Court Opinion

ID: 9768241
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:52:05.515373+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:38.543166
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge,
dissenting.
The majority holds that although the decision to reopen a case is in the sound discretion of the trial court, it is an abuse of discretion to refuse to reopen under Article 36.02, V.A.C.C.P., whenever a motion is made and the witness is present regardless of the circumstances surrounding the court’s decision.
In the instant case the court adjourned at 4:10 p. m. on November 10, 1975, both sides having closed. The following morning appellant filed a written motion to reopen which stated that an alibi witness had surfaced and that she would be used both to establish appellant’s alibi and to impeach an identification witness for the State. The court was reconvened at 9:00 a. m. the next morning, the jurors were present and the motion was granted at 9:07. The witness, Barbara Smith, was called but was not present in the courtroom. The bailiff then called her from the courthouse steps and received no answer. At 9:10 a. m. the court noted the witness’ absence and proceeded to read the charge to the jury. After the charge was read, defense counsel reurged the motion because the witness had arrived. The court overruled it because the charge had been read.
At the hearing on appellant’s motion for new trial it was developed that defense counsel was aware prior to trial that Smith was a potential impeachment witness. He had also spoken briefly with her at noon on the day of the trial, informed her that the trial was in progress but claimed that he was not aware that she was an alibi witness until he called her on the evening of November 10 to thank her for her cooperation. Smith then testified that during the noon conversation with defense counsel she had told him that she knew the State’s identification witness and appellant but that she waited until that evening to inform him of her alibi knowledge. She also stated, however, that defense counsel had asked her to come to the courthouse “around nine” but that she was not subpoenaed nor informed that she was to testify. Smith never explained the cause for her delay. The substance of her testimony was that appellant had been with her on the night of the robbery.
*759The majority opinion pays lip service to the rule that the decision to reopen is in the discretion of the trial judge, and then holds that the judge must reopen even after the charge has been read so long as the witness is present and ready to testify. This is a contradiction of terms. The majority cites Vital v. State, 523 S.W.2d 662 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); Kepley v. State, 391 S.W.2d 423 (Tex.Cr.App.1965), and Meeks v. State, 135 Tex.Cr.R. 170, 117 S.W.2d 454 (1938), as authority for this proposition. In all those cases the witness who was to testify was present before the court read its charge to the jury. There was no showing in those cases that the defendant was attempting to impede the trial or interfere with the orderly administration of justice.
In the instant case, defense counsel claims he was not aware of appellant’s alibi and witness Smith until after the close of the case in chief. The record shows, however, that defense counsel was aware of Smith’s possible impeachment testimony prior to the trial and failed to subpoena her or even interview her. When her alibi testimony was finally brought to his attention, defense counsel further compounded the problem by merely asking her to come to the courthouse “around” 9:00 a. m. while knowing that court convened at exactly 9:00 a. m. and that his motion to reopen would be taken up first.
Since appellant must have known prior to trial where he was, what he was doing and who he was with on the night of the robbery, he was duty bound to communicate this to his attorney which he apparently never did. This alone has been held sufficient to be grounds to deny a motion for new trial. See Mitchell v. State, 494 S.W.2d 865 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Hilton v. State, 443 S.W.2d 843 (Tex.Cr.App.1969).
In its final paragraph the majority states that “if the request is first made after the jury charge is read, a more serious question of interference with the due and orderly administration of justice would be raised than is presented in the situation in Vital” This, however, is the precise situation here. Although the motion was initially made and granted prior to the reading of the charge, the witness was not present in a courtroom, a situation created by defense counsel’s vague and misleading instructions to the witness and appellant’s failure to inform his attorney of the alleged alibi. The effect was that the witness was not present and ready to testify before the charge was read. The introduction of the testimony after the charge is read would have necessitated a new charge concerning alibi. Apparently this was an attempt to sandbag the court and interfere with the due and orderly administration of justice. The facts of this case are distinguishable from those cited in the majority opinion, and in light of these facts, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant’s motion to reopen. See Hammett v. State, 578 S.W.2d 699 (Tex.Cr.App.1979).
No reversible error having been shown, the judgment should be affirmed.
Before the court en banc.