Then he walked to his car. Bea testified she could hear him "just fooling around" in his car, not starting it.
In the interim, Larry Houston had heard someone screaming for help at about 5:00 a.m. From an upstairs window in a neighboring house, Houston could see a man holding a dark object in his hand, chasing a woman. When the man caught the woman, he hit her in the back of the head with the object which was about the size of a Coke bottle. She fell. Standing over her, the man kept telling her to get up. The man then got in a car. Houston at this point called the police.
By the time the police arrived, appellant had started his car and was backing out the driveway.According to an arresting officer, Bea was badly bruised, both her eyes were black and swollen and her hair was caked with blood. There was blood all over her face, neck and other parts of her body. Appellant, who was clothed only in a pair of pants, was arrested and a search of his car produced the slap stick, States' Exhibit No. 1.
Bea testified that before appellant's housemate entered the room she believed appellant was going to kill her because she was "losing so much blood and getting weak, and he did not seem like he was going to stop." Several color photographs taken of appellant's room after the assault reveal the carpet, bed, walls, telephone and some of Bea's clothing to have been blood soaked and spattered.
Appellant