Shockley v. State

OPINION ON STATE’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

TEAGUE, Judge.

Daniel Gaston Shockley, henceforth appellant, was convicted of burglary by a jury and his punishment assessed at confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections for a period of ten years and a day. However, the Dallas Court Appeals reversed this conviction because the trial judge, over objection, instructed the jury that “the act of breaking and entering a building at nighttime raises a presumption that the act was done with intent to commit theft.” Shockley v. State, 695 S.W.2d 754 (Tex.App. 5th Dist.1985). The trial…