Castillo v. State

7 S.W.3d 253, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 8456, 1999 WL 1023710
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 12, 1999
Docket03-98-00416-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 7 S.W.3d 253 (Castillo 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
Castillo v. State, 7 S.W.3d 253, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 8456, 1999 WL 1023710 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

JOHN F. ONION, Jr., Justice (Retired).

Appellant Julian Antonio Castillo was charged by indictment with the felony offense of intentionally and knowingly causing serious bodily injury to a child. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.04(a)(1) (West 1994). The jury convicted appellant of the lesser included offense of reckless injury to a child and assessed his punishment at 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $10,-000.

ISSUES

Appellant advances three issues on appeal. First, appellant challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction. Second, appellant urges that the trial court egregiously erred by adding a theory of prosecution (“shaking”) that was not supported by the indictment when charging the jury on the lesser included offenses of reckless injury to a child and injury to a child by criminal negligent. Third, appellant argues that he was deprived of his constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel when counsel failed to object to the jury instructions.

THE ACCUSATION

Appellant was charged under section 22.04(a)(1) of the Penal Code, which provides in pertinent part:

(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence, by act or intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly by omission, causes to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual:
(1) serious bodily injury.

Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.04(a)(1) (West 1994). 1

The culpable mental states are statutorily defined. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 6.03 (West 1994). Moreover, culpable mental states are classified according to relative degrees, from highest to lowest as follows: (1) intentional; (2) knowing; (3) reckless; (4) criminal negligence. See Tex.Code Crim.Proc. Ann. § 6.02(d) (West 1994). “Reckless” or “recklessly” is a less *255 er culpable mental state than “intentionally” and “knowingly.” See Rocha v. State, 648 S.W.2d 298, 302, 304 (Tex.Crim.App.1982); Zuliani v. State, 903 S.W.2d 812, 816 n. 2 (Tex.App. — Austin 1995, pet. ref d). And “criminal negligence” is a lesser culpable mental state than “recklessly.” Rocha, 648 S.W.2d at 303; Ormsby v. State, 600 S.W.2d 782, 784 (Tex.Crim.App.1979).

The one-count indictment alleged in pertinent part that appellant:

[d]id then and there intentionally and knowingly cause serious bodily injury to Tristón Castillo, a child 14 years or younger by then and there striking the child with a deadly weapon, to wit: the defendant’s hands or by striking the child’s head against a deadly weapon, to wit: a wall or a floor.

The indictment charged a first degree felony when it alleged the culpable mental states of intentionally and knowingly. The State was not required to plead the precise way in which appellant caused serious bodily injury to the child. See Bohnet v. State, 938 S.W.2d 532, 535 (Tex.App. — Austin 1997, pet. ref'd). By including a more specific description, the State undertook the burden of proving the specific allegations to obtain a conviction. Id. With this background we turn to the facts developed at trial.

FACTS

At the June 1998 trial, 22-year-old Christine Lopez, mother of the child victim, testified that she lived in Luling with her parents; that she met appellant at an Austin club in June or July 1996; that, when they began dating, he told her he was divorced; that she became pregnant and gave birth to Tristón Castillo on February 4, 1997, in Austin’s Seton Hospital; that the baby boy was born prematurely and remained in the hospital for two-and-a-half months; and that upon, release, the child was on an apnea monitor for approximately seven months.

Lopez reported that in October 1997 appellant wanted her and their child to visit him. He came to Luling and took them to his small apartment in Killeen. Appellant was in the United States Army and stationed at Fort Hood. On the evening of October 8, 1997, Lopez put Tristón down. She and appellant watched television. About 2:30 a.m. on October 9, 1997, Lopez took a shower before retiring. While showering, she heard Tristón cry out loudly. When she came out, she found appellant and Tristón on the living room couch. When she inquired what happened, appellant simply responded that Tristón had awakened. Tristón appeared to her to be in a daze. His eyes were open but he “wasn’t looking at anything.” Later, Triston’s mouth looked like it was “seizing” and he went limp. Appellant placed a bottle in Triston’s mouth and went to bed. He said that he did not know what was wrong with the child. Appellant declined to take the child to a hospital.

Later that morning, appellant reported for military duty. When he came home for lunch, Lopez demanded that they take Tristón to a hospital. They drove to King’s Daughters Hospital. There, upon Lopez’s insistence, appellant told her that Tristón stopped breathing the night before and that he (appellant) shook him (Tristón) “a little bit.” Tristón was later transferred to the Scott and White Hospital. There Lopez told Detective Scott Dickson that appellant had told her that the baby turned blue so he shook the baby. This was after the doctors told them that Tristón had shaken baby syndrome and wanted a reason for what happened. Lopez stated that at the time of the incident she saw no blood, knots, or other marks on Tristón, and did not hear any “slams” or loud noise in the small apartment indicating anything hitting the floor or the wall.

Detective Scott Dickson of the Killeen Police Department testified that appellant gave three separate statements. The first one, given on October 12, 1997, stated that while Lopez was showering, appellant tried *256 to move Tristón off of the bed, that Tristón became stiff and his mouth turned blue, that appellant shook the child two or three times to start his breathing, that the child went limp, let out a funny noise, that appellant pinched the child’s nose and blew into the child’s mouth. The child began crying and soon appeared normal in his movements.

On October 30, 1997, appellant gave a second statement in which he stated that Tristón could have hit his head on the headboard of the bed when Tristón was being shaken, but appellant did not remember that happening or hearing the child hit anything.

On November 4, 1997, appellant gave a third statement in which he admitted that while he was shaking Tristón, the child slipped out of his hands, hit the headboard and fell to the floor limp.

The State’s last witness was Dr. Deborah Douty, associated with Scott and While Hospital for 17 years and board certified by the Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Douty saw Tristón at 6:00 p.m. on October 9, 1997, upon his arrival at Scott and White.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Albert Mitchell, Jr. v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Joshua Dornell Mayes v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
State v. Charles Dent
Supreme Court of South Carolina, 2025
Aldaberto Vasquez v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Francisco Lesa III v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Ryan Jefferson Mead v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Blair Beck McCall v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Uddin v. State
503 S.W.3d 710 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016)
State v. Charles
372 P.3d 1109 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2016)
Samuel James Gray v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Trevino, Ismael
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Ismael Trevino v. State
470 S.W.3d 660 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015)
Derick Dewayne Evans v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014
Bradley Kelton Crenshaw v. State
424 S.W.3d 753 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Bailey v. State
709 S.E.2d 671 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 2011)
Patricia Foster Skelton v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010
Kimberly Kay Benton v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010
Trejo v. State
313 S.W.3d 870 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Roberto Yarit Trejo v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 S.W.3d 253, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 8456, 1999 WL 1023710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castillo-v-state-texapp-1999.