Chaney v. State

314 S.W.3d 561, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 4099, 2010 WL 2136534
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 27, 2010
Docket07-08-0476-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 314 S.W.3d 561 (Chaney 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
Chaney v. State, 314 S.W.3d 561, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 4099, 2010 WL 2136534 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

OPINION

PATRICK A. PIRTLE, Justice.

The contention that an injury can amount to a crime only when inflicted by intention is no provincial or transient notion. It is as universal and persistent in mature systems of law as belief in freedom of the human will and a consequent ability and duty of the normal individual to choose between good and evil.
Justice Robert H. Jackson, United States Supreme Court1

Appellant, Phillip Doyle Chaney, was convicted by a jury of murder -with an affirmative finding on use of a deadly weapon, to-wit: a firearm. Punishment was assessed at twenty-three years confinement. By his original brief, Appellant presented four points of error alleging error by the trial court (1) during jury selection by making remarks to the panel reasonably calculated to benefit the State or prejudice him by denying him his rights under article 35.15 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure; (2) by overruling his objection to testimony by State’s witness, Ranger Jay Foster, regarding his intent to kill, thereby affecting his substantial rights; (3) in letting the jury’s verdict of murder stand and violating his rights in so doing because the evidence of his intentional or knowing commission of murder is legally insufficient and (4) factually insufficient.

Following submission of this appeal, this Court directed the parties to brief unassigned error regarding the possibility of charge error in the definition of “intentional” as it relates to the result oriented offense of murder.2 As a result [564]*564of this Court’s directive, Appellant raised two additional points of error, to-wit: (5) the trial court committed fundamental error that egregiously harmed him by erroneously defining the culpable mental states of “intentional” and “knowing” in the abstract portion of the guilt-innocence charge; and (6) the trial court violated his due process rights by allowing inadmissible testimony and argument focusing on the intentional or knowing nature of his conduct as opposed to the result of his conduct.

As to the first four points, the State contends the trial court did not err in its remarks, Appellant did not preserve an objection as to Ranger Foster’s testimony, and the evidence was both legally and factually sufficient. As to the last two points, while the State candidly concedes that the trial court erred by including the full statutory definition of “knowingly” found in section 6.03(b) of the Texas Penal Code in the abstract portion of the charge,3 it contends that Appellant did not suffer egregious harm because the application paragraph of the court’s charge correctly instructed the jury on the appropriate mens rea. The State further contends that Appellant’s allegations of cumulative errors were unobjected to and thus not preserved for review. Finally, the State contends Appellant’s due process rights were not violated.

For the reasons to follow, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand this matter for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Factual Background

In February 2005, when Appellant was eighteen years old, he began working as a correctional officer for the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice at the T.L. Roach Unit in Chil-dress, Texas. Appellant lived in Paducah with his younger brother, Bo, and their mother. Two years later, on the afternoon of March 5, 2007, fifteen year old Lukas Taylor, the victim, and Christopher Dominguez, Jr. skipped baseball practice, bought two marihuana joints, and drove to the Chaney home to spend time with their friend Bo. Another friend, Presciliano Perez, arrived later.

While Appellant was playing a video game, Lukas, who was sitting in a nearby rocker recliner, opened Appellant’s gun case, removed a .44 magnum handgun, unloaded it, spun the cylinder, and admired it. Appellant repeatedly asked him to reload the firearm and put it up. Eventually Lukas reloaded the firearm, but before he was able to put it up,4 Appellant approached him, they struggled, and the firearm discharged, shooting Lukas in the chest.

According to the eyewitnesses, Appellant was not angry and he and Lukas did not argue or fight. Christopher testified that when Appellant was asking Lukas to put the gun up, they were “joking around, mouthing off.” During direct examination, Christopher was asked whether Appellant or Lukas were “mad,” to which he answered “[n]o.”

Appellant’s brother, Bo, testified that when the struggle for the gun began, the [565]*565barrel of the gun was pointed toward a wall then speculated that the gun got turned around during the struggle. None of the eyewitnesses saw whose finger was on the trigger and forensics was unable to establish that fact.

After the shooting, Bo called 911 and began CPR on Lukas, while Appellant went outside. The 911 call was made at 6:34 p.m. Law enforcement and emergency personnel responded. Lukas was transported by ambulance to a hospital in Chil-dress, where he later died.

At approximately 7:01 p.m., Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Keith Bowles contacted Texas Ranger Jay Foster about the incident. Foster instructed Bowles to secure the scene and the witnesses. Foster then contacted the Padu-cah Chief of Police and advised him to inform Appellant that he was not under arrest. Appellant was taken to the police department where he voluntarily gave a statement.5 At that time he was unaware that Lukas had died.

After Ranger Foster processed the scene, he went to the police department and met with Appellant. Foster then began a month-long investigation which included attending the autopsy, interviewing witnesses, emergency medical responders, and emergency room personnel. Eventually, he obtained an arrest warrant for Appellant for the offense of manslaughter.

Upon further investigation and interviews with Appellant’s supervisor at the Roach Unit and Sergeant Shannon Betts, the firearms instructor for correctional officers, Ranger Foster became convinced that Appellant’s conduct constituted murder rather than manslaughter. Based upon Appellant’s firearms training and experience, and based upon Ranger Foster’s understanding of the law as it pertained to the culpable mental states of knowingly and recklessly, he concluded that Appellant should be held to the higher standard of knowingly because he was not an “ordinary person.” Accordingly, he presented the case to the grand jury as a murder, and they returned the instant indictment.

After a lengthy and difficult voir dire, Appellant was tried and convicted of murder. The jury assessed his sentence at twenty-three years confinement and this appeal followed.

Of Appellant’s six points of error, we will address two. Because Appellant’s third point, legal sufficiency, would provide him the greatest relief, i.e., an acquittal, we will address that contention first.6 Finding the evidence legally sufficient, we will next address his fifth point, charge error. Because disposition of that point [566]*566addresses every issue necessary to a final disposition of the appeal,7 we pretermit Appellant’s remaining points of error.

I. Legal Sufficiency

A. Standard of Review

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

Related

Robert Stephen Jamerson v. the State of Texas
Tex. App. Ct., 7th Dist. (Amarillo), 2026
Raymon Flores Lopez v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Yocelin Perez Jaimes v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Tara Hughes v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Jeffrey Michael Wineberg v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Eddie Estep v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2022
Tyler Clay v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Christopher Wilkins v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Licela Soto-Hernandez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Marian Fraser v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
Rodolfo Alvarez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
Jekaris Lee Bryant v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
Rosendo Hernandez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Fraser v. State
523 S.W.3d 320 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2017)
Lawrence E. White v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2017
Mixon, Kristopher Donald
Texas Supreme Court, 2015
Mixon, Kristopher Donald
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Vincent Eugene Valencia v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Kristopher Donald Mixon v. State
481 S.W.3d 318 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015)
Jeffery Noblett v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
314 S.W.3d 561, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 4099, 2010 WL 2136534, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chaney-v-state-texapp-2010.