Arriaga v. State

2 S.W.3d 508, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 5883, 1999 WL 597244
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 11, 1999
DocketNo. 04-98-00577-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2 S.W.3d 508 (Arriaga 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
Arriaga v. State, 2 S.W.3d 508, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 5883, 1999 WL 597244 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by:

ALMA L. LÓPEZ, Justice.

This is an appeal from a jury verdict finding appellant, Alberto Arriaga, guilty of tampering with or fabricating evidence. See generally TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 37. 09(a)(2). The trial court entered judgment and sentenced appellant to two years of community supervision. On appeal, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

The Accident Investigation

On December 30, 1995, between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m., Alberto Arriaga, a patrol officer with the San Antonio Police Department, was called to the scene of a two-car accident at the intersection of Silent Sunrise and Tezel Road. A stop sign and a median separate the lanes of traffic. The drivers involved in the accident were Katherine Wansley and Nanette Ramirez. Wansley’s son, a passenger in her car, was taken from the scene of the accident by his fa[509]*509ther in order to arrive on time for a school function. Ramirez, age 16, was on her way to work when the accident occurred. There were no other witnesses to the accident.

Wansley told Arriaga that she was making a left turn from Silent Sunrise onto Tezel Road when Ramirez’s vehicle, traveling south on Tezel, struck Wansley’s vehicle in the rear. The damage to Wansley’s vehicle was in the center of her bumper. The parties disagreed on the events leading up to the accident. There were no skid marks, debris, or other physical evidence at the scene of the accident, nor were there physical injuries as a result of the accident. Both vehicles were operable after the collision.

To avoid impeding traffic, both drivers moved their cars from the point of collision to the right side of the road. They then walked to a nearby convenience store and made telephone calls. Wansley telephoned the police to report the accident. Ramirez called her employer and then her mother, Deborah Mai Ramirez.

Deborah Ramirez subsequently called Nanette’s father, Steve Ramirez, an officer with the San Antonio Police Department, who then drove to the scene of the accident. Steve Ramirez was off-duty the morning of the accident. He picked up his daughter from the convenience store and drove back to the scene of the accident arriving before appellant. Appellant arrived at the scene of the accident next and, after investigating, wrote the police report regarding the traffic accident. The police report designated Wansley’s car as vehicle number one, and Ramirez’s car as vehicle number two.

Appellant approached Wansley first, asking for her account of the accident and for her driver’s license and proof of insurance. Wansley described where her vehicle was at the time of impact. The officer then spoke to Nanette Ramirez. He requested and received her driver’s license and proof of insurance. The card listed Deborah Mai Ramirez, Nanette’s mother, as the insured. According to Wansley, Steve Ramirez shook hands with and spoke to appellant. Wansley thought that Steve Ramirez was either friends with appellant, or perhaps a police officer himself. Nanette Ramirez testified that appellant and her father were neither friends nor social acquaintances.

Insurance forms were exchanged between Ramirez and Wansley. Wansley testified that Ramirez filled out her form while standing next to her father. When Wansley received the insurance report she noticed that Nanette Ramirez’s form stated that Deborah M. Ramirez was the driver of vehicle number two. The form was in Nanette’s handwriting.

A third policeman, Officer Davis, arrived at the scene of the accident after the appellant. He spoke to appellant for a few minutes, and then approached Nanette’s father and shook his hand. At this time, Wansley came to the conclusion that Steve Ramirez was probably a police officer. Officer Davis spoke to the father for a few minutes and then left the scene of the accident without further action. However, after the investigation was complete, appellant met with Officer Davis later that morning. Officer Davis testified that appellant lamented that the case was “messed up” because a fellow officer’s daughter was involved. Appellant also told Davis that Nanette Ramirez was not the party at fault in the accident. After the accident, Deborah Ramirez gave a recorded statement to her insurance company stating that she was in fact the driver of vehicle number two at the time of the accident.

On the police report, appellant had drawn the accident in á manner that illustrated and purported that Wansley pulled out into the intersection at the point of collision. However, according to statements made to appellant by both Wansley and Nanette Ramirez, this was not how the accident had occurred. Wansley was unaware of how the officer had received [510]*510this information. After disputing her insurance company’s assessment of fault, Wansley obtained a copy of the police report and noticed that the age of the other driver was listed as 36 years old, whereas Nanette, the actual driver of the vehicle, was only 16 years old.

Wansley contacted Internal Affairs of the San Antonio Police Department and was referred to Sergeant Rabe. Wansley spoke to Sergeant Rabe, and then directly with appellant himself about the errors in the report. Appellant informed Wansley that he would check his records and review the situation. Wansley spoke with appellant again at which time he informed her that he was reviewing his records, but was impeded in his review due to the unusually high number of automobile accidents that had occurred the day of Wansley’s accident. According to Wansley, this second conversation occurred about a week after the initial conversation. Wansley spoke with appellant a third time and he told her that he would have to check with the other party to the accident before he could change his records. Once this step was completed, she was told that she would receive a revised report. When nothing further happened, Wansley contacted Sergeant Ewell of the Internal Affairs Division of the San Antonio Police Department, who conducted an investigation as to the police report in question. Once an investigation was initiated, appellant amended the report.

At the close of evidence, appellant moved for a directed verdict of acquittal based upon the State’s failure to prove the fundamental elements of the indictment. The Court denied the motion, the jury found him guilty, and the trial court sentenced appellant to two years of community supervision.

Legal and Factual Sufficiency

Appellant is challenging the legal and factual sufficiency of his conviction. Specifically, appellant asserts that the facts and circumstances with which the State proved appellant’s guilt can be explained by a reasonable alternative hypothesis. Appellant contends that there is ample evidence which supports the hypothesis that his actions were either a simple mistake, or that he was deliberately misled at the scene of the accident by Ramirez’s father; and, that when a reasonable hypothesis exists, other than the guilt of the accused, then guilt beyond a reasonable doubt has not been established. See Mares v. State, 801 S.W.2d 121 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1990); Martin v. State, 753 S.W.2d 384, 387 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).

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

Related

Paul Houston LaValle v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Avila v. State
18 S.W.3d 736 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 S.W.3d 508, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 5883, 1999 WL 597244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arriaga-v-state-texapp-1999.