Ambrose, Cynthia

487 S.W.3d 587, 2016 WL 1696455, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 77
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 27, 2016
DocketNO. PD-0143-15
StatusPublished
Cited by97 cases

This text of 487 S.W.3d 587 (Ambrose, Cynthia) 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
Ambrose, Cynthia, 487 S.W.3d 587, 2016 WL 1696455, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 77 (Tex. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

ALCALA, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court in which

KELLER, P.J., MEYERS, JOHNSON, KEASLER, HERVEY, RICHARDSON, and NEWELL, J.J., joined.

This case addresses accomplice-witness jury-charge error raised in a motion for new trial. Cynthia Ambrose, appellee, is a former kindergarten teacher at Salinas Elementary School who was convicted of the misdemeanor offense of official oppression after a jury trial at which the testimony of a purported accomplice, Ramirez, was presented. After the jury found her guilty, Ambrose filed a motion for new trial alleging that the jury instructions were erroneous in that they failed to in *590 struct the jury that Ramirez's accomplice-witness testimony had to be corroborated. See Tex.Code Ceim, PROC. art. 38.14. She further asserted that she was egregiously harmed by the error. The trial court agreed with Ambrose, and it made what it characterized as findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of its ruling. On appeal, the court of appeals assumed without deciding that the trial court properly determined that the jury instructions were erroneous, but, as to the matter of harm, it disregarded the trial court’s findings and conclusions and it instead determined that Ambrose was not egregiously harmed under the substantive application of the Almanza factors. State v. Ambrose, 457 S.W,3d 154, 162 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 2015). In her three grounds in her petition for discretionary review, Ambrose’s first two grounds contend that the appellate court erred by applying the Almanza egregious-harm standard and by failing to defer to the trial court’s findings of fact made after the motion-for-new-trial hearing. See Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157 (Tex.Crim.App.1984) (op.on.reh’g). Ambrose’s third ground for review asserts that the appellate court erred in concluding that the error was not egregiously harmful to her. 1 We conclude that the court of appeals properly held (1) that the Almanza harm standard applies to jury-charge error reviewed on appeal, even when the error was addressed in a motion for new trial, (2) that it was not required to defer to the trial court’s factual findings in this case, and (3) that the record failed to show that Ambrose was egregiously harmed by the error in the charge. We, therefore, affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

I. Background'

Ramirez was a fellow kindergarten teacher at the same school as Ambrose. One of Ramirez’s students, A.N., was behaving disruptively in class and had hit another student. Pursuant to a school policy that directs a teacher to take a disruptive child into another teacher’s classroom, Ramirez took A.N. into Ambrose’s classroom. Ramirez asked Ambrose if A.N. could stay with her “[bjecause he was bullying the other, student.” Ambrose instructed A.N. to sit right beside her and asked the questions “Why are you bullying other students?” and “How would you like for other students to bully you?” Ami brose then said to the students in her classroom, “Come on, boys and gilds, let’s *591 line up and let’s bully [A.N.].” About seven students struck A.N. before the assault ended when one girl struck A.N. harder than the other students had, prompting Ambrose to say, “Okay, not that hard.” Ramirez then left Ambrose’s classroom and later sent one of her other students to retrieve A.N. About two weeks later, Ramirez reported the incident to Jeffrey Large, the school’s principal, and Gerrie Spellmann, the vice-principal. Large and Spellmann investigated the accusation, which included having a' discussion with Ambrose about the events.

Ambrose was charged with the offense ,of official oppression under Texas Penal Code Section 39.03 for “intentionally subjecting] [A.N.] ... to mistreatment, to wit: directing and allowing others to strike the complainant, knowing it was unlawful.” 2 At Ambrose’s trial, other than Ramirez’s testimony, the jury heard testimony from Large and Spellmann, in addition to other witnesses. Large and Spellmann each recited statements made by Ambrose admitting that she had instructed students to hit A.N. and that she then observed two or three students hit A.N. before she stopped the assault on A.N. According to Spellmann, Ambrose “let us know that she had instructed her students to hit [A.N.] on the arm, but not too hard so that the student would know how it felt to be bullied.” Spellmann further testified, “[Am-brose] stated that — we asked how many students had [ ] struck [A.N.] and she stated only about two or three. But the next student hit too hard and that she had it stopped.” Like Spellmann, Large testified that, during the investigation of the incident, Ambrose stated that-“she instructed the students to hit the other student but not hard. She said that I believe two or three students hit the student and then a fourth student hit too hard and then she stopped it immediately after that.”

In her defense at trial, Ambrose acknowledged the essence of the events as they had been described by Ramirez, Large, and Spellmann, but she minimized her culpability by claiming that she did not intend for any of the students to hit A.N. and that, she immediately stopped the assault when the first student suddenly struck A;N. Ambrose testified that Ramirez brought A.N. into her classroom and said that he was being a bully. Ambrose asked the other students what A.N.’s consequences should be, and they made different suggestions, one of which was that the child A.N. hit should be allowed to hit him back. Ambrose asked, “Does anybody want to show him what it ijeels like?” Before she knew what was happening, one student struck A.N., and. Ambrose immediately intervened, telling the other students to “get away from him.” When the prosecutor asked, “Did you ever intend for:one student to hit another student?” Ambrose responded, “No, that wasn’t my intention.”

After the close of evidence, the trial court’s instructions to the jury did not include an accomplice-witness instruction, and Ambrose did not object to its absence. The jury found Ambrose guilty. The court assessed her punishment at one year of confinement, probated for two years, with *592 a 30-day jail sanction as a condition of her community supervision.

Following her conviction, Ambrose filed a motion for a new trial that alleged, among other complaints, that the jury instructions were erroneous based on the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury regarding the law of accomplice-witness testimony. Ambrose claimed that Ramirez was an accomplice to the offense and that the jury should have been instructed that Ambrose could not be convicted based solely on Ramirez’s uncorroborated testimony.

The trial court granted the motion for a new trial based on its determination that the absence of the accomplice-witness instruction was erroneous and that Ambrose was egregiously harmed by the error. The trial court made findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of its ruling. 3 The State appealed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
487 S.W.3d 587, 2016 WL 1696455, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ambrose-cynthia-texcrimapp-2016.