Contreras v. State

915 S.W.2d 510, 1995 WL 782817
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 13, 1995
Docket08-94-00105-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 915 S.W.2d 510 (Contreras 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
Contreras v. State, 915 S.W.2d 510, 1995 WL 782817 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION

McCLURE, Justice.

Albert Hernandez Contreras appeals his conviction for the offense of capital murder. After the jury found Appellant guilty, the court assessed Appellant’s punishment at life imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division. We affirm.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

On the evening of September 29, 1982, at approximately 8 p.m., Gail Box, whose father owned the Western Package Liquor Store in Pecos, received a telephone call from a relative that the store’s silent alarm had been activated. The alarm was designed to activate upon the removal of a particular $20 bill from the cash drawer. Mrs. Box attempted [514]*514to call the store’s manager, sixty-six year old Louise Broadus, to determine if it had been a false alarm. When Mrs. Broadus did not answer the telephone, Mrs. Box and her husband became alarmed and immediately went to the store. Living only 100 yards from the store, it took them less than two minutes to get there. They found Mrs. Broadus lying in a large pool of blood in front of the cashier’s counter near the front door. Her glasses were lying on the opposite side of the cashier’s counter. A trail of blood droplets led from her body to the area behind the counter and near the open cash register, which was empty except for some coins, or possibly a few one dollar bills. The autopsy revealed that Mrs. Broadus died as a result of multiple cut and stab wounds inflicted by a knife. Mrs. Box was able to determine that the register should have contained approximately $789.

Police found a paper bag containing a six-pack of George Killian’s Red Beer, a brand sold by the Western Package store, on the sales counter immediately adjacent to the cash register. The bag was on the customer’s side of the counter. A pair of blue rubber gloves used by Mrs. Broadus when cleaning was found on the cashier’s side of the counter just a couple of feet from the cash register. Robert Barnett, a police investigator, lifted eighteen latent prints from the cashier’s side of the counter in a small area between the rubber gloves and the cash register.

On the morning following the murder, Appellant went into the Town and Country Food Store in Pecos, and spoke to the store manager, Laura Gonzales. Appellant put some items on the counter, offered to buy Gonzales a coke, and “flashed” a large bundle of currency. Gonzales found this unusual because Appellant customarily did not have any money and he typically asked her to buy him something. When Gonzales asked Appellant where he had gotten the money, he told her, “Last night I did a transa.” Gonzales told the jury that transa was a slang term for something illegal, like stealing. Appellant would not tell Gonzales where he had done the “transa,” but he bragged that it was one of the easiest ones he had ever done. Gonzales testified that she told a police officer about this conversation with Appellant, but that no one ever took a statement from her until 1986.

Broadus’ murder remained unsolved for the next several years. In 1985 or 1986, Jesse Dominguez, an investigator with the Pecos Police Department, re-opened the investigation. Dominguez initially could not find the original investigation file, but he found the latent fingerprints while looking through a different case file. He sent the latent prints to the FBI along with known prints of Appellant and other suspects in 1986. An FBI fingerprint specialist, Richard Leas, compared those eighteen latent fingerprints with the known prints he had received. Of those eighteen lifts, only eleven of them were “latent prints of value.”1 From those latent prints of value, Leas positively identified seven impressions as belonging to Appellant. Leas concluded that Appellant had been on the cashier’s side of the counter and had placed his hand on it at least five times. None of the prints of the other suspects matched any of the latent prints of value.

When Dominguez questioned Appellant about this offense in late 1986, Appellant admitted that he had been in Pecos on the date of the murder. He told Dominguez that he had bought “Red Gilliams beer” at the liquor store before, but he did not think he had bought any on the day of the murder. Appellant said that he had been with his girlfriend, Eva, and his brother that day. In 1990 or 1991, Laura Gonzales had another conversation with Appellant in which Appellant complained that they were trying to pin the Broadus murder on him again. Gonzales told Appellant, “I don’t know how you guys could do that, you know. All you had to do was just hit her and knock her down and take the money and go.” Appellant replied, “[w]hen you do something like that, you can’t leave no evidence — no witnesses-” In addition to the incriminating statements Appellant made to Gonzales, he also told a former investigator for the district attorney’s [515]*515office that he had killed Mrs. Broadus because she recognized him. After his indictment, Appellant made several statements to other inmates in which he admitted that he killed Mrs. Broadus, but he stated that the State could not prove it because his prints could have been left on the counter when buying cigarettes.

On April 12, 1993, more than ten years after the commission of this offense, a grand jury indicted Appellant for the capital murder of Louise Broadus. The State2 elected not to seek the death penalty. Upon the jury’s finding of guilt, the trial court automatically sentenced Appellant to life imprisonment. Tex.Code CRImPROcAnn. art. 37.0711, § 2 (Vernon Supp.1995).

THIRD-PARTY GUILT EVIDENCE

In two related points of error, Appellant complains that the trial court improperly restricted his ability to present a theory of defense. In Point of Error One, Appellant contends that the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to present testimony and evidence that a third party, namely, Leon Jones, committed this offense. In Point of Error No. Two, Appellant contends that the trial court improperly restricted his right to voir dire the jury on this same theory. We will address Appellant’s second point of error first.

Restriction of Voir Dire

Prior to trial, the court granted the State’s motion in limine and required that the defense approach the bench before discussing or offering any evidence that a person named Leon Jones had ever been a suspect in the instant case, or that he had been involved in, arrested, charged, or indicted for any offense, including murder.3 The Court initially limited this ruling to voir dire, and in that regard, ruled that neither the State nor the defense could go into specific facts regarding the case, including any evidence concerning Leon Jones. The court permitted the defense to ask during voir dire whether any of the venirepersons knew Leon Jones.

The standard of review in a case where the defendant claims he was improperly restricted on voir dire is whether the trial court abused its discretion. Nunfio v. State, 808 S.W.2d 482, 484 (Tex.Crim.App.1991); Godine v. State, 874 S.W.2d 197, 199 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1994, no pet.); DeLeon v. State, 867 S.W.2d 138, 140 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 1993, pet. ref'd). In determining whether the trial court abused its discretion, reviewing courts look to the propriety of the question which the defendant sought to ask. Nunfio, 808 S.W.2d at 484; DeLeon, 867 S.W.2d at 140.

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Contreras v. State
915 S.W.2d 510 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)

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915 S.W.2d 510, 1995 WL 782817, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/contreras-v-state-texapp-1995.