Court Opinion

ID: 9776803
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:44:58.973881+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:42.691929
License: Public Domain

ODOM, Judge,
dissenting.
In his second ground of error appellant complains error was committed when the trial court overruled his objection to the charge. It is an essential element of evading arrest that the attempted arrest is lawful. Alejos v. State, 555 S.W.2d 444, 448 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). The majority concedes this is the law. Appellant objected to the charge for its failure to apply the law to the facts of the case on the element of whether the attempted arrest was lawful.
The paragraph of the charge applying the law to the facts of the case recites:
“Now, bearing in mind the foregoing instructions, if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant, Lewis Edward Blackmon, on or about the 25th day of October, 1977, in the County of Dallas, and State of Texas, as alleged in the information, did then and there intentionally flee from J.E. Martindale, a person said defendant knew to be a peace officer, to-wit: the said J.E. Martindale attempting to legally arrest the said defendant, you will find the defendant guilty as charged in the information, and you will make no finding in this verdict as to punishment.”
This does not apply the law to the facts of the case on the lawfulness of the arrest. In *742Fields v. State, 544 S.W.2d 153 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), the court held that such an omission was not fundamental error where there was no objection or requested instruction.1 In this case timely objection was made to this defect in the charge. The charge did include a paragraph stating the law of arrest under Art. 14.03, Y.A.C.C.P. There was, however, no application of that law to the facts of this case in the charge. Although the trial court initially agreed to submit such a charge, it subsequently reversed itself and overruled the objection.2 The facts in this case showed appellant was arrested by police officers who had heard a radio report of a theft and then saw appellant being chased by a store security guard. The law under Art. 14.03, supra, should have been applied to these facts in the charge. The trial court erred when it overruled appellant’s objection. See generally Williams v. State, 547 S.W.2d 18 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).
The State in reply to appellant’s second and third grounds of error makes a single combined argument that appellant’s requested charge “is merely an affirmative submission of a defensive issue which merely denies the existence of an essential element of the State’s case.” Although this argument is correct with respect to the third ground of error (which complains of denial of a requested charge), it is unresponsive to the second ground of error, which is based on the overruling of an objection to the charge for omission of an application of the law to the facts on the issue of the lawfulness of the arrest. The second ground of error is based on the adversé ruling set out in footnote 2. It is not based on a request for an affirmative submission of the denial of an element of the offense, but is based simply on the overruled objection to failure to apply the law to the facts on the issue. The objection should have been sustained.
The majority opinion makes the bold assertion that the phrase “legally arrest” in the paragraph applying the law to the facts constitutes an application of “the law of arrest to the facts of the case.” It is self-evident that those two words could not protect appellant’s right, timely asserted by objection to the charge, to a full application of the law of arrest to the facts of his case.
I must dissent.

. The Court in Fields also relied on the fact that the lawfulness of the arrest was not a contested issue, which suggests that failure to apply the law to the facts on the lawfulness of the arrest could be fundamental error if the issue is contested.

. “THE COURT: Of the objection in CCR 77-2527-H, to the Charge in that the law of a lawful arrest is not more specifically applied to the facts, that is, more specifically than the wording ‘attempting to legally arrest the said Defendant,’ that objection is overruled. Since legally or a legal arrest is defined and I will not further break it down any more than I will further break down ‘intentionally’ or ‘knowingly’ in applying the law to the facts. ‘Legally’ is defined in the Court’s Charge. The word is included in applying the law to the facts, and that is as specific as I am going to get. So, your objection on those grounds is overruled.”