Court Opinion

ID: 9773629
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:52:03.839759+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:55.576913
License: Public Domain

WHITHAM, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. While I concur in the majority’s opinion that the repeal of *583subdivision 13 of article 40.09 did not withdraw the jurisdiction of this court to review the record on its own motion for the purpose of determining the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction, I would hold the evidence insufficient to support the conviction and would reverse and render.
I agree with the majority that the intent to commit theft may be inferred from the circumstances. Williams v. State, 537 S.W.2d 936, 938 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Hawkins v. State, 467 S.W.2d 465, 466 (Tex.Cr.App.1971); Gibson v. State, 434 S.W.2d 851, 852 (Tex.Cr.App.1968). The majority, however, then recites the doctrine that the act of breaking and entering into a house at night raises a presumption of intent to commit theft and, by blurring the distinction between presumptions and inferences, suggests that the nighttime presumption of intent to commit theft is applicable to daytime cases. With this I do not agree.
There is a distinction between inferring an intent to commit theft from the circumstances surrounding a breaking and entering and a presumption of intent to commit theft. When intent is to be inferred from the circumstances, intent must be proved. Because direct proof of intent, absent a confession, is often minimal or nonexistent, the State must present evidence of the circumstances in which the crime occurred and the jury, viewing those circumstances, takes the logical step of finding that a defendant possessed a particular intent. On appeal, this court then views the sufficiency of the circumstances shown, including any controverting evidence presented by appellant, to determine whether intent was proved. Where there is a presumption of intent to commit a particular crime, however, the State’s burden is lighter. Under a presumption the State need present no evidence of any circumstances pointing toward any particular intent, and on appeal the conviction would be upheld unless a defendant presented controverting evidence that he had no such intent.
While the presumption of intent to commit theft has been widely used in cases where the breaking and entering occurred at night, see e.g. Callahan v. State, 502 S.W.2d 3 (Tex.Cr.App.1973); Hutchinson v. State, 481 S.W.2d 881 (Tex.Cr.App.1972); Sikes v. State, 166 Tex.Cr.R. 257, 312 S.W.2d 524 (1958); Martin v. State, 148 Tex.Cr.R. 232, 186 S.W.2d 80 (1945), it has never been extended to cases where the breaking and entering occurred during the day. If such an extension should be made, it should be made directly, by the Court of Criminal Appeals, and not indirectly by this court. Steam and Ortega do not support such an extension. In Stearn v. State, 571 S.W.2d 177 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the appellant’s conviction because it found that the jury could infer from the circumstances the appellant’s intent to commit theft. The court neither recited the presumption of intent to commit theft, nor applied it in that ease. The same is true of Ortega v. State, 626 S.W.2d 746 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). Although the opinion in each is silent regarding whether the breaking and entering occurred during the day, it is logical to presume that each involved a daytime burglary because the court used the daytime test of inferring intent from the circumstances surrounding the crime and did not use the nighttime presumption of intent to commit theft. Stearn and Ortega are not authority for extending the presumption to daytime cases. The test correctly used in the present case is whether there was sufficient evidence of circumstances from which the jury could infer an intent to commit theft. I would hold that there was not.
The fact that appellant, armed with a coke bottle, illegally entered an apartment occupied by two people (Taylor and his girlfriend) suggests to me that appellant had bad intentions, perhaps intending to commit robbery, rape, or assault. It is not, however, a circumstance from which a jury could logically infer that appellant had the specific intent to commit theft. Absent any presumption to commit theft, inapplicable in this case, there is no evidence that appellant intended to commit theft, thus the State failed to prove this essential allegation of the indictment.
I would reverse and enter an order of acquittal.