Alan Alexander Adame v. State

407 S.W.3d 845, 2013 WL 3821631, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 8950
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 18, 2013
Docket07-11-00509-CR
StatusPublished

This text of 407 S.W.3d 845 (Alan Alexander Adame 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
Alan Alexander Adame v. State, 407 S.W.3d 845, 2013 WL 3821631, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 8950 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION ON REHEARING

JAMES T. CAMPBELL, Justice.

We withdraw our opinion and judgment dated June 7, 2013, and substitute the following in its place. We overrule appellant Adam Alexander Adame’s motion for rehearing and deny his motion for en banc reconsideration of our opinion of June 7, 2013.

Appellant was charged by -separate indictments with intentionally or knowingly causing serious bodily injury to M.M., the three-year-old son of his girlfriend Dianne Fuentes Aguilar, by act (cause number 61,387-D) and omission (cause number 59,-236-D). 1 The allegations of the two indictments were tried in a single trial by one jury. The jury found appellant not guilty in cause number 61,387-D and a judgment of acquittal was rendered. However, the jury found appellant guilty in cause number 59,236-D and assessed a punishment of confinement in prison for twenty-three years. Appellant presents two issues on appeal asserting, first, that his double jeopardy rights were violated as he was prosecuted a second time for the same offense after an acquittal and, second, that the evidence was insufficient to prove he failed to seek medical care for M.M. We will affirm.

Background

In early 2009, M.M., his seven siblings, Aguilar (who was pregnant with appellant’s child), and appellant occupied a house in Amarillo. The home was described as “dirty ... rodent infested and cold.”

On February 3, 2009, police responded to a call that a child was not breathing at the residence. The responding officer found M.M. lying on a living room rug with vomit on his nose and in his mouth. Detecting no pulse, the officer began chest compressions until the fire department arrived. A responding fireman noticed bruising on the face and body of M.M. In the fireman’s opinion, the child was underweight and malnourished. An ambulance transported M.M. to an Amarillo hospital. Along the way, CPR continued.

M.M. was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at the hospital. According to a registered nurse on duty at the emergency room when M.M. arrived, the child presented with “probably the worst condition of a patient” she had seen. She described him as “very malnourished” with a distended abdomen. She noted abrasions and contusions about his body.

*847 According to Aguilar, appellant harmed M.M., first doing so on Thanksgiving Day 2008. By Christmas, Aguilar believed M.M. “was looking bad” and she hid him from family.

Appellant was not the biological father of the children and was not married to Aguilar. He acknowledged in a police interview living in the home and helping care for the children. Concerning the children, he explained “we” had kids. He felt the children admired him. M.M. once referred to appellant as “daddy.”

Aguilar’s oldest child E.P., age eleven at the time of M.M.’s death, said appellant told the children to call him “dad” on the threat of being struck for failing to do so. In her opinion, appellant was initially nice but grew mean. He began acting “like the man of the house.” E.P. considered appellant in charge of the home. At times E.P. observed appellant strike M.M. with his hands or a belt or kick him. She recalled an occasion when appellant struck M.M. on the head with the metal part of a belt.

According to nine-year-old A.A., another sibling, M.M. was frequently left in a closet for lengthy periods. A.A. gave M.M. food when appellant put M.M. in a closet. In A.A’s opinion, M.M. needed food because his “bones were all skinny and bruised up....” There was evidence that Aguilar told police after the death of M.M. that A.A. and not appellant injured M.M. But at trial, Aguilar also conceded lying about facts in her former statements.

At times, Aguilar and appellant compelled M.M. to remain in a cold bath. E.P. saw him shaking. When asked how long M.M. remained in the bath she replied, “Probably for all day.” Once, according to E.P., M.M. passed out in the bathtub and was not breathing. Aguilar revived him by placing him “in the heater” and “breathfing] in his mouth.” This was the last time M.M. was placed in a cold bath.

E.P. recalled once observing appellant and Aguilar force M.M. to eat excrement. Appellant withheld food from M.M., apparently as discipline for episodes of enuresis. On cross-examination, E.P. agreed that M.M. was denied food completely and he was not allowed to eat or drink. But the duration of the denial was not developed.

According to eight-year-old I.M., also a sibling, when appellant was angry with M.M., he threw M.M. outside. A counsel- or working with A.A. recounted that A.A. once told him that appellant wrapped M.M. in a blanket and kicked him, stepped on him, sat on him so that he could not breathe and then threw him outside.

A plumber, familiar with M.M. from an earlier call, believed by January 2009 the child looked “pretty sick.” He no longer smiled but appeared “kind of droopy,” his eyes appeared “sad” with dark circles, and he “looked a little bit skinnier.”

Appellant forced M.M. to sleep in a small space between the bed appellant and Aguilar occupied and the wall so M.M. “wouldn’t get up at night and try to get something to eat ... or use the restroom on himself.” Agreeing with a question on cross-examination, Aguilar indicated M.M. was “semi-comatose” for “about a month” before his death. She qualified the response by stating M.M. crawled about the house.

The night before M.M. died Aguilar fed him leftovers outside of appellant’s presence. This, she explained, was because there was conflict when she fed M.M. in appellant’s presence. On the morning of M.M.’s death, Aguilar noticed he was having difficulty breathing. Appellant called 911.

After M.M. was taken by ambulance to the hospital, appellant said, according to Aguilar, “that he was sorry and that he *848 was a baby killer.” Appellant acknowledged a jury viewing photographs of M.M. would believe the child suffered “neglect and abuse.” After M.M.’s death, Aguilar’s remaining children were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services. Aguilar plead guilty to a charge of injury to a child by omission and was called by the State as a witness at appellant’s trial.

An autopsy was ordered. The pathologist conducting the procedure opined the cause of M.M.’s death was blunt force injuries of the head superimposed on dehydration and malnourishment. In this regard he explained the injury might not have been lethal absent malnourishment and dehydration.

As for blunt force trauma, he noted several contusions and abrasions about the face of M.M. He also observed contusions and abrasions to the limbs, back, buttocks, and right hip. The bruises noted on the body, in the pathologist’s opinion, occurred at different times. Also observed was an angulated skull fracture and swelling of the brain.

As for dehydration and malnutrition, the pathologist’s report identified “[mjarked decrease in adipose tissue including omen-tum and subcutaneous fat .... [and] [m]arked decrease in muscle mass.” Illustrative of dehydration, the pathologist pointed to decreased fluid in soft tissues causing wrinkling of the skin.

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

Related

North Carolina v. Pearce
395 U.S. 711 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Ashe v. Swenson
397 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1970)
United States v. Jorn
400 U.S. 470 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Burks v. United States
437 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Hooper v. State
214 S.W.3d 9 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Ex Parte Herron
790 S.W.2d 623 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Brooks v. State
323 S.W.3d 893 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
407 S.W.3d 845, 2013 WL 3821631, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 8950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alan-alexander-adame-v-state-texapp-2013.