Gonzales v. State
Gonzales v. State
Opinion of the Court
This appeal is from a conviction of murder of the first degree, to which the death penalty has been affixed as the punishment.
There is but a single bill of exceptions in the record, and that is saved to the action of the court in overruling the motion for a new trial, in which two grounds for the motion are stated. 1. That the verdict is contrary to the law and the evidence. 2. That the evidence adduced on the trial did not show that the murder had been committed with express malice.
The evidence is wholly circumstantial, but many other circumstances are detailed, in addition to those stated, which point, as a whole, with the unerring certainty of fate to this appellant as one, if not the sole, perpetrator of the horrible crime. It was a murder committed in the perpetration of robbery. The murder was evidently committed after deceased had been rendered powerless — his hands having been tied behind his back — and yet it is claimed there is no evidence of express malice. Murder in the perpetration of robbery is per se murder of the first degree (Penal Code, art. 606); and a murder so committed fully evidences express malice. (Sharpe v. The State, 17 Texas Ct. App., 487; Mitchell v. The State, 1 Texas Ct. App., 195; Roach v. The State, 8 Texas Ct. App., 479.) Circumstances of enormity, cruelty, deliberate malignity, and cool, calculating compassings, when attending a homicide, oftentimes furnish most satisfactory as well as sufficient evidence to establish the inference that the killing was upon express malice. (McCoy v. The State, 25 Texas, 33.)
In our opinion, the evidence is most conclusive of defendant’s guilt. If guilty at all, and of that we have no doubt, he can be guilty of no less an offense than guilty of murder of the first degree,— a murder unrelieved by a single palliating circumstance, and aggravated by the fact that it was committed solely for purposes of robbery. Appellant has forfeited his life, in the opinion of a jury
The judgment is in all things affirmed.
Affirmed.
[Opinion delivered November 18, 1885.]
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.