Kennon v. State

Citations

• 11 Tex. Ct. App. 356

Syllabus

<p>1, Confessions of Unwarned Prisoner.— The Code of Procedure, article 750, expressly inhibits proof of extrajudicial confessions by an unwarned prisoner unless, dn connection therewith, he stated facts or circumstances that are found to be true, and which conduce to establish his guilt. If the inculpatory circumstances disclosed by the prisoner are proved to be true, what he said in disclosing them is admissible against him for the purpose of explaining the disclosures themselves. But the truth of the inculpatory circum- . stances must be shown by evidence aliunde the statement of the prisoner.</p> <p>3.1 Same — Case Stated.— In a trial for horse-theft the State was permitted, over objection by the defense, to prove that the defendant, while in legal custody and nqt warned that his statements might be used against Mm, said, in substance, that one S. got the animal at a certain locality and in the night, and brought it to Mm, the defendant, and that he took a bell from around its neck and rode it off. The State proved that the animal was taken in the night and from a locality corresponding with that described by the defendant, and that, when last seen before it was stolen, it had a bell around its neck; but, aside from the defendant’s statement, there was no proof that he took the bell off the animal and rode it away. Held that, assummg that these latter circumstances would, if shown to be true, conduce to establish the guilt of the defendant, the disclosure of them by the defendant, while he was in custody and uncautioned, was not evidence against him; and their admission over Ms objection was error. .</p>