Court Opinion

ID: 9773291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:41:34.551288+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:51.471870
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge,
dissenting.
The majority reverses this conviction on the ground that there was fundamental error in the court’s charge. There was no objection to the court’s charge before the trial court or before this Court. No harm is shown to the appellant. There is no showing that he was misled in any way by the court’s charge or that the jury did not know what he was charged with.
The indictment charges in substance that “Jimmie Lee Williams, hereinafter styled *21the Defendant, on or about the 18th day of September in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and seventy-two^ in the County and State aforesaid, did unlawfully, and voluntarily with malice aforethought kill, Charley D. Sellars, by shooting him with a gun. . .
Appellant was hired to kill Charley D. Sellars.
At approximately 11:30 on the morning of September 18, 1972, Sellars, the deceased, was found dead in his pickup truck less than one mile from his place of employment at the National Aerospace Company in Mesquite. Death resulted from three gunshot wounds from a .38 caliber pistol fired at close range. The evidence showed that there was an agreement between Andrew Jacobson, owner of New Delaware Leasing Company, which leased tractors and trailers to the National Aerospace Company, and appellant. Jacobson offered to pay appellant $1,000 to kill Sellars and personally furnished the murder weapon and the ammunition. After the murder appellant told his brother, James Archie Williams, and Joseph Goodson that Jacobson had offered him $1,000 to kill Sellars and that he in fact did kill him. The evidence is more than sufficient to show murder.
There is no question about it. The indictment was for murder; the evidence proved murder. There is no indication that any other crime was charged or submitted to the jury.
The court’s charge to the jury, which the majority of this Court, on its own, says harmed the appellant (even though there has been no such claim until this day), is sufficient to inform the jury that the appellant was indicted for murder, that it had to find facts showing him to be guilty of murder.
The charge, omitting some formal parts, reads as follows:

“CHARGE OF THE COURT

“MEMBERS OF THE JURY:
“In this case the defendant, Jimmie Lee Williams, stands charged by indictment with the murder of Charlie D. Sel-lars, by shooting him with a gun, alleged to have occurred in the County of Dallas and State of Texas on or about the 18th day of September, A.D., 1972. To this charge the defendant has pleaded ‘Not Guilty.’
“I give you the law applicable to this case as follows:
“I
“Whoever shall voluntarily kill any person within this State shall be guilty of murder. Murder is distinguishable from every other species of homicide by the absence of circumstances which reduce the offense to negligent homicide or which excuse or justify the killing.
“II
“ ‘Malice aforethought’ is the voluntary and intentional doing of an unlawful act by one of sound memory and discretion with the purpose, means and ability to accomplish the reasonable and probable consequences of the act. ‘Malice aforethought’ includes all those states of mind under which the killing of a person takes place without any cause which will in law justify, excuse or extenuate the homicide. It is a condition of the mind which shows a heart regardless of social duty and fatally bent on mischief, the existence of which is inferred from the acts committed or words spoken. You are charged in connection with the definition of malice, as heretofore given you in the charge of the Court, that no definite space of time need necessarily intervene between the formed design to kill and the killing; a single moment of time being sufficient.
“Ill
“A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice, unless the jury first believe that the accomplice’s evidence is true and it shows the defendant is guilty of the offense charged against him; and even then you cannot convict unless the accomplice’s testimony is corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the offense charged. The corroboration is not suffi*22cient if it merely shows the commission of the offense, but it must tend to connect the defendant with its commission.
“An ‘accomplice,’ as used herein, means any one connected with the crime charged, either as a principal, accomplice or accessory. It includes any person or persons who are connected with the crime by an unlawful act or omission on their part, transpiring either before, at the time of, or after the commission of the crime and whether or not they were present and participated in the commission of the crime.
“IV
“Now if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that an offense was committed as charged, and you further believe from the evidence that the witness, Joseph Goodson, was an accomplice, or you have a reasonable doubt as to whether he was or not, as that term is defined in the foregoing instructions then you cannot convict the defendant upon the testimony of the said Joseph Goodson unless you first believe that his testimony is true and that it shows the defendant is guilty as charged in the indictment; and even then you cannot convict the defendant unless you further believe that there is other evidence in the case, outside of the evidence of the said Joseph Goodson, tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense charged in the indictment, and such corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of an offense.
“You are further instructed that an accomplice witness maybe corroborated by either direct or circumstantial evidence or both.”
The verdict of the jury as to guilt is:
“We, the Jury, find the Defendant guilty of the offense of murder with malice aforethought, as charged in the indictment.”
The verdict as to the punishment is as follows:
“We, the Jury, having found the Defendant guilty of murder with malice aforethought set his punishment at confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections for life.”
Even though the court could have applied the law to the facts more specifically, the failure to do so does not constitute reversible error. Article 36.19, V.A.C.C.P., concerning errors in the court’s charge provides, in part:
“. . . The judgment shall not be reversed unless the error appearing from the record was calculated to injure the rights of defendant, or unless it appears from the record that the defendant has not had a fair and impartial trial. . . ”
The Legislature has provided under this statute that the error in this case would be harmless. Appellant and the jury knew that he was charged by indictment with murder. The proof showed that he was guilty of murder. The charge referred to the indictment as murder. The court required the jury to find him guilty of committing murder as charged in the indictment as defined in the court’s charge.
The majority should follow the mandate of the Legislature. There is no indication that appellant did not receive a fair trial. There is no complaint by him or his counsel that he did not receive a fair trial because of the court’s charge. There is seldom an error-free trial and it is the duty of this Court to pass upon errors to see if they are reversible, not to reverse just because there might be some immaterial error during the trial. Trial judges should be given an opportunity to make corrections in the charge if a defendant thinks that he is being harmed or that the jury might be misled by the charges submitted. See the dissenting opinion in Perez v. State, 537 S.W.2d 455 (Tex.Cr.App.1976).
If the majority will indicate or even hint how the jury might have been misled or how appellant might have been harmed in any way, this opinion will be withdrawn.
No reversible error has been shown. The judgment should not be reversed.