Byrd v. State

319 S.W.3d 102, 2010 WL 1610764
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 15, 2010
Docket04-08-00226-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 319 S.W.3d 102 (Byrd 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
Byrd v. State, 319 S.W.3d 102, 2010 WL 1610764 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

Opinion on ReheaRing En Banc

Opinion by

STEVEN C. HILBIG, Justice.

In an order dated March 4, 2009, a majority of this court granted Appellant Lavonne Byrd’s motion for rehearing en banc. The panel opinion and judgment dated January 14, 2009, are withdrawn, and this opinion and judgment are substituted. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Background

By way of an information, the State charged that Byrd “with intent to deprive the owner, Mike Morales, of property, namely: THREE (3) PAIRS OF PANTS, and ONE (1) DVD, did unlawfully, without the effective consent of the owner, appropriate said property....” The information was based on an alleged shoplifting incident at a Wal-Mart in San Antonio. The parties agree the State did not present any evidence proving Mike Morales was the owner of the property or his relationship to Wal-Mart. Rather, the State presented evidence that Wal-Mart was the owner.1 In accordance with the information, the jury was charged it could find Byrd guilty if the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt the property was appropriated without the effective consent of Mike Morales. Byrd argues the State was required to prove the person named as owner in the charging instrument was the actual owner of the. property and because it did not so prove, the evidence is legally insufficient to support the conviction.

Standard of Review

Byrd raises legal sufficiency challenges under both the federal and state constitutions. We review a federal due process challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence by determining whether a rational trier of fact could have found the “substantive elements of the offense as defined by state law” beyond a reasonable doubt. Fuller v. State, 73 S.W.3d 250, 252 (Tex.Crim.App.2002) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 324 n. 16, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 [105]*105(1979)); see also Prible v. State, 175 S.W.3d 724, 729-30 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 546 U.S. 962, 126 S.Ct. 481, 163 L.Ed.2d 367 (2005) (stating sufficiency of evidence review requires viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt). However, when the legal sufficiency of the evidence is challenged under state law, we measure the evidentiary sufficiency against “the elements of the offense as defined by the hypothetically correct jury charge for the case.” Fuller, 73 S.W.3d at 252 (quoting Malik v. State, 953 S.W.2d 234, 240 (Tex.Crim.App.1997)); see Gollihar v. State, 46 S.W.3d 243 (Tex.Crim.App.2001).

Federal Due Process — Substantive Elements of the Offense

Section 31.03 of the Texas Penal Code provides in relevant part:

§ 31.03 Theft
(a) A person commits an offense if he unlawfully appropriates property with intent to deprive the owner of property.
(b) Appropriation is unlawful if:
(1) it is without the owner’s effective consent [.]

Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 31.03(a), (b) (Vernon Supp. 2009). The essential elements of theft are (1) a person (2) with intent to deprive the owner of property (3) unlawfully appropriates the property. Ex parte Luna, 784 S.W.2d 369, 371 (Tex.Crim.App.1990). Although the State must prove there is an owner from whom the property was unlawfully appropriated, the owner’s name is not a “substantive element” of the theft statute. See id.; see also Fuller, 73 S.W.3d at 253. The issue in Fuller was whether the State’s failure to prove the name of the 'victim as it appeared in the indictment for the offense of injury to an elderly individual2 rendered the evidence legally insufficient. The victim was identified as Olen M. Fuller in the indictment. At trial, the victim was referred to as either “Mr. Fuller” or “Buddy.” After reviewing the statutory definition of the offense, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals concluded the name of the elderly individual was not a substantive element of the offense:

State law does not define the victim’s name as a substantive element of the offense by, for example, defining the offense as “injury to an elderly individual named Olen M. Fuller.”
The prosecution’s failure to prove the victim’s name exactly as alleged in the indictment does not, therefore, make the evidence insufficient to support appellant’s conviction under Jackson v. Virginia. The evidence that appellant injured the elderly victim by hitting him in the face with his fist satisfies the Jackson v. Virginia standard because it constitutes proof of every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged of “injury to an elderly individual.”

Id. In similar fashion, the theft statute does not define the offense of theft to be the unlawful appropriation of property with intent to deprive the owner Mike Morales of the property. Because the [106]*106property owner’s name is not a substantive element of the offense of theft, the State’s failure to prove the name alleged in the information does not render the evidence legally insufficient under Jackson v. Virginia.

State Due Process — Elements of a Hypothetically Correct Charge

Under the state law sufficiency standard, Byrd’s claim of legal insufficiency is viewed as a variance issue — the evidence is different or varies from the allegations in the charging instrument. See Fuller, 78 S.W.3d at 253; Gollihar v. State, 46 S.W.3d 243, 246-47 (Tex.Crim.App.2001). “A ‘variance’ occurs when there is a discrepancy between the allegations of the charging instrument and the proof at trial. In a variance situation, the State has proven the defendant guilty of a crime, but has proven its commission in a manner that varies from the allegations in the charging instrument.” Gollihar, 46 S.W.3d at 246.

In determining whether the trial evidence is legally sufficient under state law, we measure the evidence against the “elements of the offense as defined by the hypothetically correct jury charge for the case.” Fuller, 73 S.W.3d at 252. “Allegations giving rise to immaterial variances may be disregarded in the hypothetically correct charge, but allegations giving rise to material variances must be included.” Gollihar, 46 S.W.3d at 257; see Fuller, 73 S.W.3d at 253. Only a material variance requires reversal because only a material variance prejudices a defendant’s substantial rights. Fuller, 73 S.W.3d at 253.

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Related

Byrd v. State
336 S.W.3d 242 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Byrd, Lavonne
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011
Byrd v. State
319 S.W.3d 102 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)

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319 S.W.3d 102, 2010 WL 1610764, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/byrd-v-state-texapp-2010.