Angelica Navarro-Depaz v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 27, 2024
Docket04-22-00356-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Angelica Navarro-Depaz v. the State of Texas (Angelica Navarro-Depaz v. the State of Texas) 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
Angelica Navarro-Depaz v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

Fourth Court of Appeals San Antonio, Texas MEMORANDUM OPINION

No. 04-22-00356-CR

Angelica NAVARRO-DEPAZ, Appellant

v.

The STATE of Texas, Appellee

From the 437th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas Trial Court No. 2018CR13056 Honorable Melisa C. Skinner, Judge Presiding

Opinion by: Beth Watkins, Justice

Sitting: Luz Elena D. Chapa, Justice Irene Rios, Justice Beth Watkins, Justice

Delivered and Filed: March 27, 2024

AFFIRMED

Appellant Angelica Navarro-DePaz appeals her solicitation of capital murder conviction,

raising issues related to the trial court’s dismissal of a juror, the State’s jury argument, and the trial

court’s exclusion of a defense witness’s testimony. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

San Antonio Police Department Detective Brian White received a tip from a confidential

informant, Katie Martinez, who said that Navarro-DePaz wanted Anayeli Mendoza Flores killed. 04-22-00356-CR

White enlisted Detective Gabriel DeLeon to work undercover on the case and gave DeLeon’s

phone number to Katie so she could give it to Navarro-DePaz. Navarro-DePaz contacted DeLeon.

On July 20, 2017, Katie, Navarro-DePaz, and DeLeon met at a restaurant. Navarro-DePaz

entered DeLeon’s car, which was equipped with concealed recording equipment. They spoke in

Spanish. She was under the impression that they had a friend, “El Banado,” in common. DeLeon

told her that he was part of a cartel, that he had a group of associates who did jobs in Texas and

Mexico, and that his associates would accept narcotics or cash as payment. According to DeLeon,

Navarro-DePaz:

• showed him burns on her arms and explained that “it’s from the girl” who, two years earlier, had kidnapped her at gunpoint, taken her to one of her own rent houses, poured gasoline around her, and started a fire; Navarro-DePaz represented to DeLeon that it was “a miracle that she got out”;

• told him that “it’s been some time since this incident happened” so she did not think “she’s waiting for anything or expecting anything”;

• said that she had worked with El Banado to come up with the offer of $1,700 for the job;

• announced that she had a second job for him in Hermosillo, Sonora, where she wanted another woman killed.

At the end of the meeting, Navarro-DePaz and Katie drove to “the girl’s” house, with DeLeon

following, so he could see where “the girl” lived. Afterwards, she texted DeLeon photos of “Ana

Mendoza.”

On August 15, 2017, Navarro-DePaz and DeLeon met again. In this surreptitiously

recorded meeting, DeLeon explained that his associates were “worrying that they weren’t going

to get paid.” Navarro-DePaz told him she was going to give him “half of the money” now and the

other half later. DeLeon told her his associates had “already seen the girl” and “where she works.”

He explained his associates “don’t want to kill her here in San Antonio because they don’t want

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the police on them,” so they are going to kill her in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Navarro-DePaz told

him she wanted photos as “the proof that she’s been killed,” and she then counted out $850 and

gave it to DeLeon. Navarro-DePaz then told him about a third woman she wanted killed. She

explained that the woman owed her $70,000, and if the woman were killed, the woman’s daughter

would pay her back from life insurance proceeds.

After Navarro-DePaz left, White ordered a marked patrol car to conduct a traffic stop on

the truck she was riding in. She was taken to SAPD headquarters and arrested.

A grand jury indicted Navarro-DePaz on a charge of soliciting capital murder. At trial, the

State presented, inter alia, videos and translated transcripts of the two meetings. The State’s theory

was that Navarro-DePaz wanted Mendoza killed over a $40,000 debt she owed for trafficking

Mendoza from Mexico into the United States. The defense called Mendoza, who testified that she

had never met Katie.

Navarro-DePaz testified in her own defense. Through argument, cross-examination, and

her own testimony, she put forth a theory that:

• she did not bring Mendoza to the United States, and Mendoza did not owe her any money;

• Mendoza and Katie were part of a criminal organization that trafficked non- citizens to the United States and sold them into forced labor;

• Mendoza had trafficked her own brother, Brandon, who later became Navarro- DePaz’s boyfriend, and profited from his forced labor;

• Navarro-DePaz found these laborers, including Brandon, working in one of her rent houses and released them from that labor prematurely, drawing the ire and retaliation of the organization;

• Katie, who had previously extorted and threatened to kill her, forced Navarro- DePaz to participate in the murder-for-hire plot;

• the murder-for-hire plot was a ruse that was never supposed to be carried out, and it was created by Katie and Mendoza so that Mendoza, could obtain a

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special visa as a victim of a crime, giving her legal status in the United States; and

• she only participated in the ruse, which she had been told the police were in on, because members of the organization had threatened to kill her and her children.

Navarro-DePaz’s husband testified that Katie and Mendoza came by his feed store twice—

once just before the August 2015 fire and a second time in June 2017, shortly before the August

2017 arrest in this case. The second time, the women stated, “We have something prepared for

Angelica, and she can’t even imagine what’s coming.” Both times they were aggressive, not there

to shop but to instead threaten him and Navarro-DePaz. Navarro-DePaz was not present either

time.

To further counter Mendoza’s testimony that she had never met Katie, the defense called

Joanna Maldonado. After Maldonado represented that she would invoke the Fifth Amendment

rather than answer the State’s proposed cross-examination questions, the trial court accepted the

invocation and instructed the jury to disregard the testimony that it had heard.

The jury rejected Navarro-DePaz’s defense, convicted her of solicitation of capital murder,

and assessed punishment at confinement in prison for 20 years. She now appeals.

ANALYSIS

Denial of Right to Public Trial or Right to Counsel at Critical Stage

Navarro-DePaz argues the trial court denied her constitutional and statutory rights to a

public trial and to counsel at a critical stage by conducting an ex parte communication with a sick

juror before dismissing the juror. To preserve such arguments for appellate review, a party must

present to the trial court a timely request, objection, or motion stating the specific grounds for the

ruling desired and obtain a ruling. TEX. R. APP. P. 33.1(a); Peyronel v. State, 465 S.W.3d 650,

652–53 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015) (right to public trial complaint subject to forfeiture); Routier v.

State, 112 S.W.3d 554, 586 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003) (right to counsel and presence at critical stage

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complaint subject to forfeiture). “[T]he objection must be made at the earliest possible

opportunity,” and “the point of error on appeal must comport with the objection made at trial.”

Wilson v. State, 71 S.W.3d 346, 349 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002). An appellate court will uphold a trial

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