Court Opinion

ID: 9774264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:13:20.300972+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:04.630158
License: Public Domain

VOLLERS, Judge,
dissenting.
The majority in this cause is holding that the appellant has established entrapment as a matter of law. With this conclusion I cannot agree.
First of all V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Section 8.06 provides:
“(a) It is a defense to prosecution that the actor engaged in conduct charged because he was induced to do so by law enforcement agent using persuasion or other means likely to cause persons to commit the offense.” (Emphasis added.)
The testimony in this cause shows that Detective Fleming testified that appellant worked for him in an undercover capacity both before and after he was placed on probation. Fleming stated that in the early part of 1975 he initiated conversations with appellant regarding his interest in appellant’s “getting in” with three suspected burglars and supplying him with information for burglary investigations. The persons arrested along with appellant for the burglary in question were in fact the same persons Fleming had been interested in investigating. However, Fleming instructed appellant to report anything to him, but to contact him by phone before he participated in any activities with the suspects so that Fleming could “catch them” in the burglary, but “bail appellant out.”
When appellant was arrested on the charge of committing the burglary in question Fleming executed the warrant for appellant’s arrest. He testified that at first appellant did not mention the burglary in Brazoria County but then did relate to him the fact that he had been with the suspects Fleming was investigating in Galveston County and had been unable to get to a telephone to call Fleming before the burglary. At that point Fleming told him that there wasn’t anything that he could do and that he should have dropped the whole thing right there and then. Fleming further testified that he did not suggest to appellant that he go to another county to commit a burglary to catch these other people.
Officer Hatthorn testified that he transferred appellant to the Brazoria County Courthouse where he took appellant before a magistrate for the purpose of having his rights explained to him. Thereafter he took appellant to his office, also in the Brazoria County Courthouse, advised appellant of his rights again and took a statement which was reduced to writing and constituted a confession to the burglary. In taking this confession appellant did not tell him anything about Sgt. Fleming of the Texas City Police Department and did not make a request to call Sgt. Fleming.
From this testimony it appears that the determination of this issue rests solely upon the appellant’s testimony that in following Sgt. Fleming’s instructions he found himself in a position where he could not call Sgt. Fleming and he could not back out of the plans to burglarize the drugstore in question. Therefore, the determination of whether or not the defense of entrapment was established rests solely upon the appellant’s testimony. I am compelled to disagree with the majority conclusion that the trial judge was bound to believe the testimony of the appellant. This is especially *333true in light of the fact that after appellant escaped from the scene of the burglary he did not call the officer who supposedly entrapped him nor did he mention it to this officer when that officer executed the warrant of arrest. Furthermore there was no mention of this “entrapment” when he gave a written confession to the commission of the crime.
The trial judge must be satisfied by a preponderance of the evidence that the appellant violated the terms and conditions of his probation. Scamardo v. State, 517 S.W.2d 293 (Tex.Cr.App.1975). It was the trial judge, and not the members of this Court, who heard the witnesses testify and saw their expressions and conduct while appearing as live witnesses. I am simply not ready to declare that the trial judge had no discretion in whether or not to believe the testimony of a witness that appears before him, whether it be a person who is charged with the commission of a crime or any other witness.
I dissent.