Angelo v. State

977 S.W.2d 169, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 5852, 1998 WL 644249
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 17, 1998
Docket03-97-00750-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 977 S.W.2d 169 (Angelo 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
Angelo v. State, 977 S.W.2d 169, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 5852, 1998 WL 644249 (Tex. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

BEA ANN SMITH, Justice.

To address concerns raised in the motion for rehearing, we -withdraw our earlier opinion and judgment issued August 13, 1998, and substitute this one in its place. Appellant Gregory Chris Angelo appeals from a jury conviction of capital murder. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2) (West 1994). The court assessed a mandatory life sentence. See id § 12.31 (West 1994). In this appeal, appellant complains that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction, that the trial court erred in admitting certain evidence, and that the trial court erred in failing to submit certain issues to the jury. We will affirm the trial court’s judgment.

BACKGROUND

At the time of the incident, Gregory and Cynthia Angelo were legally married; however, they were living separately. Cynthia and their two children remained in the family home on Antelope Trail; appellant moved to a nearby apartment at Wildwood Apartments. In February 1997, Cynthia hired an attorney to help her divorce her husband. The divorce was filed February 27 and appellant was served on March 10. A hearing on temporary matters was set for March 14.

On March 13 around midday, Gregory took a cab to his estranged wife’s home on Antelope Trail. Carrying a basket full of clothes, he allegedly told the cab driver that he was going to his ex-wife’s home to do laundry. Appellant asked the driver to stop at a driveway ,two houses away from his wife’s. He then entered the house through the garage by using the garage door remote control. On the same day, Cynthia left her work at 12:40 p.m. to go home for lunch. At 1:18 p.m., a Temple Police Department dispatcher received a 911 call from a man who was screaming unintelligibly; the dispatcher was only able to hear, “My wife. My wife. Help me.” The computer screen revealed that the call was coming from Cynthia Angelo’s address on Antelope Trail. When a paramedic arrived at Cynthia’s home two to three minutes after the 911 call was made, he found the front door locked and entered through a window. He saw appellant lying on the kitchen floor face down and next to Cynthia who was also lying down. She was bleeding profusely from her face and the paramedic was unable to-find a pulse. Appellant was sobbing and moaning although no injuries to his body were apparent. A handgun was found on the floor next to appellant. Cynthia had been shot in the chest and had a number of blunt-force injuries, bruises, and scrapes on her face and head. The medical examiner testified that such injuries could have been caused by a fist or pistol butt; they were not, however, the result of a single fall.

Temple Police Detective Wayne Corley examined the crime scene. He testified that there appeared to have been a fight, and that there were several spots of blood in the bathroom which was adjacent to the master bedroom. Knowing that the Angelos had children, Detective Corley searched the house. In the master bedroom, he noticed some papers on a dresser. Thinking the papers might be related to the murder, De- *173 teetive Corley turned them over and realized they were suicide-murder notes.

Appellant Gregory Angelo was charged with the offense of capital murder by an indictment alleging that he had caused the death of Cynthia Angelo while in the course of committing or attempting to commit retaliation or while in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnaping. The State did not seek the death penalty. The jury found Gregory guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment and the trial court assessed a mandatory life sentence in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Appellant filed a motion for new trial that was overruled by operation of law. He appeals his conviction complaining of legal and factual sufficiency, admissibility of evidence, and the trial court’s failure to instruct the jury on certain issues.

DISCUSSION

Legal and Factual Sufficiency

In issues one and two, Gregory claims the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction of capital murder. 1

We address first whether there was sufficient evidence to support the finding that appellant caused the death of his wife while in the course of committing retaliation. A person commits a capital murder if he commits a murder as defined under section 19.02(b)(1) 2 in the course of committing or attempting to commit retaliation. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2). A person commits the offense of retaliation if he intentionally or knowingly harms or threatens to harm another by an unlawful act in retaliation for or on account of the service of another as a public servant, witness, prospective witness, informant, or a person who has reported or who the actor knows intends to report the occurrence of a crime. Id. § 36.06(a)(1) (West 1994).

The critical inquiry on review of the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction is whether the record evidence could reasonably support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This Court does not ask whether it believes that the evidence at trial established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-19, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Griffin v. State, 614 S.W.2d 155, 159 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). The standard of review is the same for both direct and circumstantial evidence. See Chambers v. State, 711 S.W.2d 240, 245 (Tex.Crim.App.1986).

The State presented evidence that Cynthia had filed a divorce action against appellant and that a hearing regarding the divorce was scheduled for March 14. Cynthia was shot and killed the day before the scheduled hearing. There was evidence that Gregory was found at the scene lying next to his wife’s body and that the handgun used to kill Cynthia was lying next to him. Gregory admitted that he was holding the handgun when it fired the bullet that struck Cynthia. The State put in evidence the suicide-murder notes found at the victim’s home that were addressed to various family members and signed by Gregory to show that Gregory killed his wife because she filed a divorce action against him. Excerpts from the notes reveal the following: “Your Mom decided to give up trying to make our family a good one. Mom decided to file a divorce of marriage with Daddy and our children. She decided it was not worth trying again anymore.” “Cyn-dy left us no choice what so ever.” Appellant testified that on

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Bluebook (online)
977 S.W.2d 169, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 5852, 1998 WL 644249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/angelo-v-state-texapp-1998.