Callahan v. State

814 S.W.2d 420, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1772, 1991 WL 130556
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 18, 1991
DocketC14-90-576-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 814 S.W.2d 420 (Callahan 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
Callahan v. State, 814 S.W.2d 420, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1772, 1991 WL 130556 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

SEARS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for the misdemeanor offense of driving while intoxicated. Appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge. A jury found appellant guilty as charged in the information and the trial court assessed punishment at confinement in the Harris County Jail for 30 days, probated for two years, and a $1,000 fine. In two points of error appellant contends the trial court erred by refusing to submit a requested jury instruction, and that the trial court abused its discretion in ruling on his motion to suppress after the State completed its case in chief and before appellant presented evidence. We affirm.

Deputy Donald R. Womack of the Harris County Sheriff’s Department testified that on December 9, 1989, he was called to the Cypresswood substation in Houston to administer an intoxilyzer test. When he arrived, he discovered that the intoxilyzer machine was not working properly because two intoxilyzer tests had been administered to appellant which had produced invalid results. A sergeant asked Deputy Wom-ack to take appellant to the Tomball substation to administer the intoxilyzer test. Deputy Womack testified that he did not recall the exact time he came into contact with appellant but estimated it to be between 00:15 a.m. and 1:00 a.m. He stated that he had been in the squad room at Cypresswood for approximately one minute when he was asked to take appellant to Tomball and that it only took him another minute to prepare to go to Tomball. He also testified that the distance between the Cypresswood and Tomball substations was approximately seven to ten miles and that it took approximately 15 minutes to get to Tomball from Cypresswood. He stated that when he put appellant into his patrol car, appellant was unsteady and his breath smelled of alcohol. Womack testified further that when they arrived at the Tomball substation, he took appellant into the intox-ilyzer room and observed appellant for 15 minutes prior to administering the test. He stated that appellant did not consume any fluids, regurgitate, hiccup, or burp during the observation period. He testified that he started the intoxilyzer test at 1:20 a.m. and had been with appellant approximately 30 minutes before he administered the test at Tomball.

*422 Appellant testified on his own behalf at trial. He testified that the intoxilyzer test was administered immediately after he was taken to the Tomball substation and that he was not observed for fifteen minutes prior to the administration of the test.

The record reflects that the State marked the results of the three intoxilyzer tests as exhibits. The two invalid tests conducted at the Cypresswood substation were administered at 00:52 a.m. and 00:55 a.m. The third test, administered at 1:20 a.m. at the Tomball substation, produced results of 0.163 and 0.150.

Before the court submitted the charge to the jury, appellant objected to the trial court’s failure to include the following instruction:

If the jury does not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the test was conducted in compliance with DPS regulations, then they are to consider those tests invalid and disregard them.

The court then submitted a general charge to the jury, allowing it to find appellant guilty if he did not have normal use of his mental and physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol into his body, or if he had an alcohol concentration of 0.10 or more.

The Texas Department of Public Safety [DPS] has established breath alcohol testing regulations which require in part:

(a) All breath alcohol testing techniques, methods, and programs to be used for evidentiary purposes must have the approval of and be certified by the scientific director.
* * * * * *
(c) All breath alcohol testing techniques, in order to be approved, shall meet, but not be limited to, the following:
(1) continuous observation of the subject for a minimum period of time as set by the scientific director prior to collection of the breath specimen, during which time the subject must not have ingested alcoholic beverages or other fluids, regurgitated, vomited, eaten, smoked, or introduced any substances into the mouth; ...

Tex. Dept, of Public Safety, 37 Tex.Admin.Code § 19.3 (West January 3, 1989) (Breath Alcohol Testing Regulations).

Officer Womack testified that the policy of the Texas DPS is to observe the subject for fifteen minutes. Other courts have held that the minimum period of continuous observation set by the scientific director is fifteen minutes. Gifford v. State, 793 S.W.2d 48, 49 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1990, pet. dism’d) (citing State v. Kost, 785 S.W.2d 936, 939 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1990, pet. ref’d); McGinty v. State, 740 S.W.2d 475, 476 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1987, pet. ref’d)); see also Ray v. State, 749 S.W.2d 939, 944 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1988, pet. ref d).

In his first point of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred in refusing to submit an instruction to the jury on the issue of whether the intoxilyzer test administered at the Tomball substation was conducted in compliance with the DPS regulations. Specifically, appellant argues that he raised a fact issue regarding whether he was observed for 15 minutes before the third intoxilyzer test was administered and, therefore, was entitled to a jury instruction on the issue.

As support for his allegation that the trial court erred in refusing the requested instruction, appellant cites the court of appeals’ opinion in Gifford v. State. In the Gifford case, the court stated that “[before the intoxilyzer results can be considered by the trier of fact, the State must prove that a defendant was continuously observed for a fifteen minute period immediately preceding the administration of the test_” 793 S.W.2d at 49. That court stated further that the question of the test’s validity arises only when the defendant raises a fact issue as to whether there has been compliance with DPS rules and procedures. Id. The Gifford court determined that the appellant had presented evidence which raised a fact issue on whether he was observed for fifteen minutes preceding the intoxilyzer test. Id. The court also held that the trial court should have submitted the instruction requested by appellant that the jury could not consider the *423 results of the intoxilyzer results unless it found beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant was continuously observed for fifteen minutes immediately preceding the administration of the test. Id. at 50.

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Bluebook (online)
814 S.W.2d 420, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1772, 1991 WL 130556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/callahan-v-state-texapp-1991.