Court Opinion

ID: 9762212
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:16:42.805269+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:31.972626
License: Public Domain

ON APPELLANT’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
DICE, Commissioner.
In his motion for rehearing, appellant urges for the first time, as a ground for reversal of the conviction, that a part of the proceedings at the hearing of his motion for new trial was in his absence. Appellant alleges in his motion, which he supports by the affidavits of his two trial attorneys, that upon the hearing of the motion for new trial a typewritten transcript of the district attorney’s jury argument was introduced in evidence, with the agreement that it be later corrected by the parties after they had heard an electronic transcription of the argument made at the trial. Appellant alleges that after the court had overruled his motion for new trial and he (appellant) had been removed from the courtroom and taken to jail, the state’s prosecuting attorney and his attorneys did listen to the electronic transcription of the district attorney’s argument and at such time made numerous deletions, additions, and insertions in and to the typewritten copy of the argument previously introduced in evidence.
Appellant insists that such action in his absence was in violation of his right to be confronted with the witness against him, as guaranteed by Art. 1, Sec. 10, of the Constitution of Texas, Vernon’s Ann.St., and was a denial of due process guaranteed to him under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and Art. 1, Sec. 19, of the Constitution of this State.
While this court is not authorized to consider affidavits attached to motions for rehearing, setting up matters not shown by the record, in view of the penalty assessed we have examined them and the questions presented and fail to perceive any reversible error.
The mere correction of appellant’s exhibit in his absence, after the motion for new trial had been overruled, was not “evidence” being introduced from the witness stand. The proceeding was not such a part of appellant’s trial as to require his presence, under the provisions of Art. 580, Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.
Error is now urged for the first time to the admission in evidence of state’s exhibit # 7, which appellant alleges was an inflammatory photograph of the bloody body of the deceased. The exhibit does not appear in the record and it is charged by appellant that the same has been secreted and suppressed by the district attorney and sheriff of Fayette County, thereby depriving him of its use on appeal. An examination of the record reflects that state’s exhibit # 7 was admitted in evidence after Sheriff Flournoy testified that it “truly represented that which it purported to show.” Appellant’s only objection to the exhibit was his statement: “the man who took the picture is not here.”
*661The admission of the photograph in evidence was not error.
On the question of the alleged suppression of the photograph by the district attorney and the sheriff, certain affidavits are presented in the record by both appellant and the state. The affidavits of appellant’s trial counsel state, in substance, that the photograph (Ex. 7) introduced in evidence was in possession of the sheriff and that when they went to him he informed them that he did not have the photograph and did not know where it was.
Sheriff Flournoy, in his affidavit, states that he had made a diligent search of the files in his office and was unable to find the photograph. District Attorney Barber, in his affidavit, states that he did not keep possession of the photograph after the trial and that a thorough search of his office did not reveal the exhibit.
Under the record presented, we are unable to agree with appellant’s contention that said exhibit was shown to have been secreted by the district attorney or sheriff.
Appellant further alleges in his motion for rehearing that during the trial the district attorney suppressed evidence of appellant’s insanity and that Deputy Sheriff Adamcik, who refuses to make an affidavit, if called on as a witness will testify that he had appellant under arrest within an hour after the commission of the crime and, in his opinion, appellant was completely out of his mind and insane, and that the prosecution knew of this condition.
The affidavit of Deputy Sheriff Adamcik is presented by the state, in which he swears:
“ * * * I have never thought that Edwin Marious Bertsch was insane at any time. * * * ”
District Attorney Barber also presents his affidavit, in which he states:
“At no time, either prior to, during, or subsequent to the trial of the said Edwin Marious Bertsch did the Sheriff, or any Deputy Sheriff, of Fayette County, Texas, or any other credible person, in any way tell me or even indirectly intimate to me that in their opinion the Defendant, Edwin Marious Bertsch, was insane at the time of the commission of the offense for which he was tried, or that he was in any way insane or unable to assist his counsel in his defense at the time of trial of the said case.”
We overrule the contention that evidence was suppressed.
Other contentions urged by the appellant have been carefully considered and are overruled.
The motion for rehearing is overruled
Opinion approved by the court.