Carrillo, Anselmo v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 17, 2003
Docket08-01-00471-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Carrillo, Anselmo v. State (Carrillo, Anselmo 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
Carrillo, Anselmo v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

Becker v. State
COURT OF APPEALS
EIGHTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS
EL PASO, TEXAS


)

ANSELMO CARRILLO,

)
No. 08-01-00471-CR
)

Appellant,

)
Appeal from
)

v.

)
41st District Court
)

THE STATE OF TEXAS,

)
of El Paso County, Texas
)

Appellee.

)
(TC# 20000D02873)

O P I N I O N


Anselmo Carrillo appeals his conviction for intoxication manslaughter. A jury found Appellant guilty and assessed his punishment at imprisonment for a term of twenty years. The trial court entered in the judgment an affirmative finding on the use of a deadly weapon. Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 42.12, § 3g(a)(2)(Vernon Supp. 2003). We affirm.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

Sharon Allen and her husband, Ronnie Allen, traveled from Hinton, Oklahoma with their thirteen-month-old daughter, Hanna, to visit Ronnie's mother who was in the hospital. While in El Paso on March 13, 2000, they were in an auto accident and Ronnie was killed. Sharon, who suffered a broken pelvis, fractured back, broken clavicle, and head injury, did not remember anything about the accident. Hanna also had a head injury, a broken clavicle, and broken legs.

On March 13, 2000 shortly before 9 p.m., Phillip Meili was in his pickup truck at the intersection of Redd Road and Doniphan waiting for the light to change so that he could turn onto Doniphan. After the light facing Doniphan turned red, the light facing Meili turned green and he began to enter the intersection. As he began to turn, Meili saw that a red pickup truck traveling north on Doniphan was not going to stop so he hit his brakes. Meili watched the red truck go through the red light and hit a minivan that had proceeded into the intersection from Redd. The driver of the red truck, identified by Meili as Appellant, did not slow down or make any effort to stop before colliding with the minivan but maintained a constant speed. The force of the collision caused the minivan to roll over and it landed on its side. Meili estimated that the red truck was traveling 45 miles per hour and the driver did not seem to be aware of the traffic light. The truck was at least 100 feet from the intersection when the traffic light facing Doniphan turned red.

Meili approached the minivan and saw a male driver, a female passenger dangling unconscious from her seat belt restraint, and a child in the back seat. Seeing that they were critically injured, Meili immediately telephoned 911 and asked them to send more than one ambulance. Meili then went to the gas station and asked for a fire extinguisher because the minivan's gas tank was leaking. By the time he returned, emergency services had begun arriving and had removed the child from the minivan. Meili saw Appellant staggering and leaning back against a vehicle. He appeared clueless about what was going on or what he had done.

Victor Ortiz was at the Doniphan and Redd Road intersection at the time of the accident. Ortiz had just left the Diamond Shamrock gas station and was the second car in the left-turn lane on Redd. His light was red. A pickup was in front of him in the turn lane and a minivan was next to it. Ortiz was looking to his left down Doniphan when he saw a vehicle approaching the intersection. When he looked back and saw that the light had turned green, he felt that the vehicle approaching the intersection was not going to stop since it had not slowed down at all. Ortiz made up his mind that he was not going to move even though his light had turned green. He saw the truck in front of him initially move forward a few feet as if it intended to enter the intersection but the driver stopped. The minivan, however, pulled into the intersection and the other vehicle struck it without making any effort to brake or avoid the collision. The minivan became airborne, traveled across Doniphan, and landed on its side. Ortiz pulled back into the parking lot of the Diamond Shamrock.

Stephen Dworak, a college student, and two of his friends were also at the Redd Road-Doniphan intersection at the time of the accident. They were returning to El Paso from the Gila National Forest and were stopped at the red light on Redd. Tired from a long day and annoyed by the length of the red light, Dworak was watching the lights on Doniphan. After observing the light on Doniphan change from green to yellow and then to red, Dworak turned his attention to the light facing him. It turned green approximately three seconds after the light on Doniphan had turned red. Dworak watched the minivan in front of him proceed very slowly into the intersection, and out of the corner of his eye, Dworak saw movement. He then saw a red truck approaching the intersection at what he believed was a high rate of speed. The truck did not brake or take any evasive action before hitting the driver's side of the minivan. The minivan rolled several times and came to rest on its side approximately 75 feet from the initial point of impact. Dworak ran to the Diamond Shamrock and telephoned 911. He went over to the red truck to see if they needed assistance but neither the male driver, whom he identified as Appellant, nor the female passenger, identified in the record as Mrs. Carrillo, appeared to have any serious injuries. Dworak then approached the minivan and saw that both passengers were unconscious and seriously injured. Dworak looked into the back of the vehicle and saw a child in the back seat strapped into a car seat and bleeding from a head wound. He notified other onlookers about the child and someone crawled into the vehicle through a window and removed her. The fire department arrived at about the time and the child was handed to a fireman. Dworak later returned his attention to Appellant. Appellant could not walk straight and he appeared unaware of his surroundings or what had happened. In Dworak's opinion, Appellant's behavior was consistent with intoxication but Dworak had not been close enough to Appellant to say whether or not he had been drinking.

Twenty-year-old Jeremy Tarpley was a passenger in the vehicle with Dworak and Jeremy Sackert. He did not see the impact of the accident but heard it and saw the minivan rolling and the truck spinning. After the vehicles came to a rest, he went to assist the people in the truck. He could not get the driver's door open but was able to open the passenger's door. Both Appellant, who was driving the truck, and the female passenger were moaning and dazed, but conscious. Because gasoline had spilled around the truck, Tarpley unbuckled their seat belts to help them get out. The female passenger kept pointing to the driver's door and stating "la puerta" so Tarpley assumed she wanted him to open the driver's door. With considerable effort, Tarpley was able to pull the door open and he assisted Appellant out of the vehicle. Appellant could not stand on his own so he leaned on Tarpley until the police arrived. Appellant repeatedly stated, "agua, agua, agua" and Tarpley believed he needed a drink of water. While still being supported by Tarpley, Appellant unzipped his pants and urinated on the side of the truck.

Maxwell Davis was traveling on Doniphan and saw the impact of the truck and minivan. Because he had medical training and EMS experience, Davis stopped and attempted to assist those injured in the accident. He first approached the occupants of the truck. He opened the passenger door to the truck and beer bottles fell out. He also smelled an odor of alcohol inside of the truck.

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