Brosky v. State

915 S.W.2d 120, 1996 WL 10267
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 29, 1996
Docket2-93-526-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 915 S.W.2d 120 (Brosky 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
Brosky v. State, 915 S.W.2d 120, 1996 WL 10267 (Tex. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinions

OPINION

BRIGHAM, Justice.

Christopher William Brosky challenges his conviction for engaging in organized criminal activity. See TexJPenal Code AnN. § 71.02 (Vernon 1994 & Supp.1996).1 After finding him guilty, a jury assessed punishment at confinement for forty years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and assessed a $5,000 fine. Brosky contests his conviction by bringing nineteen points of error, challenging: the trial court’s jurisdiction; its failure to quash the indictment; its jury instructions; the [124]*124constitutionality of the statute that he was prosecuted under; the admissibility of certain evidence introduced at trial; the corroboration of the accomplice witness testimony; and the trial court’s denial of challenges for cause. Additionally, Brosky raises double jeopardy claims. We overrule all points of error and affirm the conviction.

FACT SUMMARY

During June of 1991, Brosky, then sixteen years of age, and two of his friends, Josh Hendry and Trey Roberts, were active in white supremacist organizations and identified themselves as “skinheads,” members of a particular segment of the white supremacist movement. On the evening of June 6, 1991, Brosky, Hendry, and Roberts met and began driving around in Hendry’s 1965 Ford Mustang. Roberts brought with him a sawed-off shotgun, and Hendry placed it in the trunk of the car. The three had planned to go on a camping trip in Athens, Texas, but Hendry’s father refused to give permission for them to leave that evening because of the lateness of the hour. The three then bought some beer and drove to a neighborhood park where they drank and listened to skinhead music espousing racial hatred. Eventually, they ended up at Hendry’s mother’s home, where they brought the gun into the house and continued drinking and talking.

Early on the morning of June 7, 1991, the conversation returned to the skinhead movement, and the three expressed disappointment that “it [was] going down” because skinheads were less active locally. Hendry testified that Roberts then suggested the three engage in a drive-by shooting and that Brosky did not try to dissuade them. Although Roberts never stated that the intended victim of the drive-by shooting should be an African-American, Hendry understood that to be the plan. The three left the house through Hendry’s bedroom window. Hendiy asked Roberts whether he could trust Bro-sky. Hendry testified that Brosky was Roberts’s friend and that Hendry was looking for reassurance that Brosky wasn’t a “nare” and could be relied upon for such an endeavor. Roberts assured Hendry that Brosky could be trusted and brought his shotgun as the three departed. Sometime after 4 a.m., Hen-dry had Roberts and Brosky push his car out of the driveway so that Hendry’s mother would not hear them leave.

Hendry drove the car, and the shotgun was on the floorboard behind him. Roberts, wearing a camouflage cap, was in the front passenger seat. Brosky, wearing a white Notre Dame baseball cap, was seated in the back of the sports car. Hendry drove to a neighborhood where he and his mother had briefly lived and where he thought the racial composition was predominantly African-American.

Hendry said that while driving on Carter Street in Arlington, he spotted a heavy-set white man, later identified as Steve Sloan, leaning against a truck. Hendiy waved at Sloan as he drove by and turned right at the next stop sign. At that point, Roberts spotted an African-American man, later identified as Donald Thomas, and told Hendry and Brosky, “[T]here’s a n-.” Roberts asked if anyone else saw Thomas, and Brosky answered affirmatively. Roberts then instructed Hendry to turn around because he wanted to “shoot the n-” and Sloan, whom Roberts considered a “traitor” for associating with an African-American. Hendry told Roberts to make sure that he shot both men because he did not want either to trace his license plate number.

Hendry said that he turned the car around and that Roberts got the gun out of the back seat. Hendry said he did not see Brosky hand Roberts the gun. According to Hen-dry, Roberts instructed him to slow down and give him time to pump the gun and fire twice. As the car slowed down, Brosky shouted “Shoot!” as Roberts fired one shot.

Sloan and Thomas were friends who worked the “graveyard” shift together at Quality Beverage in Grand Prairie. They had left work shortly before the shooting and had driven to a co-worker’s home on Carter Street to socialize. Sloan saw an early-model Mustang pass by while he, Thomas, and the third co-worker were talking. All three men admired the car as it rolled by them. About ten minutes later, the Mustang reappeared, and Sloan saw a flash of fire and heard a shot ring out from the car. Sloan said he told a [125]*125fourth person who had come outside to call 911, and he got into his car to pursue the Mustang.

Hendry accelerated when Roberts indicated that he thought Thomas had been hit in the head. Brosky and Roberts told Hendry to slow down because he was driving “kind of crazy.” As they came to a stoplight, they noticed Sloan following them and shouting “You are mine.” Sloan confirmed that while chasing the Mustang, he shouted that their “a— are mine, mother .”

Sloan noted the Mustang’s license number — BFK 85T — and managed to write it on the palm of his hand. He also observed a person in the back seat of the car wearing a white baseball cap. Hendry was concerned that Sloan had seen his license plate number and therefore wanted to shoot Sloan, but Roberts told Hendry not to worry. Hendry suggested chasing Sloan and saw Brosky hand Roberts the gun as they turned, maneuvered the Mustang behind Sloan, and began their pursuit.

During the chase, Hendry realized they were heading back toward the scene of the shooting, so he broke off the pursuit and headed back to his mother’s house. Sloan said that after the Mustang broke off the chase, he drove back to the site of the shooting and found Thomas dead. Sloan gave the license plate number from the Mustang to the police officer who arrived at the scene as Sloan returned.

Hendry said that once they arrived at the house, he, Brosky, and Roberts climbed back into the Hendry residence through the bedroom window, and Hendry hid the shotgun under his waterbed. Later on June 7, 1991, Hendry drove Roberts and Brosky back to Roberts’s home in Carrollton, Texas and then went to Hendry’s father’s house.

Arlington Police Detective Jorge Rosas, who was assigned to investigate the slaying, learned that the license plate number noted by Sloan belonged to a Mustang registered to a person named Glenn Babbit. Rosas eventually discovered Babbitt had sold the car to Charles Hendry, Josh Hendry’s father. Rosas went to Charles Hendry’s home to question Josh Hendry, but discovered that he was not there. While at the Hendry residence, Rosas learned Roberts’s name and address and went to Roberts’s apartment to question him.

Rosas explained to Roberts that he was investigating the killing and asked who else had been with Roberts in the Mustang. Roberts told Rosas that Brosky had been with Roberts since the previous evening and that Brosky was presently sitting outside Roberts’s apartment near the pool. Rosas arrested Roberts and Brosky. Rosas took with him a white baseball cap that belonged to Brosky. Rosas later returned to the Hen-dry home and arrested Josh Hendry.

A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Bro-sky for engaging in organized criminal activity and conspiracy.

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Bluebook (online)
915 S.W.2d 120, 1996 WL 10267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brosky-v-state-texapp-1996.