Court Opinion

ID: 9671336
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:34:41.793575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:37.412560
License: Public Domain

ON STATE’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
McDonald, judge.
Most of the opinion reversing this cause on original submission was devoted to the distinction between a principal and an accomplice. The majority opinion held that the appellant was not a principal; that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction as such and viewed from the state’s standpoint shows him to have been an accomplice to the crime.
The writer approved the opinion written by Judge Dice on original submission and wrote no opinion thereon. Judge Morrison concurred and Presiding Judge Woodley dissented. I now recede from my original position so far as the appellant being a principal is concerned.
I think that appellant was a principal, rather than an accomplice. I do not agree with Presiding Judge Woodley that Parnell’s case, 170 Tex.Cr.R. 30, 339 S.W.2d 49, cited in his dissenting opinion is in point with the case at bar. I say this for the reason that Parnell was present during the course of the conversion. He was present at the Executive Committee Meeting on June 8th, and at the stockholders meeting on August 15th.
I also disclaim Hankamer’s case, 142 Tex. Cr.R. 23, 150 S.W.2d 794, cited in our original opinion as authority to support my views therein expressed. Hankamer was an administrator “converting on his own”, without any assistance from the county or probate judge. The portion excerpted from his case and cited in the original opinion follows a discussion in his case of the time of various conversions to refute a claim advanced by Hankamer that limitation had run on his offenses, if any. This Court said:
“He had unquestionably converted the $66.55 to his own use and benefit before he ever made any payment of the premium on the bonds. The conversion was complete the moment he formed the intent to use the money for his private personal use and did so use it.”
No other person was present, nor was any action on the part of any other person required for Hankamer to complete the conversion in his case. He was unlike Putney, the co-principal and administrator in this cause. He was acting on his own. Putney was acting with the appellant, or the appellant with him, they were acting together, as I shall hereinafter set forth. The writer has carefully reviewed all of the cases cited by the State and the appellant, along with numerous other cases dealing with the law of principals and accomplices. Holt v. State, 144 Tex.Cr.R. 62, 160 S.W.2d 944, cited by Presiding Judge Woodley in his dissenting opinion, supports the view that I now entertain. The writer desires to direct attention to Judge Graves’ concurring opinion in Holt, supra, in which he cites numerous cases, among them being: Middleton v. State, 86 Tex.Cr.R. 307, 217 S.W. 1046 and Mason v. State, 31 Tex.Cr.R. 306, 20 S.W. 564, which Judge Graves refers to as being “the true doctrine that should be followed” so far as the law of principals is concerned. Judge Simkins wrote the unanimous opinion in Mason’s case. I shall not here lengthen this opinion by quoting from either case, but I do feel that both cases support my position. Whether Put-*682ney needed the Order from appellant, allowing the $10,000.00 attorney’s fee, isn’t clear. Appellant did not exercise his statutory duty to conserve and preserve the funds of the estate, he passively sat by and allowed Putney to withdraw the money. The appellant set Putney in motion to perpetrate the offense just as effectively as Middleton did Osment in the murder case, Middleton, supra. It is true that Middleton struck no blow with the hammer, nor did appellant even touch the pen when Putney cashed the check at the bank, and yet, the two cases are parallel.
Cochrain v. State, 93 Tex.Cr.R. 483, 248 S.W. 43, involved an appellant whose part in the transaction was “to pretend to be dead”, which he did. In this case Southwestern Life Insurance Company paid out $5,000.00 to Cochrain’s wife, based upon a a conspiracy that he had died. He, of course, was not present when the money was paid to his wife. He played “dead” and the appellant herein played like Putney was an honest administrator, and he sat back and silently allowed Putney to convert at least $5,000.00 from the Currie estate and place it on deposit for the use of appellant, or in a bank account controlled by appellant. It is quite coincidental that Cochrain’s case is even identical to the case at bar as to the sum of money involved, as well as being authority for my position.
The writer feels that we were in error in holding in our original opinion that the trial Court erred in refusing to allow appellant, prior to ordering a change of venue of the cause, to adduce evidence in support of three motions filed by him to quash the indictment or to permit him to perfect his bills of exception, by which he alleged that the indictment returned by the grand jury was in violation of Art. 1, Sec. 10, of the Constitution of Texas, Vernon’s Ann.St., and of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which complained of errors appellant has brought forward by formal Bills of Exception Nos. 9, 10, and 11. Art. 1, Sec. 10, Constitution of Texas protects the rights of an accused in all criminal prosecutions. It does not encompass grand jury action. Rothschild v. State, 7 Tex. App. 519, cited in our original opinion was a case involving an allegation that an unauthorized person was present during the deliberations of the grand jury. The case was reversed because the trial court refused to permit proof by the appellant on this issue. The record in the instant case discloses that appellant was permitted to make proof herein on his allegation that unauthorized persons were present at the time the grand jury deliberated. The trial court met the requirement of Rothschild, and that case does not support our original view, from which I now retreat. In Juarez v. State, 102 Tex. Cr.R. 297, 277 S.W. 1091, the trial court refused to permit appellant to make proof that he had been purposely discriminated against in the selection of the grand jury which returned the indictments against him. Appellant herein makes no such claim. (The trial court here did refuse to permit appellant to make an inquiry into what evidence the grand jury considered at the time of the return of the indictment.) It has long been the law that the character of testimony or the quantum of proof had before the grand jury cannot be inquired into on a motion to quash the indictment. Article 506, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P., Note 6, citing numerous cases. The foregoing article of our Code of Criminal Procedure does not provide for quashing an indictment against a Negro because it was found by a grand jury from which all persons of the African race had been excluded because of their race or color. Yet such a procedure to quash has been held to be a timely mode of presenting the objection, under the Constitution and laws of the United States, as set forth by appellant’s able attorneys. However, I do not think these racial discriminatory cases cited by appellant are in point here.
The case of Rideau v. State of Louisiana, 373 U.S. 723, 83 S.Ct. 1417, 10 L.Ed.2d 663, cited by appellant, is not in point as it is bottomed on the refusal of the trial court to grant a change of venue. We have no *683such question before us in the case at bar. The trial court changed the venue of appellant’s case. He was tried in Belton, Texas, approximately 200 miles from Houston, Texas, where appellant alleges the complained of publicity took place.
I shall now direct my attention to what I regard as the reversible errors in this case. My views and my position are that the State’s Motion for Rehearing should be denied. In this court’s original opinion by the majority, Judge Dice, speaking for the court, said, “Upon another trial, the state should not be permitted to prove that two of the original incorporators of Tierra Grande, Inc., did not appear before the notary public when they signed and acknowledged the articles of incorporation, as such acts were extraneous transactions which had no bearing upon the issues in the case. For the same reason, evidence should not be admitted to show that appellant, as probate judge, had authorized Putney to make certain loans from the estate to third parties and also authorized Putney to execute a check in the amount of $15,000 to Southwest Equities Corporation. That portion of the administrator’s final account showing certain old coins belonging to the estate as being in appellant’s possession should not, upon timely and proper objection, be admitted in evidence before the jury. The court should also limit in his charge the jury’s consideration of any evidence of extraneous offenses or transactions to the purpose for which it was admitted.”
Further elaboration as to these matters was not deemed necessary due to the court’s disposition of this cause. I feel it will be desirable to elaborate and clarify my position through a more labored discussion of the law applicable and direct attention to the errors I regard as reversible.
The indictment returned on June 20, 1962, alleges that the appellant on or about December 19, 1960, did unlawfully, with intent to defraud, convert to his own use $10,000 in money from and belonging to the Estate of Clara L. Currie.
It is undisputed that the state relies for a conviction upon the withdrawal of $10,-000 by Putney’s check dated December 19, 1960, drawn on and paid out of the Currie Estate as authorized by the appellant, and the unlawful conversion thereof of any sum of money of over fifty dollars. The state adopted this view in briefing this case.
To support the allegations of the indictment the state called the witness, Putney, who testified on direct examination, that he presented an application to appellant, as Probate Judge, for an order approving attorney’s fees in the sum of $10,000; that appellant signed the order approving the application but said instruments were left on the desk of the Judge (appellant) and they were never produced at the trial. The bank records reveal that on presentation by Putney of the $10,000 check, he received $500 in money, deposited $9,500 to his personal account, and then drew a $5,000 check on his personal account which he deposited to the account of Tierra Grande, Inc., shown to be controlled by appellant, and that this money was withdrawn for the benefit of appellant.
On cross-examination, by the appellant of Putney, he testified that he had made approximately 50 odd withdrawals of money from the Currie Estate- without a court order from the appellant, aggregating in excess of $25,000, which he had converted to his own. use and had shared none of the proceeds with the appellant.
The state on re-direct examination, over appellant’s objection, introduced evidence of another withdrawal by Putney, pursuant to appellant’s oral instruction, of $15,000 on January 24, 1961, for the purchase of stock in the Southwest Equities Corporation.
For the admission in evidence of the said $15,000 stock purchase the District Attorney of Harris County argued to the trial Judge that:
“We think it is in response to the cross-examination with reference to the defendant’s knowledge of withdrawals from the estate without a written or*684der. This is such a transaction. My position is that it is admissible to rebut — that all of the withdrawals that were made without an order were made unknown to the defendant”.
Thus, it was the theory of the state that it should be allowed to offer evidence in rebuttal, showing that Putney acted in other transactions upon an oral court order by appellant, other than the single order approving the attorney’s fee of $10,000. Over timely and proper objection, the evidence was admitted.
In addition to the $15,000 stock purchase, the state proffered the testimony of Putney about a prospectus and the notation appellant had made on it. In the absence of the jury the testimony shows that Putney had seen a prospectus of the Southwest Equities Corporation, and that appellant had written on this prospectus: “Mrs. Currie subscribed for 1,000 shares.” After objection had been made, the Court then stated that he would not admit the prospectus, but he would permit the notation “which is ascribed to the defendant, that Mrs. Currie subscribed to 1,000 shares.” The Court stated: “The Court understands that the purpose of the State here is to show that the witness had purported oral authority in other transactions other than the one involved”. The Harris County District Attorney then stated: “Yes, and that such withdrawals were made to the knowledge of the defendant, without proper order of the Court.” Then, in the presence of the jury, the witness, Put-ney, was asked to identify an exhibit, which he stated was a prospectus of Southwest Equities Corporation, that he had seen it in Judge McClelland’s office, that McClelland instructed him to buy the stock and that Mc-Clelland made the notation on the prospectus: "Mrs. Currie subscribed to 1,000 shares”; that Putney then withdrew the $15,000.00 from the Currie estate and invested it in stock of the Southwest Equities Corporation, pursuant to McClelland’s oral instructions. The Court then admitted the portion of the prospectus bearing the above-quoted notation.
Following the withdrawal of the $15,000 from the Currie Estate for the purchase of stock on January 24, 1961, proof was made by the State that there were two substantial withdrawals of money totaling over $100,000 from the Currie Estate in connection with two loans made by Putney. One, in the sum of $40,000.00 to Bayou Production Company on March 28, 1961, and tue other in the amount of $61,000.00 to C. W. Calhoun, Trustee, on June 16, 1961, both transactions clearly showing no conversion on the part of the appellant, but they gave a strong inference of wrongdoing on his part and no doubt aroused suspicion on the part of the jury, as the District Attorney asked the question: “Does the Probate Code specifically provide for loans to be made from the estates of decedents?”, which, although unanswered, no doubt caused appellant material harm by leaving an inference that the appellant had violated the law under the Probate Code. These were loans to third parties. However, I observe that the state had previously on direct examination, adduced from the witness, Putney, that following the events that he described December 19, 1960, that he subsequently made various withdrawals from the account of Clara L. Cur-rie on many occasions without a court order or without permission of the court and that he approximated to the best of his recollection that these withdrawals amounted to $25,800.00 and some odd cents.
I do not think that the evidence was admissible. The State was actually attempting to bolster or to impeach their own witness. Had they been correctly desirous of introducing this testimony to rebut, then they were rebutting their own witness, which amounts to nothing more than impeaching one’s own witness. They did not show surprise nor hostility on the part of the witness, Putney, and I think this evidence was clearly inadmissible. Neither do I think that this testimony was admissible to bolster the state’s witness. The state saw fit to adduce upon direct examination testimony which they later regarded as un*685favorable to them, and yet they wanted to bolster their own witness with some transactions highly prejudicial to the appellant. The state also was not only getting before the jury evidence which it contended would rebut, but also “that such withdrawals were made to the knozvledge of the defendant, without proper order of the Court.” If I correctly interpret the view of the state, it was their position that the stock purchased from Southwest Equities Corporation and the two loans, all having been made with an order from the Probate Judge (the appellant), and he having knowledge of such transactions, for he ordered them made, would also refute Put-ney’s testimony that he converted over $25,000.00 to his own use, sharing none of it with appellant. It would in effect charge appellant with knowledge of Putney’s misapplications or conversions on 50 odd different occasions. In the face of Putney’s testimony about his various independent acts of conversion, I see no similarity in these three transactions, but I do see appellant being greatly prejudiced by this testimony. Here is an estate shown by the record to be worth approximately $160,-000.00 in its entirety. Testimony was then admitted showing three transactions, totaling $116,000.00 and the one transaction for $10,000.00 for which appellant was on trial. I think the testimony about these transactions no doubt caused the jury to feel that appellant was probably, along with Putney, out to steal the entire estate and that said testimony was highly prejudicial and inflammatory to appellant’s rights to a fair and impartial trial and that it caused the jury to render a verdict for a greater punishment than they would have rendered absent this prejudicial evidence. Viewing the three transactions totaling $116,000.00 in the suspicious light that the jury no doubt saw them, they probably decided that appellant was just a petty thief to only be taking $10,000.00 as charged; so the additional evidence of the one hundred thousand dollars plus transactions removed any doubt from their minds as to appellant’s guilt. The jury probably computed that here was a Probate Judge, with his co-principal, who stole $126,000.00 in four transactions, or about three-fourths of the entire estate of $160,000.00.
Assuming for the sake of argument that the evidence of these three transactions was admissible to prove either intent, system or identity, or in developing the res gestae, so as to bring it within one of the exceptions to the general rule of admissibility as to extraneous offenses or transactions, the trial court imposed no limitations upon his instructions to the jury as to these transactions, over appellant’s timely objection. For this error alone the cause should be reversed.
For the reasons stated, the State’s Motion for Rehearing is overruled.