recognizing that evidence linking a defendant to a crime scene “when coupled with other suspicious circumstances, including subsequent flight, may tend to connect the accused to the commission of the offense”
How later courts described this case
- recognizing that evidence linking a defendant to a crime scene “when coupled with other suspicious circumstances, including subsequent flight, may tend to connect the accused to the commission of the offense”
- holding appellant's presence on victim's property was insignificant because appellant lived on premises
- test to determine the sufficiency of the corroboration is to eliminate from consideration the testimony of the accomplice witness and then examine the testimony of the other witnesses to ascertain if there is inculpatory evidence which tends to connect the accused with the commission of the offense
- setting aside judgment and reforming to reflect acquittal for insufficient evidence to corroborate accomplice witness testimony, citing Burks and Greene
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
OPINION ON STATE’S MOTION FOR REHEARING
W.C. DAVIS, Judge.
The State contends that the evidence sufficiently corroborates the testimony of the accomplice witness, Richard Williams. Specifically, the State alleges that our original opinion is incorrect in holding that the evidence does not tend to connect appellant to the crime, and that our opinion is inaccurate in stating that the caliber of the murder weapons or bullets was not proved.
We agree that State’s Exhibit No. 8, the autopsy report, which was introduced into evidence, shows that Lansford died as a result of wounds caused by .22 caliber bullets. However, the correctness of our original opinion is not affected by proof of the caliber of the bullets. As set out in our original opinion, when the accomplice witness testimony is set aside, there is no evidence to connect appellant with the weapons or bullets used to kill Lansford— the .22 caliber weapons or bullets — and nothing to connect appellant to the murder. The corroborating evidence corroborated extraneous matters which did not link appellant to the offense.
The State’s motion for rehearing is de-, nied.