Court Opinion

ID: 9674228
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:25:13.356851+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:26.209578
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge
(dissenting).
This conviction should not be reversed on the ground that no charge on circumstantial evidence was given.
In Arsiaga v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 372 S.W.2d 538, relied upon for the reversal, the conviction was for the possession of dangerous drugs. Officers went into a cafe on a Sunday where there were several people. Three people were seated at a booth. When the officers arrived, the defendant got up, went behind a booth and then sat back down at his place. An officer later found a bottle which contained dangerous drugs behind the booth. The officer testified that he did not know what Arsiaga had in his hand and did not see him possess anything.1
No charge to acquit if the defendant did not have knowledge that the drugs were behind the booth was given in the Arsiaga case. A charge on circumstantial evidence probably would not have prevented the reversal, because the evidence was so weak. These facts were different from the facts in the present case because the cafe was a public place and three people were in a booth and there were others in the cafe. In the present case, the charge was like the charge in Fisbeck v. State, 166 Tex.Cr.R. 105, 311 S.W.2d 865, which is more closely in point on the facts. The *508trial court should not be reversed for relying upon Fisbeck which is more closely in point than Arsiaga, supra.
For the reasons in this and in the opinion on original submission, the conviction should be affirmed.

. The State did not seek an affirmance in that case because the court refused to charge on circumstantial evidence. It was also noted that a serious question existed as to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction. Brock v. State, 162 Tex.Cr.R. 339, 285 S.W.2d 745, was cited. Brock was reversed because the officers found drugs in a rest room that the public used and that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction.