Court Opinion

ID: 9779388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:48:59.73849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:26.007314
License: Public Domain

ON STATE’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
McCORMICK, Judge,
dissenting.
On original submission, a majority, of which I was a member, held that the State had failed to disprove appellant’s exculpatory statements contained in his confession, and that, under this Court’s prior decision of Palafox v. State, 608 S.W.2d 177 (Tex.Cr.App.1980), appellant’s conviction should be reversed and an acquittal ordered. Upon further consideration, I am now convinced that the State did in fact meet its burden and that the evidence is sufficient to support the conviction.
At trial, the following special instruction was given to the jury:
“You are further instructed that if, from the testimony and evidence presented, you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the 1977 Chevrolet station wagon was taken from the said William Morris by the defendant, Efren Castro Ibanez as an afterthought, then you will find the defendant, Efren Castro Ibanez, not guilty of the offense of capital murder and you will consider whether the defendant, Efren Castro Ibanez, is guilty of the lesser and included offenses of murder or voluntary manslaughter.
The evidence, which has been reviewed in previous opinions, both majority and dissenting, when combined with the charge given, lead me to conclude that Presiding Judge Onion was correct when he concluded, “In light of the confession and the other evidence in the record, any rational trier of the facts could have found that the State proved the element of the offense alleged beyond a reasonable doubt.”
*813Therefore, I must respectfully dissent to the overruling of the State’s Motion for Rehearing.
ONION, P.J., W.C. DAVIS and WHITE, JJ., join in this dissent.