Cosino v. State

503 S.W.3d 592, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11431, 2016 WL 6134461
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 19, 2016
DocketNo. 10-14-00221-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 503 S.W.3d 592 (Cosino 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
Cosino v. State, 503 S.W.3d 592, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11431, 2016 WL 6134461 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

REX D. DAVIS, Justice

To correct clerical errors on page 2 (correcting “.035” to “.35”) and page 12 (adding “2013” to the citation of Missouri v. McNeely), the Court’s opinion i dated August 3, 2016 is withdrawn, and this opinion is substituted therefor. See Tex. R. App. P. 19.3(a) (“After its plenary power expires, the court cannot vacate or modify its judgment. But the court may: (a) correct a clerical error in its judgment or opinion;”).

Appellant Noe Cosino was charged with felony driving while intoxicated following a two-vehicle accident at the southernmost tip of Brazos County. Cosino and the driver of the other ■ vehicle were taken to a College Station hospital for medical treatment. While Cosino was at the hospital, the investigating state trooper asked a nurse to conduct a mandatory blood draw under the authority of section 724.012 of the Transportation Code, which permits a peace officer to take a' blood specimen upon refusal of the driver, where as a direct result of the accident, an individual other than the driver has suffered bodily injury and has been transported to a hospital for medical treatment. The blood draw occurred two and one-half hours after the crash. Cosino’s blood-alcohol level was .35, over four times the legal limit.

After the trial court denied Cosino’s motion to suppress the results of the blood draw on Fourth Amendment grounds, Co-sino pled guilty before the jury to' driving while intoxicated. The jury assessed punishment at five and one-half years in prison.

On appeal, Cosino raises four issues. His first issue is whether thé trial court correctly overruled Cosino’s motion to suppress the blood-draw test results when the State did not have a warrant but exigent circumstances’ allegedly justified the blood draw.

We review a trial judge’s ruling on a motion to suppress under a bifurcated standard of review. First, we afford al[595]*595most total deference to a trial judge’s determination of historical facts. The judge is the sole trier- of fact and judge of witnesses’ credibility and the weight to be given their testimony. When findings of fact are not entered, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the judge’s ruling and assume the judge made implicit findings of fact that support the ruling as [long as] the record supports those findings. Second, we review a judge’s application of the law to the facts de novo. We will sustain the judge’s ruling if the record reasonably supports that ruling and is correct on any theory of law applicable to the case.

Cole v. State, 490 S.W.3d 918, 922-23 (Tex. Crim. App. 2016) (footnoted citations omitted).

DPS Trooper Jason Dominguez testified that on November 12, 2010, he was the sole trooper on duty in Grimes County. As the sole state trooper on duty, Dominguez’s responsibilities included all crashes that happen inside of Grimes County, but outside of a city limit. The night of November 12, 2010 was a rainy night, which increases the number of accidents that DPS has to work. During the evening, Dominguez heard radio traffic about a reckless and possibly intoxicated driver in the area around the city of Navasota. The dispatch indicated that the reckless driver was on Highway 105 near the Grimes/Brazos County line. At the time of the dispatch, Dominguez was on the other side of the county, so Dominguez turned around and went to the location described in the dispatch.

As Dominguez was driving on Highway 105, he noticed an unusual line of cars near the Grimes County line.. After pulling around the cars, Dominguez saw that there was a vehicle crash just on the other side of the Grimes County line, inside Brazos County. Dominguez was the only law-enforcement officer in the area at the time of the crash.' • ■ :

When Dominguez got to the crash site, it was obvious to him that two vehicles had crashed head-on in the middle of the highway. Both vehicles had substantial damage. Cosino, the driver of the truck, was still inside his vehicle, .covered in blood, and was being treated by EMS, It was clear that Cosino was injured. Also injured at the scene was the driver of the other car. That driver was feeling the effects from the deployment of his air bag, as well as complaining of leg pain;

As a result of the crash, -the two-lane Highway 105 was completely blocked and traffic could not pass, including EMS first-responders who were attempting to get to the scene. Dominguez stated that, in this ■situation, ■ it was extremely important to try and clear the highway because this crash occurred on an unlit two-lane highway and right after a curve, which limited visibility of the crash. In addition to the location of the crash being a problem, it was raining. These problems combined to create a situation where there was a risk of further crashes until the highway was cleared.

Dominguez observed • that Cosino was intoxicated; his speech was slurred, he could not recall his birth date, and there were several beer containers- around his vehicle. Normally,, once Dominguez observes that a person is intoxicated, he would begin a DWI investigation, but because the roadway was closed and Cosino was injured and still inside his vehicle, Dominguez focused on getting everyone secured, safe, and off the roadway. .

Because the crash was in Brazos County, the trooper in Brazos County became responsible for the crash. That evening, there was only one state trooper on duty in Brazos County, Trooper Ryan Kindell. Dominguez notified Kindell of the crash, [596]*596and Kindell arrived at the scene approximately forty-five minutes later. Dominguez estimated that the crash happened approximately fifteen minutes before he called Kindell.

While awaiting Kindell’s arrival, Dominguez talked with witnesses at the scene and took several photographs because the rain could potentially destroy the evidence at the scene before Kindell’s arrival. Dominguez also requested some wreckers from Grimes County to come to the scene to clear the highway. While Dominguez was coordinating efforts to clear the road, EMS and firefighter personnel eventually extracted Cosino and the other driver from their vehicles and transported them to a hospital in College Station. When Cosino was finally extracted from his vehicle and transported to the hospital, Kindell had not arrived.

The only other on-duty law-enforcement officer who had arrived on scene at the time Cosino was removed from the vehicle was Trooper Reeves, who had arrived from nearby Washington County. Reeves was the only state trooper on duty in Washington County at the time of the crash. No other Brazos County law-enforcement officers were there to help at the scene of the crash, but Dominguez agreed that he could have called the sheriffs department for help if they had someone available. A plain-clothed off-duty Na-vasota police officer who drove up on the wreck stopped to help, as did an off-duty plain-clothed Montgomery County Constable.- Besides Dominguez, the off-duty officers and Reeves were the only other officers at the scene at the time Cosino was pulled from the vehicle. As a result, Dominguez did not have an opportunity to conduct a DWI investigation on Cosino at the scene.

When Kindell arrived, Dominguez briefed him on what had occurred. Kindell assisted Dominguez and Reeves in clearing the road and attempting to get the highway back open.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
503 S.W.3d 592, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11431, 2016 WL 6134461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cosino-v-state-texapp-2016.