Siars v. State (63 Tex. Crim. 567, 1911)

HARPER, Judge.

Appellant was indicted by the grand jury charged with theft of a horse. When tried he was adjudged guilty and his punishment assessed at five years in the penitentiary.

The evidence for the State would show that two officers were on the watch for cattle thieves. They saw defendant pass -and repass, where they were hid, several times. They recognized the defendant, so they say, and the last time he came near to the officers, they walked out in front of him, and called to him to halt, when he jumped from the wagon he was driving and ran. He fired at the officers after jumping out of the wagon, when the officers also fired at him with a shotgun. He escaped that night but was arrested some weeks later, and when arrested the sheriff and other witnesses testified that his right side had bullet wounds and scars which had the appearance of having been freshly made. The horse hitched to the wagon was taken to the police station and there identified as the horse of George O’Heill, who testified that the horse had been stolen from him.

The defendant introduced evidence to show that the officers were mistaken about him being the man who jumped out of the wagon, and that' he was at another and different place. That the wounds on his body were old wounds, and he had been shot accidentally by his brother some twelve or thirteen years prior to this time.

There is but one bill of exceptions in the record. The bill tendered by appellant was 'refused by the court, the district attorney refusing to agree thereto, but the court prepares and files a bill in lieu thereof. The bill relates to the cross-examination of defendant, and the objection was that no testimony was admissible