Baiza v. State

487 S.W.3d 338, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 3320, 2016 WL 1274467
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 31, 2016
DocketNo. 11-14-00067-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 487 S.W.3d 338 (Baiza 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
Baiza v. State, 487 S.W.3d 338, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 3320, 2016 WL 1274467 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

JOHN M. BAILEY, JUSTICE

Gregory Lee Baiza appeals his jury conviction for sexual assault. The trial court found as “true” a prior conviction alleged for enhancement purposes and assessed punishment at confinement for a term of twelve years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In two issues on appeal, Appellant challenges the admission of his recorded statement and the extraneous evidence of prior bad acts. We reverse and remand.

Background Facts

Appellant and the complainant began dating in 2009 and were reportedly common-law married a month later. Appellant and the complainant had two children together during their marriage. The complainant testified that she and Appellant had consensual sex throughout them marriage. In October 2011, Appellant learned that the complainant was potentially pregnant with their third child.. The complainant testified that Appellant became angry and demanded that she get an abortion. The complainant and Appellant argued for approximately thirty minutes, until Appellant went outside.

Appellant came back inside shortly thereafter. The complainant stated that Appellant approached her, lowered his pants, and requested oral sex. She testified that she started to perform oral sex but stopped when he called her a “bitch.” The complainant said that Appellant then grabbed her by her hair and dragged her to the couch, telling her that, if she was “going to be a bitch and get pregnant, then [she] was going to be raped like a bitch.” The complainant testified that she told Appellant to stop multiple times but that Appellant forced himself on her through her shorts and underwear. Appellant stopped when their oldest child came into the room in response to the complainant’s crying and screaming.

The complainant then called the police. Patrol Officer Anthony Corson, with the Midland Police Department, responded to the call. He asked Appellant about what happened. Officer Corson testified that Appellant admitted that he and the com[341]*341plainant had been arguing because Appellant had just lost his job. Appellant told Officer Corson that the complainant, was acting “a bit crazy” and that she had smashed her head into a wall and had tried to cut herself. At that time, Appellant denied that he had penetrated the complainant and only admitted that he had run his hand up her thigh.

Officer Corson then called Detective Steven Sanders to the scene. Detective Sanders spoke to the complainant, who was undecided on whether to file charges. Detective Sanders then talked with Appellant, who was not in custody at this time. Appellant gave Detective Sanders a recorded statement. This initial statement from Appellant was offered without objection. In this statement, Appellant denied that he penetrated the complainant. Appellant also stated that the ■ complainant decided to falsely accuse him of “rape:”

The complainant then left for the hospital, whereupon she decided to press charges against Appellant. After the results of the SANE exam came back, Detective Sanders returned to Appellant’s home and requested another statement from him. Appellant declined to make another statement at that time. Detective Sanders then placed Appellant under arrest. Detective Sanders testified that Appellant changed his mind about giving another statement after being placed under arrest. Appellant admitted during the second recorded statement that the complainant told him to stop but that he kept going.

Analysis

In his first issue, Appellant asserts that his second recorded statement was inadmissible because Detective Sanders failed to' comply with Article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure when he read Appellant the statutory warnings. Specifically, Appellant contends that Detective Sanders read the warnings so fast that they were unintelligible and that Detective Sanders failed to advise Appellant that Appellant was free to terminate the interview at any time as required by Article 38.22, section 2(a)(5). See Tex. Code CRiM. PROC. Ann. art. 38.22, § 2(a)(5) (West Supp. 2015). The State contends that the second recorded statement was admissible because Detective Sanders substantially complied with the requirements of Article 38.22.

Appellant did not file a pretrial motion to suppress his second recorded statement. However, Appellant’s trial counsel advised the trial court at the beginning of trial that he was going to. object to the admission of the second recorded statement because it contained statements made by Appellant as a result of á custodial interrogation when' Appellant had not been given his Article 38.22 statutory warnings. See id, art. 38.22. The trial court listened to the recording prior to beginning testimony but did not make a ruling on its admissibility at that time. The matter of the admissibility of the second recorded statement arose again during Detective Sanders’s trial testimony. Detective Sanders testified that, prior to Appellant giving the second recorded statement, he read Appellant his Miranda1 warnings. The prosecutor asked Detective Sanders if he gave Appellant each of the five warnings contained in Article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. See id. art. 38.22, § 2(a). Detective Sanders answered in the affirmative as the prosecutor asked about each statutory warning individually. Detective Sanders acknowledged that he has “a tendency to talk really fast sometimes” and that he talked “kind of fast” when reading the warnings to Appellant. However, De[342]*342tective Sanders testified that Appellant understood all of his rights.

Appellant objected to the State’s offer of the second recorded statement on the ground that Detective Sanders did not advise him that he had the right to terminate the interview at any time. See id, art. 38.22, § 2(a)(5). Appellant also objected that the statement was given involuntarily because Detective Sanders spoke so quickly that no reasonable person could have understood the warnings. The trial court overruled both objections, and the second recorded statement was played for the jury. On appeal, Appellant challenges only the trial court’s ruling on his first objection concerning Detective Sanders’s compliance with providing the statutory warning contained in Article 38.22, section 2(a)(5).

In reviewing claims concerning Miranda violations and the admission of statements made as the result of custodial interrogation, we conduct the bifurcated review articulated in Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 89 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). See Pecina v. State, 361 S.W.3d 68, 78-79 (Tex.Crim.App.2012); Leza v. State, 351 S.W.3d 344, 349 (Tex.Crim.App.2011) (“[W]e measure the propriety of-the trial court’s rulipg with respect to alleged Miranda violations under the totality of the circumstances, almost wholly deferring to the trial court on questions of historical fact and credibility, but reviewing de novo all questions of law and mixed questions of law and fact that do not turn on credibility determinations.”). We afford almost total deference to the trial court’s determination of historical facts and mixed questions of law and fact that turn on the evaluation of credibility and demeanor. Guzman, 955 S.W.2d at 89. Questions of law and mixed questions of law and fact not turning on credibility are reviewed de novo.

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Bluebook (online)
487 S.W.3d 338, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 3320, 2016 WL 1274467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baiza-v-state-texapp-2016.