Court Opinion

ID: 9676673
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:29:59.257444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:50.144333
License: Public Domain

BROOKSHIRE, Justice,
concurring.
Appellant’s point of error number one, in its major thrust, avers that the trial court erred in failing to grant the appellant’s timely motion for a new trial. That alleged error, appellant insists, is because the trial court had previously abused its discretion in denying the appellant’s motion for a continuance. The trial was set on the merits on January 9, 1991. On January 4, 1991, appellant filed a “MOTION FOR DISCOVERY AND INSPECTION OF EVIDENCE”. The State complied. The record clearly demonstrates that the appellant was basing trial error on the theory that the name of an allegedly exculpatory witness had been given to the defense on January 5, 1991. This witness was not available at trial. The exculpatory witness was alleged to be one Mary Washington. The appellant’s position was that it was imperative that Mary Washington be located. Additionally, Mary Washington’s anticipated information should be investigated.
Appellant at the hearing on the motion for continuance did not unequivocally state that the information Mary Washington possessed was credible. Appellant’s contention was that this information needed to be investigated and checked out. Mary Washington was said to have made a statement that she knew who had committed the murders but that she did not know the killers’ complete names. She also stated that the appellant did not commit the alleged murders. Mary had, according to the record, made these statements to a police officer in a hospital emergency room. An observer in the hospital emergency room deemed *545this exculpatory witness to have been highly intoxicated at the time she made the exculpatory statements.
Tex.R.App.P. 30 deals with motions for new trials in criminal cases and the hearings thereon. The hearing takes place after a finding or verdict of guilt. Rule 30(b) sets out the reasons for the granting of a new trial. Subsection (5) provides for the granting of a new trial where a material witness of the defendant has by force, threats, or fraud been prevented from attending court, or where evidence tending to establish the innocence of the accused has been intentionally destroyed or withheld preventing the production of that evidence at trial. Appellant does not contend for relief under subsection (5). Subsection (6), I think, is the appropriate one. But appellant has failed to show diligence.
Tex.R.App.P. 31 sets out the time to present the motion and authorizes the trial court to conduct a hearing on the same. At the hearing evidence may be introduced by affidavit or otherwise to determine the issues.
The motion for new trial was filed on February 8, 1991. The finding of the guilt of the defendant for the offense of murder — the jury’s verdict — had been returned on January 14, 1991. Appellant’s motion for new trial does not allege that any efforts had been made by the appellant through his investigator or otherwise to locate the witness since the date of the hearing on the original motion for continuance. In fact, Mary Washington’s name is not mentioned in the motion for new trial.
Furthermore, it appears that there was no hearing on the motion for new trial; nor was there any evidence or testimony taken in connection with the motion for new trial. The unverified motion does not set out that the appellant had used due diligence to locate Mary Washington since the date of the motion for continuance.
It appears that the motion for new trial simply does not comport to Tex.R.App.P. 30 and 31. Rule 31 provides that the defendant shall present his motion for new trial to the court; appellant did not do so. The motion for new trial was properly overruled; the appellant has not shown error in the trial court’s action in overruling the motion for new trial. There was no showing by the appellant that between the time the motion for continuance was filed and the time that the motion for new trial was filed that any diligent efforts or any efforts whatsoever had been made to locate the potential witness, Mary Washington.