Court Opinion

ID: 9638536
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:46:24.971062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:07.606168
License: Public Domain

OPINION ON STATE’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
ODOM, Judge.
This is an appeal from a conviction for rape. Punishment was assessed at three years. On original submission a divided panel held the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction.
Appellant was prosecuted under V.T.C.A., Penal Code Sec. 21.02(a) and (b)(3), the indictment alleging that appellant did:
“intentionally and knowingly have sexual intercourse with L-A_, a female not his wife, the said L_A_ not having consented thereto and the said [appellant] knowing that the said L_A__was physically unable to resist.”
In finding the evidence insufficient, the panel opinion stated:
“... the evidence does not exclude to a moral certainty that at the actual time appellant had sexual intercourse with Linda she was unable to consent or was physically unable to resist having sexual intercourse with the appellant.”
On rehearing the State points out that the panel did not consider appellant’s confession when it discussed the sufficiency of the evidence. The confession introduced at trial recites:
“On the night of Sunday, July 3rd, 1977 about 10:00 or 10:15 P.M., I left my house in my car and drove around some in Has-kell. I went to the old South Side grocery store where I saw Frank Enriquez and L_C_, and two other boys which I know but do not know their names at the South Side Grocery. I stopped and one of the boys, the taller of *617the two, and L-C-got into my car, we had to help L_get into the back seat, and we told the other boys to meet us in the park, I then drove down by the old depot and into the park where we stopped on the hill above the rest rooms. We all got out, and had to help L-get out and she layed down on the ground and me and the other boy undressed her. She had on a white blouse with black stripes and a pair of pants, and some kind of shoes. She did have on panties and a bra which we also removed. She was kind of moving some but she was awful drunk or something. I had sexual intercourse with L_and then the other boy did. After we had got through she was passed out and I took some beer that I had and poured it on her head to try and wake her up but we could not. She was breathing kind of like she was snoring. Me and the other boy got into my car and pulled down into the park by the rest rooms where we saw Frank Enriquez and the other boy’s brother by the rest rooms. We all four walked back up the hill and looked at L-and one of the brothers felt of her heart and said it was still beating and I could hear her breathing, sorta like she was snoring again. None of us knew what to do so we just decided to leave her there because we thought she was just drunk and would wake up in a couple of hours. We all walked back down to where my car was parked and I got in it and drove to the Colonial Food Store and got some cigarettes and then went home. I got home right at 11:00 P.M. During the time we were with L_we had to help her in and out of the car and she was either real drunk or something, because I don’t think she knew what was happening, she was real sick or something. Frankie Enriquez told me that he thought something was wrong with her because she had got worse the longer he was around her during the day. On July 4th, 1977 me and a bunch of my kinfolks went to the park North of Knox City, Texas about 5:00 P.M. and come back about 9:00 P.M., when we got back to Mother-in-laws she told us that L-C_had been found dead in the park. We heard that she had been cut up or stabbed but she was not hurt anyway when we left her in the park. She was just drunk or doped or sick, I don’t know which. But none of us four hurt her anyway. We just left her where she was laying because we thought she would get all right in a couple of hours.”
Other evidence established that L.A., alleged in the indictment, was the same person also known as L.C., referred to in the confession and by some witnesses at trial.
We find the confession is sufficient to prove the deficiencies found by the panel, and hold the evidence supports the conviction. The judgment ordering an acquittal for insufficient evidence is set aside.
We have found fundamental error in the jury charge that requires reversal. There is no paragraph in the charge applying the law to the facts. This requires reversal. Williams v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 547 S.W.2d 18; Harris v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 522 S.W.2d 199.
The State’s motion for rehearing is granted in part and denied in part; the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.
McCORMICK, J., concurs.