Brodrick Dechone Delane AKA Broderick Shun Delane AKA Shaun Scott v. State

369 S.W.3d 412, 2012 WL 340234, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 905
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 2, 2012
Docket01-10-00698-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 369 S.W.3d 412 (Brodrick Dechone Delane AKA Broderick Shun Delane AKA Shaun Scott 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
Brodrick Dechone Delane AKA Broderick Shun Delane AKA Shaun Scott v. State, 369 S.W.3d 412, 2012 WL 340234, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 905 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION

TERRY JENNINGS, Justice.

A jury found appellant, Brodrick De-chone Delane, also known as Broderick Shun Delane, also known as Shaun Scott, guilty of the felony offense of driving while intoxicated.1 After appellant pleaded true to two enhancement allegations that he had twice been previously convicted of felony offenses, the jury assessed his punishment at confinement for thirty-five years.2 In two issues, appellant contends that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction and the trial court erred in admitting “unreliable and irrelevant scientific evidence.”

We reverse and remand.

Background

A Harris County grand jury issued a true bill of indictment, accusing appellant of driving while intoxicated “by reason of the introduction of a controlled substance, a drug, a dangerous drug, a combination of two or more of those substances, or any other substance into the body.” Prior to trial, appellant filed a “motion in limine to suppress drug/medication evidence,” seeking to suppress “audio or visual evidence pertaining directly or indirectly to [his] use of any drug or medication, on grounds that such evidence is irrelevant and its effect would be more prejudicial than probative without expert scientific testimony to provide the proper foundation.”

During the trial court’s hearing on his motion to suppress evidence, appellant asserted that the State was required to present expert testimony about his alleged ingestion of medications and the effects of the medications on him. The State responded that, under the circumstances and given the training, education, and experience of the police officer who had arrested appellant, the officer was qualified to testify to his opinion that appellant was impaired by the medications. The trial court denied appellant’s motion.

At trial, Houston Police Department (“HPD”) Officer L. Morrison testified that on September 21, 2008, while assigned to protect a “point of distribution” (“POD”) that had been set up to assist Houstonians in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, a woman told him about a man who was driving a car “crazy,” had almost hit her car, and had run “a bunch of cars off of the road.” The woman identified the car, which appellant was driving. Morrison followed appellant, who was traveling at ten-miles per hour in a thirty-mile per hour zone, and Morrison saw appellant travel through a stop sign and a red blinking traffic light without stopping or yielding to other traffic. Appellant almost caused his car to strike another car, which had honked its [415]*415horn and maneuvered to avoid appellant’s car. Appellant “bounc[ed]” his car “from curb to curb” and drove in a “dangerous” manner. Morrison activated his emergency lights, and appellant, in trying to stop his car, “jumped” a curb, drove across some grass, and almost hit a fence. After appellant stepped out of his car, he held onto it for support. After Morrison approached and identified himself to appellant, he explained that he had stopped appellant for reckless driving. Appellant then “fumbled” as he looked for his identification, and he also slurred his speech. However, Morrison did not detect any odor of alcohol.

Officer Morrison described appellant as “slow to react,” and he decided to administer field-sobriety tests to appellant. Appellant was not able to perform the “one-leg-stand” and “walk-and-turn” tests because he could not stand on his own. After Morrison asked appellant if he had any “medical issues,” appellant stated that he was “fine.” Morrison then administered the horizontal-gaze-nystagmus (“HGN”) test to appellant, who exhibited the “maximum number of clues” to indicate intoxication. Based upon the results of this test, Morrison “knew that [appellant] was under the influence of a central nervous system depressant.” Morrison also administered to appellant the “vertical nystagmus” test, during which appellant exhibited “both clues” and “immediate onset,” which demonstrated “a very high level of intoxicants” in appellant’s system. Finally, Morrison administered to appellant a “convergence test,” which showed that appellant tested “positive for that clue as well.” Morrison then helped appellant into Morrison’s patrol car because appellant was not able to walk without support.

Appellant told Officer Morrison that he had taken two different prescription medications. After Morrison asked appellant why he was taking medications, appellant was “very difficult to understand,” had “very slurred speech,” and mumbled. When Morrison conducted an inventory of appellant’s car, he found two prescription medication bottles, one containing Lisino-pril and the other Pyridoxine, which belonged to appellant. Morrison explained that he was “familiar” with Lisinopril, a heart medication, because he had a “nursing drug handbook,” which, he explained, stated that Lisinopril “causes drowsiness and ataxia,” “the inability to walk.”

Officer Morrison further testified that Lisinopril would not have caused appellant to exhibit the “indicators” that Morrison had observed when he administered the HGN test to appellant. After appellant objected to this evidence on the ground that it constituted “scientific testimony,” the trial court overruled the objection. Morrison then explained that even though Lisinopril “caused ataxia and drowsiness, it is not a [central nervous system] depressant to where it will cause overwhelming signs,” like those appellant exhibited at the scene. When asked whether he had observed any warning labels on the Lisino-pril prescription bottle,3 Morrison stated that the bottle contained a warning label stating, “Do not drive or operate heavy machinery.”

In regard to Pyridoxine, Officer Morrison explained that his drug handbook for nurses stated that it also caused ataxia. After referring to his notes in his arrest report, in which he had written that Pyri-doxine causes ataxia and malaise, Morrison described these conditions as being “real laid back” and “feeling kind of lethargic.” According to Morrison, the nursing hand[416]*416book also stated, in regard to both medications, that users should “avoid alcoholic beverages or any other depressant.” Morrison opined that Pyridoxine “is not a strong depressant” and would not have caused the HGN “clues” exhibited by appellant. Morrison also noted that the Py-ridoxine bottle also contained a label stating, “Warning, do not drive or operate heavy machinery while taking this medication.” Morrison opined that appellant was intoxicated by use of “drugs based on the lack of odor of any alcoholic beverage.”

Officer Morrison transported appellant to a police station, where appellant declined to provide a breath sample, which precluded Morrison from obtaining “additional information” on appellant’s drug use. He explained that an HPD drug-recognition expert could only have performed a twelve-step examination of appellant if he had provided a breath sample, which was necessary to rule out alcohol or quantify any “additive effect.” Morrison noted that when a defendant refuses a breath test, an officer “can’t continue with the drug evaluation after that.”

Officer Morrison testified that although he did not have a video camera in his patrol car, he did videotape appellant’s performance on the sobriety tests at the police station.

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Bluebook (online)
369 S.W.3d 412, 2012 WL 340234, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 905, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brodrick-dechone-delane-aka-broderick-shun-delane-aka-shaun-scott-v-state-texapp-2012.