Court Opinion

ID: 9681733
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:55:38.277157+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:35.644764
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Judge
(dissenting).
For the reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in Kirkpatrick v. State, 515 S.W.2d 289, 294 (Tex.Cr.App.1974), I dissent to the overruling of appellant’s three grounds of error.1

. These grounds are incorrectly decided even under the rationale of the majority opinion in Kirkpatrick. There the Court held that a limiting charge on extraneous offenses was not required because the defendant in that case was charged with misapplication of county funds under Article 95 of our former Penal Code. Thus, the Court said: “The gravamen of the offense under this particular statute is embezzlement of funds belonging to a public body, not the taking of property from a particular individua1 or individuals." Kirkpatrick v. *732State, supra, at 291. [Emphasis added.] In the case before us, the offense is theft under our former Code, which necessarily involves a single taking from an individual “person”. Art. 1410, V.A.P.C. (1925). Here, there was no “ultimate conversion of county funds” which was comprised of “many transactions which . . . were all a part of the State’s main case.” Kirkpatrick, supra, at 292. McClelland v. State, 390 S.W.2d 777 (Tex.Cr.App.1965), can be similarly distinguished: like misapplication of county funds, bribery is an offense against the public, not an individual.
Moreover, the Kirkpatrick majority relied heavily on the fact that any error was cured and rendered harmless by the fact that the defendant took the stand and admitted retaining the funds. In the case before us, the appellant did not take the stand or present any evidence. The Kirkpatrick case simply does not apply.
Nor are Ross v. State, 71 Tex.Cr.R. 493, 159 S.W. 1063 (1913), and Sapp v. State, 476 S.W.2d 321 (Tex.Cr.App.1972), applicable. Both of those cases deal with evidence used for impeachment, and both are distinguishable on their facts.