Court Opinion

ID: 9674227
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:25:13.348954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:26.208891
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON APPELLANTS’ MOTION FOR REHEARING
MORRISON, Judge.
We have concluded that we were in error in holding that a charge on circumstantial evidence need not have been given. While it is true that the charge in this case followed the one given in Fisbeck v. State, 166 Tex.Cr.R. 105, 311 S.W.2d 865, we have now concluded that the difference in the offense charged and the facts are controlling. In Fisbeck v. State, supra, the charge was transportation and the accused was driving the automobile wherein the contraband was concealed. In this case the charge is possession, and the appellants are shown to have no connection with the contraband other than they were found sitting in the automobile in which the smell of marihuana was observable.
An entirely different result was reached when this Court reversed on confession of error in Arsiaga v. State, 372 S.W.2d 538. There the contraband was found in the seat where the accused had been sitting with two companions and this Court reversed for the failure of the Court to charge on circumstantial evidence where, as here, the officers had not seen the appellant in possession of the contraband. See also McCormick v. State, 168 Tex.Cr.R. 489, 329 S.W.2d 436, and the cases there cited.
The judgment of affirmance is set aside; appellants’ motion for rehearing is granted, and the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.