Adrian Biera v. State

391 S.W.3d 204, 2012 WL 5199374, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8782
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 22, 2012
Docket07-10-00502-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 391 S.W.3d 204 (Adrian Biera v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adrian Biera v. State, 391 S.W.3d 204, 2012 WL 5199374, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8782 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

JAMES T. CAMPBELL, Justice.

Appellant Adrian Biera was found guilty by a jury in 2006 of the 2005 aggravated robbery 1 of a Lubbock Whataburger restaurant. He was sentenced to sixty years’ incarceration. We reversed the judgment and remanded the case for a new trial. 2 On retrial the jury again found appellant guilty of aggravated robbery, and assessed his punishment at fifty-five years in prison. He again appeals, raising seven issues. We will affirm.

Background

Because appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction, and because our previous opinion discusses much of the evidence also presented on retrial, we mention only those facts necessary to the disposition of appellant’s issues on appeal.

The Whataburger was robbed around six a.m. on September 7, 2005, by two perpetrators armed with handguns. They wore masks, gloves and camouflage clothing. The restaurant manager and employee were held at gunpoint while the robbers took money from cash drawers. The robbers fled the scene and police were immediately summoned. The officer responding to the call noted loose change on the restaurant floor.

At that time, appellant rented and occupied a four-bedroom apartment in a Lubbock complex. The apartment also was occupied by appellant’s two minor children, Maria Vargas, Vargas’s cousin Stephanie Yzaguirre, Yzaguirre’s ten-year-old daughter, and Yzaguirre’s common-law husband, Miguel Morado. All the adults used illegal drugs including methamphetamine and crack cocaine.

Testimony showed that only Vargas was employed. She worked at a Lubbock motel. Although appellant and Morado also owned vehicles, Vargas testified that her *207 car was the only vehicle with a current registration.

Sometimes at night appellant and Mora-do dressed in dark clothing and left in Vargas’s car. These outings often lasted until the morning hours. At times, the two armed themselves with handguns. On the occasions that appellant and Morado used Vargas’s car, she later found her interior car decorations stowed in the glove compartment or on the seat. In exchange for use of her vehicle, appellant provided Vargas with methamphetamine.

At her work, Vargas began stealing credit cards from motel guests. She gave them to Morado and Yzaguirre, who used them to buy gasoline and retail items.

Four days before the robbery, appellant asked Yzaguirre to purchase two ski masks for him. He specified masks that covered the face and were not brightly colored. She bought the masks at a Wal-Mart store.

After the robbery, Lubbock police contacted Vargas in their investigation of the stolen credit cards. Vargas gave a detective information about her involvement with the credit cards, and information which led police to identify appellant and Morado as suspects in the Whataburger robbery.

Based on information from Vargas, police obtained a warrant for Morado’s arrest on a forgery charge. On September 29, 2005, the detective went to the apartment to serve the warrant but was told by the complex manager that appellant’s apartment was vacant. When the detective found appellant and others still in the apartment, she arrested them on a charge of criminal trespass. In conjunction with the arrest, the detective entered the apartment and saw drug paraphernalia and weapons.

About a week later the detective returned to appellant’s apartment while a writ of possession was being executed. Apartment employees were emptying the apartment, placing its contents on the lawn. Among the items were two masks, which were identified at trial as consistent with the masks used in the robbery.

After appellant and Morado were indicted for the Whataburger robbery, Morado plead guilty and was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. Like at appellant’s original trial, on the retrial Morado testified that he drove Vargas’s car to the Whataburger and appellant and an unidentified male went inside. Testimony showed the robbers took $224.04; Morado testified his share was “about $40.”

In the jury charge on retrial, the trial court instructed the jury on the law of accomplice witness testimony. Morado was submitted as an accomplice as a matter of law and Yzaguirre as an accomplice as a matter of fact.

Analysis

Of the seven issues appellant presents, issues one through five complain of the trial court’s ruling on his motion to suppress evidence seized from his apartment and a vehicle. His sixth and seventh issues challenge the admission of evidence of extraneous offenses.

Suppression Issues

In reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress, we apply a familiar standard.

The trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress is reviewed for abuse of discretion. The trial court is given almost complete deference in its determination of historical facts, especially when based oil an assessment of credibility and demeanor. The same deference is given to the trial court with respect to its rulings *208 on the application of the law to questions of fact if resolution of those questions depends on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor. Mixed questions of law and fact that do not turn on credibility and demeanor are reviewed de novo. When the trial court does not make express findings of fact, the reviewing court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling and should assume the trial court made implicit findings of fact that support its ruling as long as those findings are supported by the record.

Lujan v. State, 331 S.W.3d 768, 771 (Tex.Crim.App.2011) (citations omitted).

Evidence seized in the apartment

Through his first three issues, appellant asserts the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress items of personal property police seized in his apartment on September 29, 2005. He argues the seizure violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Article I, Section 9 of the Texas Constitution, and admission of the items was contrary to article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. The essence of appellant’s argument is that at the time of the search and seizure he maintained lawful possession of the apartment and the warrantless entry of police violated the constitutional standards. We will discuss these three issues jointly. 3

The Lubbock police detective was the only witness at the motion to suppress hearing. She told the court she came to appellant’s apartment complex to serve Morado with an arrest warrant. She also was interested in speaking with appellant. The manager of the apartment complex told the detective appellant’s apartment was vacant. The manager also said that a ‘(walk-through” inspection had been performed and the door locks changed.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Nga Lone Aung v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Gary Noria v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Donald Gregory Stephenson v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014
Hogan, Lonnie Wayne v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
391 S.W.3d 204, 2012 WL 5199374, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8782, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adrian-biera-v-state-texapp-2012.