Court Opinion

ID: 9766488
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:51:15.678347+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:23.279614
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
dissenting.
Because the majority opinion erroneously affirms the trial court’s decision that James Marvin Thomas, appellant, was not entitled to have the jury instructed on the offense of criminally negligent homicide, I am compelled to dissent.
I will first state why I believe that appellant was entitled to have the jury instructed on the offense of criminally negligent homicide.
The offense of criminally negligent homicide is committed when the facts establish that the accused has created by his conduct a substantial and unjustifiable risk, and the facts also establish that he ought to have been aware that the risk might result in the death of another person. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances, which are to be viewed from the accused’s standpoint. See V.T. C.A., Penal Code, Sections 19.07(a) and 6.03(d).
The fact that the evidence presented might also establish that the accused committed the act intentionally or knowingly or recklessly will not preclude the facts from also giving rise to the accused committing the act negligently. In sum, the facts might very well establish that the accused was guilty of intentionally committing the act, knowingly committing the act, recklessly committing the act, or negligently committing the act. If that is the case, then it is left to the trier of fact to make the decision whether the accused acted intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently.
It is now elementary law that in a murder case, if the evidence from any source would support an instruction on the offense of criminally negligent homicide, which is a lesser included offense of murder, see Campbell v. State, 614 S.W.2d 443 (Tex.Cr.App.1981); Ormsby v. State, 600 S.W.2d 782 (Tex.Cr.App.1980); Moore v. State, 574 S.W.2d 122 (Tex.Cr.App.1978), then, upon request or objection, the trial judge must instruct the jury on that offense. Refusal to do so will constitute reversible error. Royster v. State, 622 S.W.2d 442 (Tex.Cr.App.1981); Campbell v. State, supra; Watson v. State, 605 S.W.2d 877 (Tex.Cr.App. *8591980); Ormsby v. State, supra; Roberts v. State, 590 S.W.2d 498 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); Jackson v. State, 548 S.W.2d 685 (Tex.Cr.App.1977); Day v. State, 532 S.W.2d 302 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Me Brayer v. State, 504 S.W.2d 445 (Tex.Cr.App.1974); and Daywood v. State, 248 S.W.2d 479 (Tex.Cr.App.1952).
In making the determination whether the appellant was entitled to an instruction on the lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide, the facts must be viewed in the light most favorable toward his contention. In deciding the issue, the truth of the appellant’s testimony and the testimony of his witnesses and the weight to be given that testimony are not at issue, and it matters not that the evidence supporting appellant’s claim is feeble, impeached, or contradicted. Campbell v. State, supra; Ormsby v. State, supra; Roberts v. State, supra; Warren v. State, 565 S.W.2d 931 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Rodriguez v. State, 544 S.W.2d 382 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).
The facts most favorable to appellant’s contention reflect that Bishop, the deceased, and his wife operated Dena’s Cafe in Hearne. During February, 1977, appellant, with others, went to the cafe to eat. As they were in the process of leaving, Bishop’s wife told appellant: “I thought there for awhile I was going to have to call ya’ll down, you were getting too loud at your table.” The record does not reflect that appellant or anyone in his party responded to the statement. During March, 1977, appellant, with others, went to the cafe to drink coffee. While waiting for their coffee, Bishop’s wife came to their table and stated: “If you’re as loud in here this time as you were before, I’m not going to be able to serve you.” One member of the party responded: “Well, I wasn’t all that thirsty for coffee anyway and my wife is sick and I need to get back to the house, so we’ll just go.” Bishop’s wife asked who was going to pay for the coffee. Appellant replied: “I said that we did not receive anything and therefore I didn’t think we needed to pay for anything,” and the bill went unpaid.
On the night in question, April 28, 1977, appellant, with others, again went to the cafe, but were told by a waitperson: “I’m sorry, I can’t serve you all.” Appellant and his party then commenced to leave. Before exiting from the cafe appellant told his wife the following, which was stated loud enough for others to hear: “If a person came in and turned the place upside down, he would probably get served.”
Appellant, with his party, then went to the Pitt Grill, another restaurant located in Hearne. While waiting for their order to be filled, Bessie Templeton telephoned Dena’s Cafe in order to speak with Bishop to find out why they had been refused service that evening. After speaking with Bishop, Bishop told her to let him talk to appellant. Templeton then turned the telephone over to appellant, who spoke with Bishop. Bishop asked appellant: “What did you come down here for awhile ago and raise hell for?” Appellant responded: “Roy, I didn’t raise any hell.” Bishop then told appellant: “Why don’t you just come down here and we’ll talk about it and get it straight.” Appellant told Bishop: “Fine, I’ll be right down and we’ll talk about it.” Appellant then drove his vehicle back to Dena’s Cafe, where he was informed that Bishop was not there. Appellant then left the cafe and started toward his vehicle, at which time Bishop, armed with a pick handle, approximately 16 to 18 inches in length, came running toward appellant, exclaiming: “You son-of-a-bitch, let me see you turn the Goddamn place upside down now.” Appellant told Bishop: “Roy, I didn’t come down here for this.” Bishop then commenced swinging the pick handle at appellant, and succeeded in hitting appellant several times with the pick handle.
Appellant then commenced backing toward his vehicle, and finally managed to get inside of it. Bishop then commenced “pecking on the glass with his bat, telling *860[appellant] what he was going to do [to him].” After telling appellant, “You son-of-a-bitch, if you ever come near or around my place of business again, I’ll kill you, you son-of-a-bitch, just as sure as my name is Bishop,” Bishop then went across the street, and “just stood there watching [appellant].” Appellant tried to start his car but it would not start.
Soon thereafter, appellant’s wife and Templeton came to appellant’s car. Appellant told them what had previously happened between him and Bishop. Appellant’s wife had a pistol in her purse. Appellant told her: “Give me the gun, I’m going to go around the lot here as best I can and go down to a service station and see if I can call for help.” Appellant then left.
Enroute to the service station, appellant was again confronted by Bishop. Appellant told Bishop: “Roy, I’ve got a gun, stop,” and thereafter pointed the pistol at Bishop. Bishop, who appears to have been unarmed at the time, continued walking toward appellant, uttering epithets all the while. Appellant then commenced retreating backwards in the direction of his car, with Bishop in pursuit. With appellant’s back to his car, and Bishop grabbing for him, they commenced “tussling and the gun discharged.” The bullet struck Bishop in the chest. Appellant denied that he intentionally shot Bishop when the gun discharged, and denied having any intent to kill Bishop.
In Giles v. State, 617 S.W.2d 690, 691 (Tex.Cr.App.1981), the following was stated:
Since pointing a gun at a person raises the issue of criminally negligent homicide, i.e., as to whether the accused was unaware of the requisite risk that he ought to have been aware of (criminal negligence, V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 6.03(d), it also raises the issue of whether he was in fact aware of the risk and consciously disregarded it (recklessness, Sec. 6.03(c), supra), i.e., it raises the issue of involuntary manslaughter. Which of the two inferences regarding the accused’s awareness of the risk is correct is a matter to be drawn from the circumstances by the jury. Dillon v. State, 574 S.W.2d 92 (Tex.Cr.App.1978).
From the above facts, it should be obvious to anyone that when appellant openly displayed and exhibited his wife’s loaded pistol, he created a risk, and ought to have been aware that the risk could have resulted in Bishop’s death. The created risk was of such a nature and degree that appellant’s failure to perceive it constituted a gross deviation from the standard of care that an ordinary person would exercise under all the circumstances as viewed from appellant’s standpoint.
Appellant was clearly entitled to have the jury instructed on the lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide, and the trial judge committed reversible error in refusing to instruct the jury on that offense. Also see and compare Schoelman v. State, 644 S.W.2d 727 (Tex.Cr.App.1983); Campbell v. State, supra; Giles v. State, supra; Branham v. State, 583 S.W.2d 782 (Tex.Cr.App.1979); London v. State, 547 S.W.2d 27 (Tex.Cr.App.1977); Dockery v. State, 542 S.W.2d 644 (Tex.Cr. App.1976); Lewis v. State, 529 S.W.2d 550 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); Esparza v. State, 520 S.W.2d 891 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); Vol. 5, Texas Criminal Practice Guide, Sections 124.-04 and 124.05.
I dissent to the majority’s clearly erroneous decision upholding the trial judge’s decision not to give the jury an instruction on criminally negligent homicide.
I will now address the majority opinion, which “gets the blood of controversy in my neck.” See Ex parte Mc Williams, 634 S.W.2d 815, 828 (Tex.Cr.App.1982).1
To support his opinion, the author of the majority opinion seizes upon, inter alia, the *861panel opinion of Simpkins v. State, 590 S.W.2d 129 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), which he also authored.
A close reading of Simpkins v. State, supra, however, should make it obvious to anyone that the panel used an incorrect standard of review in reaching its conclusion that the defendant in that cause was not entitled to an instruction on the offense of criminally negligent homicide. Rather than viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant in that cause, the panel, instead, and contrary to this court’s past decisions, see Ormsby v. State, 600 S.W.2d 782 (Tex.Cr.App.1980); Moore v. State, 574 S.W.2d 122 (Tex.Cr.App.1978), viewed the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. It is obvious to me that the author of the majority opinion repeats that same error in this cause, but this time does so with the approval of a majority of this Court.
The issues that are before us are whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to appellant, the facts of this cause reflect or indicate that appellant created a substantial and unjustifiable risk that he ought to have been aware of, and, if so, do the facts most favorable to appellant also reflect or indicate that he consciously disregarded the risk that he created. I find that the facts most favorable to appellant answer both questions in the affirmative. The majority, however, disagrees.
In rejecting appellant’s contention that he was entitled to an instruction on criminally negligent homicide, it is obvious to me that the majority of this Court has become hypnotized by the erroneous conclusion that in a murder case, if the accused is shown to be familiar with firearms, no matter how slight, then, regardless of the facts, he cannot ever receive a jury instruction on the lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide. If this is the law, then the law is truly an ass, and such flies in the face of not only what the Legislature of this State has mandated, but what this Court has stated and held in the past.
The fact that an accused might be reckless does not preclude him from also being criminally negligent. Thus, regardless of one’s familiarity with firearms, which might be important in deciding whether the accused was reckless, if the facts also reflect or indicate that the accused created a risk, that he ought to have been aware of the risk, and acted in conscious disregard of that risk, and a death results, which constitutes the offense of criminally negligent homicide, the jury should be instructed on the offense of criminally negligent homicide. It is then up to the trier of fact, and not some appellate court, to decide whether the accused is guilty of criminally negligent homicide. In this instance, however, the majority has assumed the jury’s responsibility of making that decision.
Under the facts of this cause, when viewed in the light most favorable to the appellant, the trier of fact could have found either that appellant was aware of the risk that he created by pointing the pistol at Bishop or it could have found that appellant ought to have been aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the death of Bishop might occur as a result of appellant pointing the pistol at Bishop. Which one of the two inferences regarding the appellant’s awareness of the risk is correct was a matter to be drawn from the circumstances by the jury, and not by a majority of this Court.
In this cause, the evidence presented to the jury was capable of various interpretations, but the jury was only required to answer the following questions: Did appellant intentionally or knowingly cause Bishop’s death, or did he cause Bishop’s death while acting under the immediate influence of sudden passion arising from an adequate cause, or was appellant’s act in killing Bishop accidentally done, or was he justified in killing Bishop because he reasonably be*862lieved that it was immediately necessary to protect himself against Bishop’s use of unlawful force?
The jury, however, was not given the opportunity to decide, if they found that appellant did not act intentionally or knowingly, whether appellant’s act of pulling the gun and holding it while pushing Bishop created a substantial and unjustifiable risk that someone would be shot because of his act, and, further, was not given the opportunity to decide whether appellant ought to have been aware of, but consciously disregarded the risk that he created when he pointed the pistol at Bishop. Thus, the jury was not given the opportunity to decide whether appellant was guilty of the lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide, rather than merely deciding whether he was guilty of murder or voluntary manslaughter, or not guilty because of accident or self defense.
Viewed in the light most favorable to appellant, since the evidence that was presented to the jury would have shown that appellant was “guilty only of the offense of criminally negligent homicide,” see Royster v. State, 622 S.W.2d 442 (Tex.Cr.App.1981), and not the greater offenses of murder or voluntary manslaughter, appellant’s requested charge on criminally negligent homicide should have been given by the trial judge to the jury, and the trial judge’s failure to so instruct the jury denied and deprived appellant of a fair trial. To the majority’s contrary holding, I respectfully dissent.

. I wholeheartedly agree with and approve all of what Judge Clinton has stated in the dissenting opinion he has written. His brilliance *861causes my dissenting opinion to be shortened by many pages.