Cathay v. State
Cathay v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellant was convicted upon a charge of theft of an automobile from L. E. Oeding; punishment being assessed at five years in the penitentiary.
The offense is claimed to have been committed in the city of San Antonio, on November 5, 1930. At about noon, Oeding drove up in front of his place of business. Someone called him to the telephone, and, in his haste, he omitted to lock his car. He was not gone over five or six minutes, but in the meantime the car disappeared. Oeding did not know appellant, nor did he notice him near his place of business on the occasion in question. Oeding was out of the city four or five days, and when he got back his car was at the “Dean Auto Supply Company on South Flores Street, in storage,” from which place the owner repossessed it; it being the, same car he lost. There is an absence from the record of any proof as to how the car got to the Dean Auto Supply Company place. Oeding described his car as follows: “Chevrolet coach * * * regular Chevrolet color, with black fenders. This was a two-door car. It is called a coach.” Mr. Price worked at the same place of business as did Oeding. He knew Oeding’s car and says that on November 5, 6, or 7th, he got the car from the “City Detective’s Office.” The witness does not say what he did with it. On the 5th of November, Ellis Robertson, a negro, was working at a filling station. 1-Ie testified that about four o’clock in the afternoon of that day appellant drove into the station in a car which the witness described as a “gray Chevrolet Coupe, 1930 Model; it was a two door sedan; it was a sedan and not a coach.” While witness was checking the oil, he says appellant put a gun in his side and forced witness and another worker at the station into the lavatory, robbed the cash register, and drove away. Witness is positive as to the identification of appellant. It appears that in checking the
There is nothing in appellant’s contention that evidence of the robbery at the filling station was erroneously admitted. It was only by proof of appellant’s connection with the car then in his possession that the state could hope to show his identity as the taker of Oeding’s car. It has always been permissible to prove an extraneous crime which connects a defendant with the offense for which he is on trial. See section 166 Branch’s Ann. Tex. P. C.
Because of a failure in the proof in the particulars mentioned, the judgment must he reversed and the cause remanded.
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