Chung Kim v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 29, 2015
Docket05-14-00138-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Chung Kim v. State (Chung Kim 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
Chung Kim v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

AFFIRMED as Modified; Opinion Filed April 29, 2015.

Court of Appeals S In The

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-14-00138-CR

CHUNG KIM, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 291st Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. F13-52168-U

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Justices Myers, Evans, and O’Neill 1 Opinion by Justice Myers Appellant Chung Kim was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life

imprisonment without parole. In four issues, he argues (1) the evidence is insufficient to prove

he had the specific intent to kill Michelle Jackson; (2) section 12.31(a)(2) of the Texas Penal

Code violates the Eighth Amendment; (3) the trial court erred by including a definition of

reasonable doubt in the jury charge; and (4) the trial court lacked jurisdiction to hear the instant

case and render a judgment because the case was not transferred to its docket. We affirm.

BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Appellant was indicted for the capital murder of Michelle Jackson and Jamie Stafford.

The evidence at trial, which included testimony from witnesses and video from surveillance

1 The Honorable Michael J. O’Neill, Justice, Court of Appeals, Fifth District of Dallas, Retired, sitting by assignment. cameras, showed that the shootings occurred at around 8 a.m. on the morning of February 4,

2013, at the Sable Ridge condominiums in northeast Dallas, Texas. That morning, appellant and

Michelle Jackson, who resided in the unit above appellant’s with her boyfriend Stafford and their

infant daughter, were heard arguing. The evidence showed that appellant and Jackson had an

ongoing dispute concerning Jackson’s dog––appellant claimed that feces from Jackson’s dog

would wash down onto his patio and windows. Shortly after they were heard arguing, appellant

fired at Jackson with a semi-automatic handgun. He then went upstairs to Jackson’s unit and

shot her once through the neck, wounding her fatally, after which he entered the unit. More

gunshots were fired inside the condominium. Witnesses saw Stafford run out of the unit and

leap over the balcony to the ground. Appellant then went to the balcony and shot at Stafford

from above. After leaving the upstairs unit, appellant walked to his car in the nearby parking lot,

got in the car, drove forward a few feet, stopped, and got out. Appellant walked over to Stafford,

who was lying on the ground, still moving, and shot him in the forehead. 2 Appellant then got

back in his car and quickly drove away.

The first witness called by the State, Bobbie Barnes, testified that she was walking from

her residence at Sable Ridge to her car on the morning in question, about to drive to work, when

she heard two gunshots. She looked up to determine where the shots were coming from and saw,

less than fifty feet away, a body fall. She could see the bottom of someone’s feet, as though a

body had fallen backwards. Barnes knew someone had been shot. She recalled “vaguely”

hearing some yelling, screaming or arguing that morning, but it was 8 a.m. and she “wasn’t tuned

in to what was being said.”

Barnes ran to her car and got in. As she was sitting in her car, she saw a man jump from

2 According to the medical examiner, Stafford was shot seven times. There were three gunshot wounds to Stafford’s head, two to his neck, one to his back, and another to the lower left forearm.

–2– the second-floor balcony. A few seconds later, she saw another man emerge from that same

balcony. Barnes saw this second man shooting down at something on ground level. She recalled

that “he was very precise.” Barnes testified that she heard and saw four gunshots, but thought

she could have heard a total of five gunshots. After the shooting stopped, the shooter went back

into the apartment. Barnes got out of her car, intending to run back to her apartment. But when

she got a few steps from her car the shooter reappeared, so Barnes ducked down next to her car.

She heard another gunshot and saw the shooter get in a car and drive away.

Keno Green Jacobs also lived at the Sable Ridge condominiums. He testified that, at

around 8 a.m. on the morning in question, he heard gunshots and saw a man jump over the

second-floor balcony, after which another man went out on the balcony and shot at the man that

was on the ground a couple of times. The man on the balcony then “came around” and shot the

male victim “maybe two times,” as he was lying on the ground next to the bushes, after which

the shooter got in his car. Jacobs was not sure how many times the victim was shot, but he was

sure it was more than once. When the man on the ground moved, the shooter got out of his car,

walked over to him, and shot him in the forehead.

Aubrey Keith Morris was a maintenance man at the condominium complex. He testified

that at around 8 a.m. on February 4, 2013, he was in the parking lot of the complex picking up

trash when he heard “some commotion going on.” Morris heard a male voice yelling, and he

recognized that male voice as appellant’s. He looked up and saw, from a distance of about forty

or fifty yards, a woman wearing a nightgown standing on the balcony of her second-floor unit.

She did not appear to be holding anything in her hands. Morris testified that he saw appellant

fire two gunshots from the first floor of the complex to the second, after which the woman fell

backwards. Morris estimated that appellant was about sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen feet away

when he shot the woman. He also believed one of the shots struck the woman as she fell.

–3– Appellant then walked around the building, and Morris ran to the corner of the building and hid

there. By the time he saw appellant again, appellant was on the second floor. Appellant stepped

over the woman’s body and went inside the upstairs condominium, firing two more shots. The

police arrived shortly after that.

Detective Marshall McLemore, a crime scene investigator with the Dallas Police

Department, was dispatched to the crime scene along with another detective, Michael Gonzalez.

McLemore identified various photographs of the crime scene, including shell casings and bullet

fragments, which were admitted into evidence. One of the crime scene photographs showed the

female victim, Michelle Jackson, lying in the doorway of her upstairs condominium. Her feet

were sticking out through the railing. McLemore testified that, based on his investigation, it

appeared multiple gunshots were fired inside the condominium.

Detective Phil Gordon of the Dallas Police Department testified that he was on duty on

February 4, 2013, when he received a description of a black Lexus SUV that could possibly be

the suspect vehicle. The dispatch also gave the vehicle’s plate number. Gordon recalled the last

four digits of the license plate because they were 2000 and that “stuck in my mind.” He saw a

black SUV matching that description driving north on Kingsbury and then back onto Walling

Street, after which it pulled into a dry cleaner’s at a shopping center. Gordon saw appellant get

out of the car and walk into the cleaners. Gordon radioed the police dispatcher for further

information to see if they had a description of the suspect and was told the suspect’s name was

“Kim Chung.” By that point, appellant had driven off. Gordon drove around the building and

found the vehicle parked at a nearby Comerica, which was about three or four hundred yards

away.

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