Brown v. State

296 S.W.3d 371, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 7694, 2009 WL 3030363
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 23, 2009·No. 09-08-00242-CR·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinions

OPINION

CHARLES KREGER, Justice.

Lonnie Brown was indicted for the murder of Justin Slider. The cause was tried to a jury, which was instructed on the lesser-included offenses of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide upon the State’s request and over Brown’s objections. Brown’s defense was that he shot Slider as an act of self-defense. The jury, however, found Brown guilty of the lesser-included offense of manslaughter. Following the punishment hearing, the jury assessed Brown’s sentence at confinement for four years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions [373]*373Division, along with a fíne in the amount of $10,000. Brown’s direct appeal to this Court raises four issues:

1. The trial court erred when it granted the State’s request to submit a charge on the lesser-included offenses of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
2. The evidence is legally insufficient to support the verdict of guilty for the offense of manslaughter.
3. The evidence is factually insufficient to support the verdict of guilty for the offense of manslaughter.
4. The trial court abused its discretion when it allowed the State to use Brown’s grand jury testimony that was not produced to the defense in violation of the court’s pretrial discovery order.

We will first address the complaints concerning evidentiary sufficiency.

LEGAL AND FACTUAL SUFFICIENCY

Initially, we note that Brown’s portrayal of the appellate standard for reviewing the record for legally sufficient evidence-equating it to determining the “quantum of evidence the trial court would need for the submission of the lesser-included offense” — is not correct. The Court of Criminal Appeals has held the test for giving an instruction on a lesser-included offense “is quite different” from the test for legal sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction. Hampton v. State, 165 S.W.3d 691, 693 (Tex.Crim.App.2005). The Court described each standard thusly:

In deciding whether evidence is legally sufficient, the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. The test used to determine whether a jury-charge instruction on a lesser-included offense can be given has two prongs: (1) the lesser-included offense must be included within the proof necessary to establish the offense charged; and (2) some evidence must exist in the record that would permit a rational jury to find the appellant guilty of the lesser offense, but not guilty of the greater offense. This two-prong test applies regardless of whether the instruction is requested by the State or by the defendant.

Id. at 693-94 (footnotes and internal quotation marks omitted).

As the record in Hampton demonstrated, the evidence was legally sufficient to support the conviction for the lesser-included offense of sexual assault but did not justify the submission of the lesser-included offense instruction because the evidence did not show that the defendant was guilty only of the lesser-included offense. See id. We therefore disregard Brown’s argument and authorities under his second (legal sufficiency) and third (factual sufficiency) issues to the extent those issues adopt the argument and authorities used to support his first issue complaining of the lesser-included offense instruction.

As mentioned above, in reviewing a record for legally sufficient evidence, “the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Young v. State, 283 S.W.3d 854, 861 (Tex.Crim.App.2009). This standard incorporates the factfinder’s duty “to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts.” Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781. This translates into [374]*374the reviewing court’s determining whether the necessary inferences are reasonable based upon the combined and cumulative force of all the evidence, both direct and circumstantial, when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. Young, 283 S.W.3d at 861-62 (citing Clayton v. State, 235 S.W.3d 772, 778 (Tex.Crim.App.2007)). In assessing all the evidence under the Jackson standard of review, the reviewing court must consider all evidence, rightly or wrongly admitted, that the trier of fact was permitted to consider. See Conner v. State, 67 S.W.3d 192, 197 (Tex.Crim.App.2001). In a jury trial, the jury, as trier of fact, is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given the testimony and may accept or reject all or any part of a witness’s testimony. See Lancon v. State, 253 S.W.3d 699, 707 (Tex.Crim.App.2008); Moore v. State, 935 S.W.2d 124, 126 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). Reconciling conflicts in the evidence is within the exclusive province of the jury. Moore, 935 S.W.2d at 126.

In the instant case, Brown’s evidentiary complaint hinges on the proof of his culpable mental state. The gist of his position can be found in the following argument taken from his brief:

[Brown’s] testimony throughout the trial was that his actions of firing the weapon at Slider were intentional to prevent [Slider’s] continued unlawful attack. Even the witnesses called by the State testified consistently that [Brown’s] actions were intentional and knowing. Additionally, there was testimony that Brown had owned numerous firearms in his lifetime, had taken a gun safety course, had a permit to carry a concealed firearm and was a licensed firearms dealer and collector.... He also had to have known his gun was working properly because immediately before he had to protect himself from Slider, his gun had incapacitated Slider’s pet pit bull.

Brown’s complaint is that his manslaughter conviction is unsupported by any evidence indicating his actions in firing his handgun, which resulted in the death of Justin Slider, were done recklessly. Brown posits that all the proof at trial points to the shooting of Slider being an intentional, not a reckless, act.

Under the facts of the instant case, the elements of manslaughter differ from murder only as to the requisite culpable mental state. Compare Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 19.04(a) (Vernon 2003) with Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 19.02(b)(1) (Vernon 2003). Manslaughter requires proof the accused acted recklessly. Id. § 19.04(a). “A person acts recklessly, or is reckless, with respect to ... the result [1] of his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the ... result will occur.” Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 6.03(c) (Vernon 2003). Recklessness has been described as involving “conscious risk creation.” See Williams v. State,

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Brown v. State, 296 S.W.3d 371, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 7694, 2009 WL 3030363 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

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Brown v. State
296 S.W.3d 371 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009)