Court Opinion

ID: 9776006
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:16:24.599286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:32.760382
License: Public Domain

OPINION
DOUGLAS, Judge.
Appellant was convicted in two counts in one indictment for the offenses of burglary of a building with intent to commit theft and theft. Trial was before the court upon a plea of guilty. Punishment was assessed at two years on each count.
This was an attempt to prosecute pursuant to V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Sections 3.01 and 3.02, and Article 21.24, V.A.C.C.P., as amended, wherein a single prosecution is allowed for multiple offenses arising out of the same criminal episode. “Criminal episode” is defined in V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 3.01, as “the repeated commission of any one offense defined in Title 7 of this code (Offenses Against Property).” Such definition precludes burglary and theft from constituting “offenses arising out of the same criminal episode.”
A parallel situation existed under the former penal code where two distinct felonies based on different transactions were alleged in the same indictment.
The theft count of the two-count indictment is fundamentally defective for failure to allege lack of effective consent of the owner. See Reynolds v. State, 547 S.W.2d 590 (Tex.Cr.App.1976). Hence, the only remaining and only valid count is that of burglary of the building. This Court has the power to reform and correct the judgment as the law and the nature of the case may require. When, on appeal, this Court has the same information for the reforming or correcting of the judgment as the trial court would have were the judgment reversed or the appeal dismissed, the judgment will be reformed and corrected on appeal. Article 44.24, V.A.C.C.P.; 1 Branch’s Ann.P.C.2d, Section 688, page 661, and cases cited therein.
Next is the requirement that in cases of joinder under Sections 3.01 and 3.02, supra, and Article 21.24, supra, separate sentences be pronounced. V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 3.03, provides:
“When the accused is found guilty of more than one offense arising out of the same criminal episode prosecuted in a single criminal action, sentence for each offense for which he has been found guilty shall be pronounced. Such sentences shall run concurrently.”
The above provision requires separate sentences in joinder cases. In White v. State, 543 S.W.2d 130 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), the defendant had been convicted of three counts of aggravated robbery, but the sentence referred only to a single conviction for robbery occurring on a specific date. No mention was made of the other two counts nor the dates on which the robberies were committed. This Court affirmed as to the conviction on the first count and dismissed the appeals as to the second and third counts. In so doing, Presiding Judge Onion, speaking for the majority, said:
“If proper sentences were in fact pronounced in the case regarding the second and third counts, but there was a failure to enter such sentences, they may be entered nunc pro tunc. Art. 42.06, V.A.C. C.P. If, on the other hand, sentences were never properly pronounced, the Court may now pronounce sentences and an appeal may be taken therefrom if appellant so desires.”
In the instant case the sentence contains recitations as to both convictions, burglary of a building and theft. The sentence should be corrected to read burglary of a building. The situation is analogous to that in Shapley v. State, 431 S.W.2d 3 (Tex.Cr.App.1968), where the indictment charged two offenses, embezzlement and theft. The trial court submitted only the theft offense to the jury, the jury found the defendant guilty as charged, and the judgment and sentence recited that the defendant had been adjudged guilty of embezzlement of over fifty dollars. We reformed the judgment and sentence on appeal to show that the defendant’s conviction was for felony theft.
*480In Clark v. State, 289 S.W.2d 248 (Tex.Cr.App.1956), where the indictment included both the offense of forgery and of passing a forged instrument, and the defendant pled guilty and was adjudged guilty of both, and a term of seven years in the penitentiary was assessed, we reformed the judgment and sentence to read that he was adjudged guilty of forgery and sentenced to a term of not less than two years nor more than seven years. Likewise, in Cunningham v. State, 484 S.W.2d 906 (Tex.Cr.App.1972), where the jury had found the defendant guilty of the offense of concealing stolen property but the judgment and sentence recited that he had been convicted of receiving and concealing stolen property, we reformed the judgment and sentence to accord with the jury’s verdict.
Then in Franco v. State, 491 S.W.2d 876 (Tex.Cr.App.1973), where the indictment charged defendant in two counts with unlawful sale of marihuana and unlawful possession of marihuana but the court’s charge submitted only the issue as to sale, we reformed the judgment finding the defendant guilty of sale and possession to guilty only of sale. See also Article 44.24, V.A.C. C.P., and the cases collated under notes 24, 65, 70 and 74.
No reversible error is shown. The judgment and sentence are reformed to reflect the conviction only for burglary of a building with intent to commit theft.
As reformed, the conviction is affirmed.