Court Opinion

ID: 9671085
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:30:47.524332+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:08.117065
License: Public Domain

MORRISON, Judge
(concurring).
I have concluded that this was not a weak circumstantial evidence case and, therefore, agree with the majority opinion affirming the conviction. However, out of deference to the trial theory upon which appellant’s studious counsel tried this case, I will attempt to distinguish this holding from the one reached by the majority on rehearing in Ramirez v. State, 163 Tex.Cr.R. 109, 289 S.W.2d 251, upon which he relies.
In Ramirez, the crucial contested issue was whether the defendant was intoxicated at the time of an automobile accident. A toxicologist testified that in his opinion an analysis of accused’s blood showed that the accused was intoxicated. A physician, who examined appellant at the hospital, stated that in his opinion the accused was not intoxicated. This conflicting testimony, together with other conflicting evidence concerning the collision, made Ramirez an obviously weak case. It was upon the background of these facts that this Court on rehearing reversed the conviction because the State failed to question two highway patrolmen who were also in close proximity to the defendant shortly after the accident about the appellant’s state of intoxication, their testimony being other available testimony which would have cast additional light on the facts.
However, in the case at bar, unlike Ramirez, supra, the appellant was the only one placed at the scene of the crime with a gun and is shown to be the only one in a position to shoot the deceased. There is no seriously inconsistent testimony on these crucial points.
If this was a weak case, additional testimony by Manuel Lopez may have been valuable but since there was sufficient evidence to connect the appellant with the crime, his testimony, as given, was sufficient.
Likewise, the testimony of the other witnesses who were subpoenaed and not called was unnecessary since there was sufficient other inculpatory evidence. Additionally, Ramirez becomes operable only when there is a weak case and there is a showing in the record that there is “other testimony [available] which would have cast addi*268tional light on the facts. In Ramirez it was evident that the testimony of the highway patrolmen was relevant. In the case at bar, there is no showing what vital information these witnesses could have contributed. We note that at the motion for new trial it was shown that Jurado (or Gerando) Lopez, who was in the back seat of the car at the time of the shooting, was knocked unconscious prior to the homicide and, therefore, could not have testified to the circumstances surrounding the actual shooting.
For the reasons stated, the rule on which appellant relies is inapplicable to the case before us and I concur in the affirmance.