Cortijo v. State

OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

A jury found appellant Rafael Cortijo guilty of capital murder. The trial court sentenced appellant to life imprisonment in the Texas Department of Corrections after the jury failed to answer affirmatively the three special issues necessary for the death penalty under Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 37.071(b) (Vernon 1979). Appellant asserts six points of error on appeal.

Late one morning, Mary Westwick was found dead in her bedroom. She had been beaten about the head and strangled with an electric cord which had been wrapped around her neck. At the time, appellant was…