Court Opinion

ID: 9684368
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:54:48.911922+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:55.286858
License: Public Domain

OPINION

On Appellant’s Motion For Rehearing

KEITH, Commissioner.
On November 5, 1975, this Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court after overruling several of appellant’s grounds of error. However, for reasons set out in the opinion, the first three grounds of error complaining of jury misconduct were not considered.
The record now having been supplemented and the record now showing that the stenographic transcription of the evidence heard upon the motion for new trial was inadvertently left out of our record, we are able to dispose of the first three grounds of error.
On the hearing of the motion for new trial, appellant established that the State’s witness Henley was not under subpoena but appeared upon call of State’s counsel. Henley testified that while he was in the pool hall he heard appellant tell Jerry Tullos that “he thought he would go to town and kill the son-of-a-bitch.” Appellant’s trial counsel stated that he was surprised at Henley’s appearance since he had checked the court records for the names of all State witnesses, having done this daily prior to trial.
Appellant denied having had any such conversation with Tullos, and denied even knowing Henley by sight. However, it did develop on the hearing that Tullos lived in the nearby small community of Apple Springs in Trinity County. No effort was made to contact Tullos, no request was made for time within which to locate Tul-los, and appellant’s counsel rested the case without making any complaint of the testimony of Henley or appellant’s inability to refute the statement attributed to him.
At the hearing on the motion for new trial, Tullos denied that appellant made any such statement to him, and, more importantly, testified that he had so told the district attorney that no such statement had been made by appellant. The district attorney testified that he had indeed conferred with Tullos before trial but that Tullos denied any recollection of the statement — not that it was not made as Tullos testified upon the hearing.
Appellant now contends that State’s counsel breached the duty owed to appel*810lant by not informing him, before the trial, of Tullos’ equivocal position with reference to Henley’s testimony, invoking the doctrine of Means v. State, 429 S.W.2d 490, 493-495 (Tex.Cr.App.1968), and Crutcher v. State, 481 S.W.2d 113, 115 (Tex.Cr.App.1972).
We do not recede from our prior opinions relating to the prosecutor’s constitutional duty to disclose evidence favorable to the accused as exemplified in the cited cases. However, our record does not disclose that: (1)the prosecutor deliberately painted a false picture of facts using perjured testimony; or (2) failed to correct its own testimony when it became apparent that it was false; or (3) actively suppressed evidence which might have exonerated the accused or been of importance to the defense; or (4) negligently failed to disclose evidence which might have exonerated the accused; or (5) any bad faith on the part of the prosecutor.
A direct conflict was shown between the testimony of Tullos and the district attorney as to what Tullos had told the latter, and the trial court was not required to accept as true the Tullos account of the conversation. The decision upon a motion for new trial rests in the sound discretion of the trial court and in the absence of an abuse of discretion its decision will not be disturbed on appeal. Grizzell v. State, 164 Tex.Cr.R. 362, 298 S.W.2d 816 (1956); Bryan v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 406 S.W.2d 210, 216 (1966); Hill v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 480 S.W.2d 670, 673 (1972).
We find no abuse of discretion and grounds of error numbers one and two are overruled.
Next, appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion for new trial because the jury received new evidence during its deliberations upon appellant’s guilt. One juror testified that the foreman told several jurors that the reputation of the deceased, which the record made by appellant showed to be bad, was about the same as that of appellant. The foreman denied having made such statement before the verdict was reached unanimously but admitted that he may have made such a statement after the jury had found appellant guilty. Another juror denied having heard any such remark.
In Powell v. State, 502 S.W.2d 705, 711 (Tex.Cr.App.1973), the rule was restated in this manner:
“The trial court is the place to decide issues of fact as to what occurred in the jury room. That decision will not be disturbed by this Court in the absence of an abuse of discretion.”
We find no abuse of discretion in this instance. An issue of fact having been drawn as to what occurred in the jury room, the proper tribunal to decide that issue is the trial judge who hears the witnesses. Hartman v. State, 507 S.W.2d 557, 560 (Tex.Cr.App.1974), and authorities therein cited. Ground three is overruled.
The motion for rehearing is overruled and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Opinion approved by the Court.