Castelan v. State

54 S.W.3d 469, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 5481, 2001 WL 909289
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 9, 2001
Docket13-99-716-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 54 S.W.3d 469 (Castelan 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
Castelan v. State, 54 S.W.3d 469, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 5481, 2001 WL 909289 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice YÁÑEZ.

Appellant, Alberto Gonzalez Castelan, appeals a conviction of aggravated sexual assault of a child. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

BACKGROUND

Appellant lived in a house he shared with his wife and her son, the victim of the *473 assault now being appealed. On September 6, 1998, appellants’ wife witnessed the victim 2 throw a glass of water at appellant. Appellant then grabbed the victim and proceeded to repeatedly and aggressively spank him. Judging the force of the spankings as excessive, appellant’s wife separated the two. The victim told his mother that because appellant would grab the victim’s buttocks, he did not want to be in the house with appellant and wished to go to the house of his maternal grandmother. Appellant’s wife confronted appellant about the child’s accusations, which he denied. Appellant’s wife and the victim subsequently drove to her mother’s house, where she left the victim. Upon her return home, appellant’s wife was verbally harassed by appellant, who was apparently intoxicated, referring to the victim in a lewd and sexually explicit manner.

The following day, appellant continued to verbally harass his wife before she left for work. When she arrived at work, appellant’s wife called her son and told him not to go anywhere with appellant. Furthermore, she disclosed to her mother, the victim’s grandmother, what the victim had told her the previous night and instructed her mother to seek help. After speaking with her daughter, the victim’s grandmother discussed the allegations with the victim. The victim told the grandmother that appellant would “put his thing in through the back.” However, the grandmother noticed that the victim was noticeably nervous and did not further question him. After hearing the statements of both appellant’s wife and the victim, the grandmother called the McAllen Police Department, who informed her that based on what appellant’s wife and the victim told her, they lacked jurisdiction over the case, and she would have to contact the Pharr Police Department. Later that night, appellant’s wife returned home from work by herself, once again leaving the victim with her mother. Appellant’s wife asked appellant about his relationship with the victim. Appellant responded by comparing his wife’s sexual performance with that of her son. Appellant also offered his wife money in order for her to bring her son back, threatening to harm both her and her son if she left him and allowed someone else to “have” the victim.

On September 8, 1998, the grandmother accompanied the victim to school and met with the school counselor, Yolanda Heart-field. 3 The grandmother relayed to Heart-field what she was told by both appellant’s wife and the victim, and then left the victim with Heartfield so as to allow the victim to feel free to express himself. Heartfield assured the victim that his statements would be confidential, and that no harm would come to him for speaking to her. Shortly thereafter, the victim spoke in detail regarding various instances of sexual and physical abuse. After her session with the victim, Heartfield told the grandmother, without disclosing the details of her conversation with the victim, that she was going to contact Child Protective Services (“CPS”) and explain what had happened to the victim. A case worker from CPS later contacted the Pharr Police Department to notify them of the allegations of abuse which occurred in their jurisdiction.

On September 9, 1998, the victim, appellant’s wife, the CPS worker, Heartfield, and some members of the Pharr Police Department met in Heartfield’s office. *474 Appellant’s wife, Heartfield, and the victim were separately interviewed, first by the CPS worker, and later by the police officers. At the conclusion of the interviews, the police officers informed appellant’s wife that in order for appellant to be arrested, she would need to go to the police station and give an official statement. Upon arriving at the police station, appellant’s wife and the victim were taken into separate rooms and interviewed. Investigator Aurora Salinas interviewed the victim in her office, typing his statement as he spoke to her. After appellant’s wife finished giving her statement, she witnessed the victim sign his statement. Shortly thereafter, Investigator Gilbert Guerrero prepared an arrest warrant, using as a template, a previous arrest warrant saved on a computer, inserting the current date and name of appellant. However, Guerrero failed to delete the name of the individual for whom the previous arrest warrant was originally obtained. Thus, the warrant accused one individual of aggravated sexual assault, but authorized the arrest of another individual, the appellant. The warrant and attached complaint were taken to a Pharr municipal judge by Salinas, who witnessed the judge look over documents and sign the arrest warrant.

Before appellant was arrested, appellant’s wife gave Salinas the key to her house and written consent to search it. At the time of his arrest, appellant did not appear to be intoxicated or under the influence of any substance, and was arrested without incident. Appellant was taken to the Pharr Police Station, where he was booked and placed in a cell. The following morning, Salinas removed appellant from his cell and took him to an office down the hall for questioning. In the office, with Guerrero observing, Salinas advised appellant of his rights 4 in Spanish. 5 Appellant was given a copy of his rights in Spanish, initialing each right after it was read to him by Salinas, indicating that he understood each right. Initially, when being questioned by Salinas, appellant denied the charges of abuse. However, after a period of time, Guerrero began to speak with appellant in a conversational manner, and appellant began discussing issues related to this case. As appellant spoke in Spanish, Salinas began typing his statement, translating it into English as she typed. 6 In his statement, appellant admitted to sexually abusing the victim on one occasion.

Upon the completion of the statement, two records clerks, Aida Bustamonte and Olivia Garcia, were called into the office to witness appellant sign his statement. Bus-tamonte read appellant his rights in Spanish, with appellant once again initialing *475 each right after she read it to him. Busta-monte translated the statement back to Spanish, after which appellant stated that he understood what was contained in the statement and signed it.

On June 30, 1999, following a jury trial, appellant was convicted on the charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, and was sentenced to a term of twenty-five years imprisonment in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

ISSUES PRESENTED

On appeal, appellant presents two issues by way of seven points of error. In points of error one through three, appellant argues that the trial court erred in permitting Yolanda Heartfield to testify as the outcry witness.

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Bluebook (online)
54 S.W.3d 469, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 5481, 2001 WL 909289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castelan-v-state-texapp-2001.