Allen v. State

108 S.W.3d 281, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 106, 2003 WL 21349940
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 11, 2003
Docket74140
StatusPublished
Cited by143 cases

This text of 108 S.W.3d 281 (Allen v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. State, 108 S.W.3d 281, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 106, 2003 WL 21349940 (Tex. 2003).

Opinions

OPINION

HOLCOMB, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court,

in which KELLER, P.J., and PRICE, JOHNSON, KEASLER, HERVEY, and COCHRAN, JJ., joined.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. See Tex. Pen.Code § 19.03(a)(8). On direct appeal to this Court, he raises fourteen points of error. We affirm.

Appellant argues in his first, second, and third points of error that the trial court erred in overruling his challenge of venire-member Berg for cause. Appellant claims that his challenge should have been granted because Berg was biased against him with regard to the mitigation special issue. See Art. 37.071, § 2(e); Art. 35.16(a)(9) & (c)(2).1

To preserve error with respect to a trial court’s denial of a challenge for cause, an appellant must: (1) assert a clear and specific challenge for cause; (2) use a peremptory strike on the complained-of veniremember; (3) exhaust his peremptory strikes; (4) request additional peremptory strikes; (5) identify an objectionable juror; and (6) claim that he would have struck the objectionable juror with a peremptory strike if he had one to use. Nelson v. State, 848 S.W.2d 126, 134 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 830, 114 S.Ct. 100, 126 L.Ed.2d 66 (1993). The record in this case shows that appellant asserted a clear and specific challenge for cause against Berg, that he exercised a peremptory strike against Berg, and that he exhausted his peremptory strikes.

Appellant failed to meet the fifth and sixth requirements to preserve error. In his appellate brief, appellant identifies Linda Smith Schultz as the objectionable juror that sat on the jury. However, be[283]*283cause he failed to identify Schultz as objectionable in the trial court, he waived his right to complain on appeal that the trial judge erroneously overruled his challenge for cause. Ibid. Points of error one, two, and three are overruled.

In points of error four through eleven, appellant argues that the trial court violated Texas Rules of Evidence 401 and 403 when, at the guiltyinnocence phase of trial, it admitted evidence that the victim had been sexually assaulted. Appellant also argues that the admission of this evidence violated Rule of Evidence 404, but he failed to object on that basis at trial, so we do not consider that argument. See Tex. R.App. Proc. 33.

The indictment alleged that appellant intentionally and knowingly caused the death of Kienna Lashay Baker, an individual under six years of age, by striking her in the chest and abdomen with his hand or with an unknown instrument or by an unknown manner and means. Appellant contends that, because the indictment does not allege a sexual assault, the admission of evidence indicating that he sexually assaulted Baker was not relevant and the probative value of this evidence was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.

Appellant complains specifically about the testimony of four witnesses: Kimberly McCreary, Dr. Lee Ann Grossberg Krish-nan, Dr. Joan Shook, and Christi Kim. McCreary, a nurse at Southeast Memorial Hospital, testified that she was on duty when two-year-old Baker was brought into the emergency room on May 10, 2000. McCreary observed that Baker had numerous bruises of different colors, including a pronounced bruise between her eyes and discoloration on the chest and groin areas, linear marks on her chest, and some scars on her arms and legs. Baker was pronounced dead after Emergency Medical Services personnel attempted, without success, to resuscitate her. When McCreary checked Baker’s rectal temperature, she noticed that Baker’s anal opening was “gaping,” that some of her bowel was visible, and that there was “some clear pink-tintish fluid around the anal area.” McCreary testified that this “prolapsed bowel” was an unusual condition in a pediatric patient, but that she had seen the condition previously “in a case of sexual assault or an alleged sexual assault.” McCreary testified further that she wrapped a blue pad “like a diaper” around Baker’s legs and bottom after the attending physician took swabs of her rectal and vaginal areas for lab analysis.

Christi Kim, a forensic biologist at the Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory, testified that she detected the presence of semen in Baker’s underpants, anal swabs, and the blue padding. Human DNA was extracted from these items, but it was not possible to identify the donor.

Dr. Krishnan, an Assistant Harris County Medical Examiner, performed an autopsy on the victim. Krishnan observed abrasions, scars, and discoloration all over Baker’s body. She observed contusions between Baker’s eyebrows and on the right side of her jaw and a laceration on the inside of her lower lip. She found hemorrhages on Baker’s scalp, chest, neck, back, thighs, and buttocks. The multiple areas of hemorrhaging on her scalp could have been caused by multiple blows to her head. The hemorrhage on her chest and the bruising of her lungs could have been caused by a strong impact to the front of the chest. Her “fractured” liver and hemorrhaged kidneys were consistent with multiple blows to her abdominal area. Krishnan believed that the damage to Baker’s liver, kidneys, and lungs most likely occurred in the hour before her death. Krishnan concluded that Baker’s [284]*284death was a homicide and that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to her chest and abdomen.

Krishnan testified further that she found recent “petechial hemorrhaging” in Baker’s vaginal area that was indicative of “some type of trauma to that region” and that it looked like it was probably inflicted on the day of her death. Baker’s hymenal ring appeared to be open, which meant either that she was “born with an open hymenal ring or something penetrated this region to cause the hymenal ring to remain open.” There was a “skin tag” on Baker’s anus, which could indicate irregular healing of some past trauma that could have been caused by penetration of the anus. Krishnan also found a hemorrhage within the wall of Baker’s rectum, which was consistent with an object penetrating her anus and rectum with a large amount of force. Krishnan testified that the hemorrhage in Baker’s rectum could have been inflicted any time in the forty-eight hours before death.

Dr. Shook reviewed the medical records associated with Baker’s death. Shook testified that Baker’s rectum was penetrated with a significant amount of force to cause “bruising all the way through the muscle and into the deep tissues of her abdominal contents,” and that the trauma to Baker’s rectum occurred within hours of her death. Shook testified further that Baker’s vaginal hemorrhage indicated trauma to the vaginal area within a short period before her death, while the dilation of her vaginal opening was indicative of chronic sexual abuse. Shook concluded that Baker “was beaten over an hour or two and ultimately beaten to death. And in the course of that she was anally raped, and that contributed to her demise.”

Evidence is “relevant” if it has “any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” Tex.R. Evid. 401. We review the trial court’s decision to admit evidence under an abuse of discretion standard. Salazar v. State, 38 S.W.3d 141, 151 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 S.W.3d 281, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 106, 2003 WL 21349940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-state-texcrimapp-2003.