Arturo Tena Jr. v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 31, 2017
Docket08-15-00152-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Arturo Tena Jr. v. State (Arturo Tena Jr. 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
Arturo Tena Jr. v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS EIGHTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS EL PASO, TEXAS

§ ARTURO TENA, No. 08-15-00152-CR § Appellant, Appeal from § v. 210th District Court § THE STATE OF TEXAS, of El Paso County, Texas § Appellee. (TC # 20140D01366) §

OPINION

A jury convicted Arturo Tena Jr. of injury to a child, resulting in an eight-year sentence

and the maximum possible fine. The sole issue on appeal is the legal sufficiency of the evidence

to support the conviction. We affirm.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

The State indicted Appellant for causing injury to the three-year-old daughter of his

girlfriend. We identify the child with the pseudonym Jane, and the girlfriend by her first name,

Jessica.1 Jane presented to the emergency room at University Medical Center at 4:10 p.m. on

November 8, 2013, in an apparent seizure. Her condition was triaged as a “Level I Trauma,” the

most severe on the hospital’s rating scale. A CT scan of her head, performed at 4:40 p.m., showed

1 See Daggett v. State, 187 S.W.3d 444, 446 n.3 (Tex.Crim.App. 2005)(noting use of alias identification to protect the identity of the child); McClendon v. State, 643 S.W.2d 936, 936 n.1 (Tex.Crim.App. [Panel Op.] 1982)(same); cf. TEX.R.APP.P. 9.8 (use of alias names in parental right and juvenile cases). a significant intracranial hemorrhage that was pushing and compressing her brain to one side of

the skull. Jane was taken immediately to the operating room where a surgical team performed a

craniotomy. That procedure opens the skull and relieves the pressure on the brain. During the

procedure, the surgeon discovered active bleeding from veins in the superior sagittal sinus, which

he was able to repair.2 Jane survived and recovered from the injury.

At trial, the State’s case against Appellant focused on the following arguments:

1) A tear in the superior sagittal sinus must be caused by some form of blunt force trauma to the head; 2a) Given the nature of the bleeding observed, the injury would have occurred 2-3 hours before the time of the CT scan; or 2b) Given the nature of the bleeding observed, the child would have exhibited immediate and profound symptoms following the injury; 3) Appellant had the sole custody of the child in the relevant part of the three-hour period prior to the CT scan, and when he took control of the child, she was not exhibiting any profound symptoms of a head injury. The State thus concluded that Appellant inflicted some trauma on the child by either striking her

head against some object, or striking some object against her head.3 On appeal, Appellant’s sole

point of error challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s finding of guilt.

We start with a reminder of the appropriate standard of review, and next recite the evidence

germane to the three tenets of the State’s theory advanced to support the conviction.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Evidence is legally sufficient when, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, any

rational jury could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.

2 The superior sagittal sinus is an area of the brain that runs somewhat along the top of the brain and between the right and left brain lobes. This area collects and drains blood into the jugular vein. Richard M. Patterson, 4a Lawyer Medical Cyclopedia, § 32.6 (2016). 3 The State also indicted Appellant for injury to Jane by omission, arguing that he delayed in getting help for the child. The trial court directed a verdict on that Count, and we therefore we find it unnecessary to discuss the facts developed below that relate exclusively to that Count.

2 Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-19, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2788-89, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Brooks

v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 912 (Tex.Crim.App. 2010)(establishing legal insufficiency under

Jackson v. Virginia as the only standard for review of the evidence).

The jury is the sole judge of credibility and the weight attached to the testimony of each

witness. Dobbs v. State, 434 S.W.3d 166, 170 (Tex.Crim.App. 2014). It is the fact finder's duty

“to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences

from basic facts to ultimate facts.” See Clayton v. State, 235 S.W.3d 772, 778 (Tex.Crim.App.

2007), quoting Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781. The jury also may choose to believe or

disbelieve that testimony. Lancon v. State, 253 S.W.3d 699, 707 (Tex.Crim.App. 2008); Belton v.

State, 900 S.W.2d 886, 897 (Tex.App.--El Paso 1995, pet. ref’d). When the record supports

conflicting inferences, we presume that the jury resolved the conflicts in favor of the verdict, and

we defer to that determination. Dobbs, 434 S.W.3d at 170; see also Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99

S.Ct. at 2789.

Circumstantial evidence is as probative as direct evidence in establishing guilt, and

circumstantial evidence alone may be sufficient to establish guilt. Dobbs, 434 S.W.3d at 170;

Carrizales v. State, 414 S.W.3d 737, 742 n.20 (Tex.Crim.App. 2013), citing Hooper v. State, 214

S.W.3d 9, 13 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007). Each fact need not point directly and independently to the

guilt of the appellant, as long as the cumulative force of all the incriminating circumstances is

sufficient to support the conviction. Dobbs, 434 S.W.3d at 170; Hooper, 214 S.W.3d at 13.

We remain mindful that “[t]here is no higher burden of proof in any trial, criminal or civil,

and there is no higher standard of appellate review than the standard mandated by Jackson.”

Brooks, 323 S.W.3d at 917 (Cochran, J., concurring). Nonetheless, if a rational fact finder could

3 have found the defendant guilty, we will not disturb the verdict on appeal. Fernandez v. State, 479

S.W.3d 835, 838 (Tex.Crim.App. 2016).

EVENTS LEADING TO JANE’S HOSPITALIZATION

Jane is the three-year old daughter of Jessica. They lived with Appellant, who at the time

of this incident had three children of his own: a three-year-old daughter, and two sons aged six and

eight. On the morning of the incident, the boys would have left for school between 7:00 and 7:30

am. By 9:00 a.m., Jessica got the two three-year-old girls ready to go shopping with Appellant’s

mother. She helped both children dress and fix their hair. Jessica noticed nothing unusual about

Jane’s scalp or head while doing her hair. The girls may have also gone out to play on a trampoline

in the back yard. Appellant was asleep as all this was going on.

Appellant’s mother picked up Jessica and the girls at 10:00 a.m. They went by two banks

before shopping. Jane misbehaved while in the first bank, so when they got to the second bank,

she stayed in the car with her mother. When Appellant’s mother left to go inside the second bank,

the three-year-olds were arguing. When she returned, Jane appeared to be dozing off as she was

sleepy. They all then went into a JC Penney store for about forty-five minutes.

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Hooper v. State
214 S.W.3d 9 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Clayton v. State
235 S.W.3d 772 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Garcia v. State
16 S.W.3d 401 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000)
McClendon v. State
643 S.W.2d 936 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1982)
Butts v. State
835 S.W.2d 147 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Belton v. State
900 S.W.2d 886 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Lancon v. State
253 S.W.3d 699 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Williams v. State
294 S.W.3d 674 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009)
Daggett v. State
187 S.W.3d 444 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Brooks v. State
323 S.W.3d 893 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Elledge v. State
890 S.W.2d 843 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Bryant v. State
909 S.W.2d 579 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Wise v. State
364 S.W.3d 900 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Carrizales v. State
414 S.W.3d 737 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2013)
Dobbs, Atha Albert
434 S.W.3d 166 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Michelle Elaine Bearnth v. State
361 S.W.3d 135 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Fernandez v. State
479 S.W.3d 835 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2016)

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