Court Opinion

ID: 9653905
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:58:35.056002+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:03.521828
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
What follows is the per curiam opinion originally prepared for the Court in this case. I continue to believe that the opinion was correct1 and therefore adopt it as my opinion on rehearing:
“This is an appeal from a plea of guilty to the charge of burglary of a building with intent to commit theft. The trial court assessed punishment at confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections for a term of ten (10) years.
“The appellant sets forth one ground of error in which he complains that the trial court should have withdrawn the plea of guilty and entered a plea of not guilty when appellant’s testimony raised an issue as to his guilt. The appellant relies upon testimony wherein the appellant stated that he had been drinking and awakened inside a strange building. While the appellant is correct in his position that this Court exercises great care in requiring a trial judge to withdraw a plea of guilty where the evidence introduced makes evident the innocence of the accused or which reasonably and fairly raises an issue as to such fact and such evidence is not withdrawn, that principle is not applicable to the present case. An examination of the record in this cause indicates that the appellant did not testify at the hearing on February 15,1977, wherein he entered a plea of guilty and he was found guilty. It was only at the hearing on punishment on April 13, 1977, after the appellant had been found guilty, that the appellant presented the testimony upon which he now relies.
“This Court has had the occasion to consider this question very recently in Sullivan v. State, No. 56,864, 573 S.W.2d 1 (January 18, 1978). In that case the Court pointed out that in situations where the appellant’s guilt had already been adjudicated, the trial judge was under no obligation to withdraw appellant’s plea of guilty, even if the evidence makes evident the innocence of the accused or reasonably and fairly raises an issue of such fact. Appellant’s contention in this case is without merit and the conviction is affirmed.”

. And see my opinions on rehearing and original submission in Sullivan v. State, 573 S.W.2d 1 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) (No. 56,864, this day decided), as well as my opinion on rehearing in Moon v. State, 572 S.W.2d 681 (Tex.Cr.App. 1978) (No. 54,352, this day decided).
Here, as in Sullivan, the trial court expressly found the appellant guilty before he abated the proceedings for a subsequent hearing on the issue of punishment.