Castellanos v. State

533 S.W.3d 414
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 27, 2016
DocketNUMBER 13-14-00524-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 533 S.W.3d 414 (Castellanos 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
Castellanos v. State, 533 S.W.3d 414 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

ROGELIO VALDEZ, Chief Justice

A jury found Katharine Castellanos a/k/a Katherine Castellanos a/k/a Kathari-na Castellanos • a/k/a Kathy- Catellanos guilty of driving while intoxicated (DWI). After the jury returned its general verdict, the trial court found that the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) in Castellanos’s body was above a 0.15 and convicted her of a class A misdemeanor. See Tex.. Penal Code Ann. § 49.04(d) (West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.) (providing that a DWI is a-class B misdemeanor unless the defendant’s BAC level registers at or above a 0.15, in [416]*416which case the offense elevates to a class A misdemeanor). Castellanos was sentenced to one year of probation.

By three issues, Castellanos contends that: (1) the trial court erred in denying her motion to suppress a blood draw taken at a hospital after her arrest; (2) trial counsel was ineffective by affirmatively waiving the error made the basis of her first issue at trial; and (3) the trial court erred in convicting her of a class A misdemeanor DWI when the issue regarding her BAC level was never submitted to the jury. We affirm, as modified, in part and reverse and remand in part.

I. Background

A police officer stopped Castellanos’s vehicle after she nearly collided with the officer’s vehicle while exiting a parking lot. According to the police officer, Castellanos showed signs of intoxication during the stop. Believing Castellanos to be intoxicated beyond the legal limit, the officer arrested her for DWI. Thereafter, the officer brought Castellanos to a nearby hospital to have her blood drawn. A test of Castella-nos’s blood revealed that it contained a concentration of 0.19 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. The State charged Castellanos with DWI.

Castellanos filed a motion to suppress the blood draw. Castellanos argued, among other things, that the area of the hospital where the blood draw took place was unsanitary. After a hearing on the matter, the trial court denied Castellanos’s motion to suppress, and the case proceeded to trial.

At trial, the jury heard the officer’s testimony regarding Castellanos’s level of intoxication. The jury also heard evidence that Castellanos’s BAC was a 0.19 according to the blood draw taken at the hospital. At the conclusion of the evidence, the jury found Castellanos guilty of DWI.

Castellanos elected to be sentenced by the trial court rather than the jury. During the punishment phase, the trial court made a finding that Castellanos’s BAC was above a 0.15 and convicted her of a class A misdemeanor. This appeal followed.

II. Motion To Suppress

By her first issue, Castellanos contends that the trial court erred in denying her motion to suppress the blood draw because it was taken in violation of section 724.017(a-l) of the Texas Transportation Code. Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.017(a-1) (West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.). Specifically, Castellanos contends that the State failed to prove that the area of the hospital where the blood draw took place was sanitary.

A. Standard of Review and Applicable Law

We review a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress under a bifurcated standard. See State v. Ross, 32 S.W.3d 853, 856 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000) (en banc). We afford almost total deference to a trial court’s determination of the historical facts that the record supports, particularly when the trial court’s findings are based upon an evaluation of credibility and demeanor. Id. We also afford almost total deference to the trial court’s ruling on mixed questions of law and fact if the resolution of those questions turns on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor. Id. However, we review de novo the trial court’s application of law to facts. Id.

A defendant who moves to suppress evidence obtained in violation of the transportation code carries the initial burden to produce evidence of such violation. See State v. Robinson, 334 S.W.3d 776, 779 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011). “Only when this burden is met does the State bear a bur[417]*417den to prove compliance” with the statute. Id. Transportation code section 724.017(a-1) provides, in relevant part, that a blood draw in a drunk driving case “must be taken in a sanitary place.” Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.017(a-l).

B. Analysis

Here, an assisting officer testified at the suppression hearing that the area of the hospital where the blood draw took place was not open to the general public and was “sanitary.” The only evidence provided by Castellanos to refute this assertion was her own testimony that the chair on which she sat during the blood draw did not appear to be “clean” and that she did not see any “cleaning utensil[s]” or “cleaning person” around the area. However, the trial court could have reasonably inferred from the nature of the hospital itself, as well as the environment and manner in which Castellanos’s blood was drawn, that the hospital was a sanitary place. See Krause v. State, 405 S.W.3d 82, 89 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (holding that office located inside a hospital was a sanitary place for a blood draw); State v. Johnston, 336 S.W.3d 649, 662 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (noting that “a medical environment may be [an] ideal” place for drawing blood); Adams v. State, 808 S.W.2d 250 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1991, no pet.) (same); see also Paz v. State, No. 08-03-00207-CR, 2005 WL 147722, at *2 (Tex. App.—El Paso Jan. 20, 2005, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication) (finding that a hospital is a sanitary place); Mata v. State, No. 05-98-00014-CR, 1999 WL 333385, at *2 (Tex. App.—Dallas May 27, 1999, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication) (same). We conclude that the trial court properly denied Castella-nos’s motion to suppress. We overrule Cas-tellanos’s first issue.

Castellanos’s second issue challenges the ineffectiveness of her trial counsel in waiving the alleged error made the basis of her first issue. Because Castellanos’s first issue is without merit, we overrule her second issue as moot.

III. BAC of 0.15 of more — Element or Enhancement?

By her third issue, Castellanos contends that the trial court erred by convicting her of a class A misdemeanor based on a finding that her BAC level was at or above a 0.15 when the jury charge did not instruct the jury to make a finding regarding her BAC level. Castellanos asserts that the jury’s verdict only authorized the trial court to convict her of a class B misdemeanor because the jury made no finding regarding her BAC level under penal code section 49.04(d). See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 49.04

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Bluebook (online)
533 S.W.3d 414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castellanos-v-state-texapp-2016.