Butler v. State

300 S.W.3d 474, 2009 WL 3763742
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 8, 2009
Docket06-08-00194-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 300 S.W.3d 474 (Butler 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
Butler v. State, 300 S.W.3d 474, 2009 WL 3763742 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice MOSELEY.

Gerald DeWayne Butler, having been convicted by a jury of two counts of aggravated robbery, was assessed a penalty by that same jury of life imprisonment and a fine of $10,000.00 on each count. The trial court sentenced Butler in accord with the jury’s recommendation (the sentences to run concurrently). We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

I. Robbery at Carlito’s and Investigation

As Carlos Rodriguez, the owner of Carli-to’s Restaurant, was finishing up his closing duties sometime after 11:00 p.m. on November 21, 2007, trouble arose. Employee Juan Jimenez had just exited the restaurant’s rear door, only to return almost immediately, calling to Rodriguez, “I think we’re going to get in trouble.” Two people in ski masks and gloves entered the open back door immediately after Jimenez. One carried a pistol, which Rodriguez described as having a long barrel and looking old. The armed bandit fired twice; one shot struck Jimenez in the midsection, and the other was fired into the ceiling. Jimenez fell to the ground and feigned death. The robber with the gun then ordered Rodriguez to open the safe. Rodriguez said he was not familiar with firearms and could not say what the caliber of the weapon was. Rodriguez complied and opened the safe. He was immediately shoved aside and the robbers took about $8,500.00 and a .357 magnum pistol from the safe. In addition to the contents of the safe, the robbers also took Rodriguez’s briefcase, which contained his checkbook and credit cards, including Rodriguez’s Exxon credit card, and left.

About three weeks after the robbery, on December 12, 2007, Officer Mark Watson saw an automobile which matched the description of one seen earlier that day at a robbery at a local convenience store. Watson followed the car and when he saw the automobile turn without first signaling, he initiated a traffic stop. Butler was driving the car and he had a passenger, Tarneshia Wheat. Butler could produce neither a driver’s license nor proof of insurance. Butler was arrested for operating a vehicle without a driver’s license. Because the passenger, Wheat, likewise could produce no driver’s license, Watson would not release the vehicle to her, so the automobile was impounded. As a part of the im-poundment procedure, the contents of the automobile were inventoried; during the inventory, Rodriguez’s pistol (which had been taken from the safe during the robbery at Carlito’s Restaurant) was discovered in the trunk of the automobile. 1

After Butler’s arrest and on the same day as the traffic arrest, although the reason which led officers to do so seem somewhat obscured, police had the occasion to go to 104-C Pinebrook Place in Longview. ATF agent Ken Keener said they went to that address “to follow up on some interviews.” Present at that address were Butler’s brother, Melvin, his cousin, Dexter *477 Sparkman, and Wheat, who was the passenger in Butler’s car when it was stopped for the traffic violation. Sparkman consented to a search of the duplex. Later, when Butler took the stand, he testified that he lived at 102-C Pinebrook, not at 104-C. However, there was testimony that 102-C and 104-C were the two sides of a duplex. Also, Butler acknowledged he sometimes stayed the night at 104-C. At 104-C, Dexter Sparkman gave the officers consent to search the duplex. In the duplex were found a hooded sweatshirt matching that worn by one of the Carlito’s robbers, Rodriguez’s Exxon credit card, and a .22 pistol matching the description given by Rodriguez of the pistol carried by the robbers during the robbery of Carli-to’s.

Within a few hours after Butler had been taken to jail after the traffic stop, Butler was interviewed at the jail by FBI Special Agent Cliff Carruth and Longview Police Detective Darin Lair. Although that interview was not presented as evidence to the jury, it will become relevant in our discussion of Butler’s sixth point of error. The search of 104-C Pinebrook had consumed quite a long time and it was after midnight when officers returned to the jail. About 2:00 a.m., Agent Carruth and Detective Terry Davis conducted another interview of Butler. There was some indication that Butler had been asleep, but had nonetheless agreed to talk with the officers. Butler was advised of his rights and another interview was conducted, this time being preserved by a digital audio recorder which Davis had brought. 2 In this audio recording, Butler admitted robbing Carli-to’s with his brother, Melvin. Although Butler admitted that he had held the pistol which shot Jimenez, he maintained that the shooting was completely accidental.

II. Sufficiency of Evidence

Butler’s first and third points of error challenge the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions, respectively. His second point claims the evidence was legally insufficient “under federal law”; we will review this claim in our analysis of the legal sufficiency under “state law” as Butler uses those terms.

In reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Johnson v. State, 23 S.W.3d 1, 7 (Tex.Crim.App.2000).

In a factual sufficiency review, we review all the evidence, but do so in a neutral light and determine whether the evidence supporting the verdict is so weak or is so outweighed by the great weight and preponderance of the evidence that the jury’s verdict is clearly wrong or manifestly unjust. Lancon v. State, 253 S.W.3d 699, 705 (Tex.Crim.App.2008); Roberts v. State, 220 S.W.3d 521, 524 (Tex.Crim.App.2007).

In this analysis, we use a hypothetically-correct jury charge to evaluate both the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence. Grotti v. State, 273 S.W.3d 273 (Tex.Crim.App.2008). Such a charge accurately sets out the law, is authorized by the indictment, does not unnecessarily increase the State’s burden of proof or unnecessarily restrict the State’s theories of liability, and adequately describes the particular offense for which the defendant was tried. Villarreal v. State, 286 S.W.3d 321 (Tex.Crim.App.2009); Malik v. State, 953 S.W.2d 234, 240 (Tex.Crim.App.1997).

*478 The State’s indictment charged Butler with two counts of having committed aggravated robbery. In the first count, it was alleged that he had caused injury to Jimenez while committing theft, while using or exhibiting a deadly weapon; the second count alleged that Butler had threatened Rodriguez or put him in fear of imminent bodily injury, in the course of committing theft, while exhibiting or using a deadly weapon. See Tex. PeNal Code Ann.

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Bluebook (online)
300 S.W.3d 474, 2009 WL 3763742, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/butler-v-state-texapp-2009.