[Download] "Vera Lee Bell v. State Texas" by The Supreme Court of Texas # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: Vera Lee Bell v. State Texas
Author : The Supreme Court of Texas
Release Date : January 21, 1969
Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
Pages : * pages
Size : 57 KB

Description

The evidence adduced at the trial shows that on the night in question, at approximately 12:40 and 12:45 a.m. a woman who identified herself as appellant called the Houston police and requested an ambulance, stating that she had shot her husband and another woman, and giving her address. Within the hour five members of the Houston police force arrived separately at the address given by the woman to investigate the reported shooting. Sgt. Gordy, the first to arrive, related that he peered through the front door, saw a man lying on the floor, went around the house and entered through the back door, saw appellant on the phone but said nothing to her at that time, saw the nude body of a woman on the floor and a half-clad man severely wounded on the floor nearby. The man identified himself as Deputy Sheriff Bell, stated that he wanted an ambulance, that he was dying, and upon being asked by Sgt. Gordy who had shot him replied, "My wife." Sgt. Gordy then started for the front door and upon meeting Officers LeCompte and Carmichael, returned to the interior of the house, when appellant appeared and engaged Officer Carmichael in a discussion which neither Sgt. Gordy nor Officer LeCompte overheard. Officer Carmichael reported a chain of events identical to those related by Sgt. Gordy, and further stated, both on voir dire and later before the jury, that he did not arrest appellant, nor did he consider her to be in custody, that he asked the usual, innocuous question "What happended?", to which appellant replied that "she caught them sleeping in bed. * * She walked over to the lamp table . . . took out this pistol and shot them." Eight empty bullet hulls were found on the floor near the bodies, all of which were identified as coming from the gun appellant admittedly fired at the deceaseds, and all of which housed the bullets which inflicted some sixteen fatal wounds on both bodies. Appellants defense was that of self-defense.