt. I had my shirt over my gun. I walked in there and asked him where was the bathroom and he said the bathroom was outside and then I pulled my gun and he made a quick move, he flinched, and I shot him once. I was just intending to rob him. I walked in intending to rob him. He looked like he was fixing to make a move and I shot him. I was about 3 steps away from him when I shot him. I shot him in the front. I didn’t have any money at that time. He grabbed his side and stumbled into the backroom. Then I started punching the keys on the cash register trying to get it to open, I pulled the lever on the side and it didn’t open. I went to the guy and I said open this thing. He wasn’t dead. He was holding his side. He opened the cash register and I got the money out I put the money in my pocket, my pants pocket. I could see a spot of blood on his shirt after the first shot. Got the money out and put in my pocket then I reached up and snatched the TV and kept going. I shot him going out the door. He was crawling up under the desk on his right side. I shot back at him twice — “Pow, pow.” I was bout 6 feet away from him, I was in the doorway. I shot him twice— “Pow, pow.” He was already down when I shot him the last two times. He was on his back in the floor after I shot him. When he was laying down on his right side before I shot him the last two times, he was still holding his side with his hand and I turned back around and shot him two more times. He was reached up under the desk with his other hand. I don’t think the first shot hit him but the second shot hit him. I just have that feeling that you get in your head that the second shot hit him. He didn’t moan, he didn’t groan. It was just that feeling that you have in your head that you hit somebody. I hit him in the chest with the second shot. I was too busy running to see if he made any movement. I am left-handed. I was shooting with my left hand and carrying the TV with my right hand. The second shot hit him and I turned and ran. I run to the car to my mother’s car and Artie was at the steering wheel. Artie said “Where did you get the TV from?” “The guy was nice enough to give me a TV.” I put the TV in the car and got in. In other words Artie was driving the getaway car. Robert didn’t know anything about it. I don’t think he did because he never acted like it. I never have liked him anyway. He ain’t done nothing. We were in the car and Artie said “Did you get it?” and I said I had got the TV and a little money. I didn’t say nothing about no killing then. I didn’t think I had killed him. But I had that feeling that I did hit him. After we got to Mt. Pleasant we went to Artie’s house. Artie drove. We took Robert home and put Robert out. Robert had to be kind of high because he got out and he staggered. We went to Artie’s house. After I got in the car I took the money out of my pocket and handed it to Artie and he put in his coat *374and said “Yeah we done went to work again tonight” and I said “Yeah and I get the blame for it.” Artie said “Yeah we keep on selling dope like this” trying to cover up so Robert wouldn’t know. I wasn’t drunk because I don’t get drunk. I told Artie that night that I didn’t know if I had killed him or not and that I wanted to listen to the radio to see if I had. So I went to Artie’s the next day and I heard on the radio the guy was dead.” I said to Artie “Well, he died” and Artie said “It couldn’t be helped.” We got about $100.00 because he got $50.00 and I got $50.00. Robert didn’t get nothing. We halved the money all the way. Me and Artie planned the job together and pulled the job together and if I should go to jail then he would go with me. (Emphasis added.)
As is readily apparent, the confession of John Wilder is much more probative on the question of the existence of a conspiracy prior to the robbery of the station attendant and whether it was known that a deadly weapon would be used in the commission of the robbery, knowledge which would have permitted the jury to reach the inference that a murder “should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy.” It is the co-defendant’s confession that has appellant Armour asking prior to the robbery, “Are we going to do it?,” being left with the decision whether to “do it,” sighting the lone station attendant to be robbed, handing the triggerman a weapon which was turned down, confirming the success of the robbery, exclaiming that “we done went to work again tonight,” and consoling Wilder about having killed the attendant.
As stated in the majority opinion, it is our obligation to review the entire record and make a determination of “the probable impact on the minds of an average jury” the co-defendant’s confession would have. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); Schneble v. Florida, 405 U.S. 427, 92 S.Ct. 1056, 31 L.Ed.2d 340 (1972). In the State’s opening portion of its closing argument to the jury and after reading that portion of the court’s charge that applied the law to the facts of the case of appellant Armour, the following appears:
Now, let’s see if Artie Armour anticipated this. Let’s look at the evidence. Who said, “are we going to do it?” Remember . . who said that? Artie Armour said that. Who said, “It was up to Artie” John Wilder said, “it was up to Artie” . . Artie made the decision. Who said, “stop, there’s a guy over there by himself” . . Artie Armour said this . [At this point Armour’s trial counsel objects on the basis that the argument is a contradiction to the court’s charge which tells the jury not to consider what John Wilder said in his statement. The objection was overruled.]
Ladies and Gentlemen, consider who, after this was over, took a split of the money . consider who was in possession of that television . . consider who said, when they learned . . after he had been killed . after Duane Jaixen they learned that he had died . who said, “it couldn’t be helped?” Who did all of those acts. Artie Armour did those acts, Ladies and Gentlemen. He drove the car . . he knew what was going on . . also, who said, “are we going to work again tonight?” [Again objection was interposed on the basis of the court’s instruction that Wilder’s statement was not to be considered by the jury against Armour. The objection was overruled.]
Ladies and Gentlemen, consider all of this evidence' . . . consider all of this evidence. Artie Armour knew what was going on . . Artie Armour drove the car . . Artie Armour knew, in his own mind, that if John Wilder went in that station with that gun, that he was going to use it. Consider the fact that two people are walking around here with guns . . don’t they anticipate some violence . . don’t they anticipate using it . . why, certainly do . .if I pick up my gun, and I stick it in my belt, and I go down here in Texarkana on Saturday night, I anticipate using it, if *375necessary . . if necessary, I’m going to use it. Consider those facts.
In the closing portion of the State’s closing argument, the following appears with respect to appellant Armour:
Artie said he knew they were going to rob it .he was going to “hit” it . he knew he was going to get half the take . . he knew he was to drive the car . . and Jim Davis [appellant Armour’s trial counsel] says . and this is repulsive to me . .I’m here on behalf of a twenty-two (22) year old man

Now, let’s see what Wilder’s statement really says . . contrary to what Jim Davis [appellant Armour’s trial counsel] says . . Mr. Wilder’s statement says, “well, we planned it together . . we did it together . . we split the take . Artie got the television . . Artie was to drive the get away car, and if I go to jail, Artie ought to go too”.
He didn’t try to put the blame all on Artie . . he tried to say, “look, we did it together” . . and they did. You don’t go out here and pull a “job” . . as they call it . .or you don’t “go to work again tonight” as they call it, and split the take and not be conspiring to commit it together. .
Artie couldn’t anticipate you know . . does this ring true? That Artie couldn’t anticipate, when Artie said, “well, it just couldn’t be helped”. Does it ring true, when Artie said, “well, we’re working again tonight” does it ring true that he couldn’t anticipate when they split the money and does it ring true that Artie Armour couldn’t anticipate when he took the television and set it up in his house, so he could watch his favorite TV shows, on the television that they got by reason of killing one of our citizens. It doesn’t ring of truth . . it stinks.
It is clear from the above referenced portions of the prosecutor’s closing argument that considerable reliance was placed on John Wilder’s statement to tie appellant Armour into the crime as a co-conspirator who should have anticipated the death of the station attendant to be robbed.
The only other evidence before the jury concerning appellant Armour’s involvement in this offense was his confession which has already been referred to, the testimony of police officers that John Wilder took them to appellant Armour’s home in order to recover Wilder’s .38 caliber pistol which was later matched with the bullets retrieved from the victim’s body, and appellant Armour’s possession of the TV set stolen in the course of the robbery of the station attendant killed.1
On the basis of the evidence in this record, I cannot conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the confession of John Wilder did not significantly contribute to the conviction of Artie Armour for the offense of capital murder. I therefore respectfully dissent. Appellant Armour’s judgment of conviction should be reversed because the introduction of his co-defendant’s confession in this joint trial deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him, as secured to him under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.2

. See Judge Roberts’ dissent, supra, which would hold the pistol and TV set inadmissible.

. Appellant Armour also filed a motion for severance alleging that a joint trial would deny appellant Armour those rights secured to him under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him. This motion was denied by the trial judge.