Court Opinion

ID: 9676528
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:26:25.772206+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:49.233938
License: Public Domain

TOM G. DAVIS, Judge,
dissenting.
Appeal is taken from a conviction for murder. After finding appellant guilty, the jury assessed punishment at 99 years.
The majority reversed appellant’s conviction on the basis that the felony murder allegation cannot be sustained for the reasons set forth in Garrett v. State, 573 S.W.2d 543. The majority therefore holds that because appellant’s conviction may have rested upon the felony murder paragraph of the indictment, the judgment must be reversed.
Garrett was a prosecution for murder under the felony murder rule as set forth in V.T.C.A., Sec. 19.02(a)(3). There, the defendant pointed a weapon at the victim. The State prosecuted the defendant under the felony murder rule and alleged that while he was in the course of committing the offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and in the furtherance of the commission of that offense he committed an act clearly dangerous to human life, namely, pulling a loaded pistol out of his pocket which in turn caused the death of the victim.
The judgment in Garrett was reversed. This Court noted that the felony murder rule calls for the transfer of intent from one criminal act to another. It was found that the defendant's conviction could not stand because the aggravated assault and the act resulting in the homicide were one and the same. It was therefore held that in order for the evidence to be sufficient to support a conviction under the felony murder rule, there must be a showing of felonious criminal conduct other than the assault which causes the homicide.
In the instant cause, the indictment alleges and the proof shows that appellant was engaged in felonious criminal conduct, namely, felony. criminal mischief at the time the deceased was killed. Therefore, as required in Garrett, there was a showing of felonious criminal conduct other than the assault which caused the homicide. Unlike Garrett, appellant’s act of felony criminal mischief in shooting at the house and the resulting homicide of his daughter were not one in the same. In this case, appellant attempted to blow open a door with a shotgun, a property offense, and in the furtherance of such offense, the deceased was killed. I cannot agree that Garrett requires the reversal of appellant’s conviction and therefore must dissent. Before the court en banc.