Brown v. State

866 S.W.2d 675, 1993 Tex. App. LEXIS 2970, 1993 WL 444149
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 4, 1993
Docket01-92-00973-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 866 S.W.2d 675 (Brown 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
Brown v. State, 866 S.W.2d 675, 1993 Tex. App. LEXIS 2970, 1993 WL 444149 (Tex. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION

DUGGAN, Justice.

Following a mistrial because the jury was unable to reach a verdict, the jury in a second trial found appellant, Tracy Brian Brown, guilty of delivery of cocaine in an amount less than 28 grams. After he pleaded “true” to two enhancement paragraphs, the trial court assessed punishment at 35-years confinement. Appellant asserts seven points of error on appeal. We affirm.

In points of error one, two, three, five, six, and seven, appellant argues that his trial attorney was ineffective by: (1) failing to secure the attendance of defense witness Barbara Williams; (2) failing to request a continuance based on the absence of Barbara Williams; (3) failing to offer a transcript of Barbara Williams’ testimony from appellant’s first trial; (4) abandoning appellant’s defensive evidence and conceding his guilt during his closing argument; and (5) failing to timely object to evidence of an extraneous offense. In point of error four, appellant argues that the trial court erred in refusing to declare a mistrial when a state witness volunteered evidence of an extraneous offense.

On November 8, 1990, Officer Donald De-Blanc, a Houston police officer, was working undercover conducting a narcotics investigation at the J. Thomas Lounge in Houston. Officer Floyd Winkler, DeBlanc’s case officer, dropped DeBlane off immediately south of the lounge, then parked in a lot across the street from the lounge.

DeBlane testified that after he arrived at the front of the lounge and “milled around,” appellant approached and asked him what he was doing. DeBlane said he was “looking for Charles, trying to get one of those good 20-dollar rocks.” Appellant responded, “No, you’re not looking for Charles. You mean Russell. He’s inside. And I can get you one of those rocks.”

*677 Appellant then escorted DeBlanc into the lounge and yelled to Russell Thomas, a co-defendant, that DeBlanc wanted to purchase a rock of cocaine. Thomas, and Barbara Williams, another co-defendant, approached appellant and DeBlanc. Williams asked De-Blanc if he was “the law” and if he had been there before. DeBlanc responded that he was not “the law”, that he had not been there before, and that he was “coming there for a girl, to score for a female.”

Williams then nodded affirmatively towards Thomas, and Thomas gave DeBlanc a small rock of cocaine in exchange for $20. As DeBlanc and appellant left the lounge, appellant asked for a “bump” 1 of the rock. DeBlanc refused, but instead offered appellant a couple of dollars. Appellant then offered to sell DeBlanc a crack pipe. DeBlanc agreed, and gave appellant three dollars in exchange for the pipe.

DeBlanc then walked away from the lounge and, over a body microphone, gave a description of the suspects to the arrest team. After the arrest, DeBlanc made a positive identification of appellant, Thomas, Williams, and Thomas Erving (Shorty). A subsequent analysis of the substance De-Blanc purchased confirmed that it was 240.1 milligrams of 86.9 percent pure cocaine.

Thomas’ testimony conflicted with that of the officers. He admitted to delivering a twenty-dollar rock to DeBlanc, but denied that appellant participated in the delivery. In addition, Thomas denied both that appellant had introduced DeBlanc to him, and that appellant was inside the lounge during the transaction. Thomas stated that he, Williams, and Shorty were arrested inside the lounge, and that he never saw appellant being arrested. Finally, although Thomas admitted that Shorty worked for him, he denied appellant did so.

Ineffective assistance of counsel

In Hernandez v. State, 726 S.W.2d 53, 56-57 (Tex.Crim.App.1986), the Court adopted the federal standard for reviewing claims of ineffective assistance of counsel set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2063, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Appellant must show that trial counsel’s performance was deficient, and that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense so as to deprive him of a fair trial, a trial with a reliable result. Id.

This standard had never been interpreted to mean that the accused is entitled to errorless or perfect counsel. Ex parte Welborn, 785 S.W.2d 391, 393 (Tex.Crim.App.1990); Chapman v. State, 859 S.W.2d 509, 516 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1993, no pet.). When reviewing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, judicial scrutiny of counsel’s performance must be highly deferential. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065; Welborn, 785 S.W.2d at 393. Whether the Strickland standard has been met is to be judged by “the totality of the representation.” Id. Isolated instances in the record reflecting errors of commission or omission do not cause counsel to become ineffective, nor can ineffective assistance of counsel be established by isolating or separating out one portion of trial counsel’s performance for examination. Id. Appellant must show omissions or other mistakes made by counsel that amount to professional errors of a magnitude sufficient to raise a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different but for the errors. Id.

The test is to be applied at the time of trial, not through hindsight. Stafford v. State, 813 S.W.2d 503, 506 (Tex.Crim.App.1991); Chapman, 859 S.W.2d at 516. A fair assessment of counsel’s performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective at the time. Stafford, 813 S.W.2d at 506; Chapman, 859 S.W.2d at 516.

Testimony of Barbara Williams

In his first three points of error, appellant argues that his trial attorney was ineffective by: (1) failing to secure the attendance of defense witness Barbara Williams, who testified at appellant’s first trial; (2) failing to request a continuance based on the absence *678 of Barbara Williams; and (3) failing to offer a transcript of Barbara Williams’ testimony from appellant’s first trial. In his seventh point of error, appellant argues that the totality of the representation undermined the reliability of the results. Because the Strickland standard requires us to view all ineffective assistance of counsel complaints based on a totality of representation, we consider point of error seven to be subsumed by appellant’s individual claims.

To support his argument, appellant refers us to a copy of a certified copy of the transcription of Williams’ testimony from the first trial.

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Bluebook (online)
866 S.W.2d 675, 1993 Tex. App. LEXIS 2970, 1993 WL 444149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-texapp-1993.