Bell v. State

747 S.W.2d 898, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 665, 1988 WL 26508
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 10, 1988·No. No. 2-87-001-CR·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

OPINION

FARRIS, Judge.

Appellant, Michelle Elieen Bell, was convicted by a jury of involuntary manslaugh[900]*900ter. See TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 19.05(a)(1) (Vernon 1974). The victim in this case was killed by the combination of drugs contained in the “Mickey Finn” (or incapacitating drug) administered to him by appellant and an accomplice in order to allow them to steal his possessions. The jury also answered “true” to an enhancement count for a prior felony conviction of credit card abuse and assessed punishment at twenty years imprisonment and a $10,-000 fine. Appellant raises twelve points of error on appeal attacking the sufficiency of the evidence; the admissibility of a confession made by appellant subsequent to her arrest; the failure of the trial court to charge the jury on the lesser included offense of theft; and references to extraneous offenses during the course of the trial. We overrule all of appellant’s points and affirm her conviction.

On February 16, 1986, appellant and an accomplice, Sharon Black, became acquainted with the deceased, John Knopp, Jr., at a nightclub in Arlington, Texas. At some time between 1:45 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. in the morning, the deceased left the club in the company of appellant and Black. The three drove to a local motel, where the deceased rented a room.

Once in the room, Black took a beer into the dressing area near the bathroom. She added a “mickey,” a drug that would render the deceased unconscious, to the beer. She then gave the drugged beer to the deceased, who drank it and lost consciousness. The two women left the room after removing the victim’s jewelry.

At some point, the deceased died of respiratory arrest caused by the combination of three drugs: Lorazepam, Triazolam, and alcohol. Appellant and Black were arrested in Amarillo, Texas in possession of the deceased’s jewelry and two rolled up papers containing a powdered form of the drug Triazolam.

In her first two points of error, appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a guilty verdict, and that the trial court improperly denied her request for an instructed verdict of acquittal. More specifically, appellant contends that the evidence failed to show that Lorazepam was administered to the deceased by the two women.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence in either a direct or circumstantial evidence case, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution and consider whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. State, 672 S.W.2d 801, 803 (Tex.Crim.App.1984); Houston v. State, 663 S.W.2d 455, 456 (Tex.Crim.App.1984); Wilson v. State, 654 S.W.2d 465, 471 (Tex.Crim.App.1983) (opinion on reh’g). A conviction cannot be sustained if the evidence leaves any reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 317-18, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2788, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 572-73 (1979). Thus, it follows that a conviction based on circumstantial evidence cannot be sustained if the circumstances do not exclude every other reasonable hypothesis except that of the guilt of the defendant. Johnson v. State, 673 S.W.2d 190, 195 (Tex.Crim.App.1984); Jackson, 672 S.W.2d at 803.

Dr. Marc Krouse, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner for Tarrant County, conducted the autopsy on the deceased. He testified that the cause of death was respiratory failure brought on by acute mixed drug intoxication. He testified that the particular substances contributing to the victim’s death were Lorazepam, Triazolam and ethanol alcohol. Dr. Krouse testified that the level of Lorazepam was sufficient to be considered toxic, and that the level of Triazolam found was life-threatening. His conclusions as to the levels of Lorezepam and Triazolam were based on a toxicology lab report performed at his request.

Appellant admitted in a statement made after her arrest and introduced into evidence at the trial, that Black had put some kind of drug in the deceased’s beer. She also stated that she did not know what the [901]*901drug was. Her statement also said that after the deceased had lost consciousness, Black disposed of the beer bottle and the cup from which the deceased drank.

Arlington Police Detective Jim Ford testified about the Triazolam found in the possession of appellant and Black. He testified that Black told him that she originally possessed three such packets of powder and had used one of them on the deceased.

The evidence that the “mickey” given to the deceased contained Lorazepam is admittedly circumstantial in nature. However, in circumstantial evidence cases it is not necessary that every fact point directly and independently to the defendant’s guilt. The evidence is sufficient if the conclusion is warranted by a combined and cumulative force of all the incriminating evidence. In other words,

[i]t is not required that the circumstances should, to a moral certainty, actually exclude every hypothesis that the act may have been committed by another person, but that the hypothesis is a reasonable one consistent with the circumstances and the facts proved.

Carlsen v. State, 654 S.W.2d 444, 447 (Tex.Crim.App.1983).

A conviction for involuntary manslaughter requires that the finder of fact find that the accused recklessly caused the death of an individual. See TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 19.05(a)(1) (Vernon 1974). We believe that the evidence introduced at trial was such that any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Appellant’s first two points of error are overruled.

In her third and fourth points, appellant contends that the statement she made subsequent to her arrest was improperly admitted into evidence over her motion to suppress because the affidavit supporting the arrest warrant was insufficient to show probable cause.

Both the United States and Texas constitutions provide that an arrest warrant must be based on probable cause supported by oath or affirmation. See U.S. CONST, amend. IV; TEX.CONST. art. I, sec. 9. In order to support an arrest warrant, the affidavit must show first of all probable cause that an offense has been committed, and second, probable cause that the person named therein committed the offense. See TEX.CODE CRIM.PROC. ANN. art. 15.05 (Vernon 1977).

In determining whether the affidavit is sufficient to show probable cause, we are limited to the four comers of the affidavit itself. Lopez v. State, 535 S.W.2d 643, 647 (Tex.Crim.App.1976). The test is whether the affidavit provides a neutral and detached magistrate with sufficient information to support an independent judgment that probable cause exists for the warrant. Jones v. State, 568 S.W.2d 847, 854 (Tex.Crim.App.) (en banc),

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Bell v. State, 747 S.W.2d 898, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 665, 1988 WL 26508 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

747 S.W.2d 898 (Bell v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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