Beard v. State

Frank Holt, Justice.

Appellant was convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of his brother and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. He first argues that the trial court erred in admitting appellant’s oral statement into evidence.

The burden, of course, is on the state to demonstrate that an in custodial statement was freely and voluntarily given, and on appeal we make an independent determination of voluntariness based on the totality of circumstances and will not set aside the trial court’s finding of voluntariness unless it is clearly against the preponderance of the evidence, or…