Costin v. State

550 S.W.3d 217
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 13, 2018
DocketNO. 14-16-00470-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 550 S.W.3d 217 (Costin 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
Costin v. State, 550 S.W.3d 217 (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

John Donovan, Justice

For the reasons stated below, I concur with the majority's opinion issued March 13, 2018, affirming the trial court's judgment.

This court issued an order on March 8, 2018, for a supplemental clerk's record containing appellant's written motion to suppress to be filed in this court. On April 6, 2018, a supplemental clerk's record was filed containing a sworn affidavit that the motion was not part of the case file. The affidavit further states "The defendant did file a motion to suppress on cause #140750401010, #140750301010, #140750201010, and #140704501010, which were dismissed on 05/26/2017." The record before this court contains an exchange that reflects both trial counsel and the State filed a motion so that "all the motions [got] transferred to all seven cases." Trial counsel answered, "Yes" when asked if all his motions were filed under the old cause numbers. The trial court stated, "And there is a motion to suppress in here..... They just didn't have these cause numbers on them." Thus it appears that a motion to suppress was filed in the original cause numbers but after the State dismissed and refiled under new cause numbers, the motion was not included in the case file. Following our receipt of the supplemental clerk's record, neither party has attempted to correct the record before this court. Accordingly, I turn to the merits of the appeal based upon the current record.

Appellant's sole point of error is as follows:

The issue presented in this case is whether the trial court erred in admitting images obtained from an SD card without a search warrant. Costin repeatedly and strenuously objected to the admission of evidence obtained from the Lack home, obtained running objections with each witness. Nevertheless, the trial court admitted State's Exhibit 50, despite the fact that police failed to obtain a warrant to search for the images included on the exhibit. This was reversible error.

The State argues that appellant's issue does not comport with his objections at trial. See Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a). We cannot ascertain whether appellant's issue on appeal comports with his motion to suppress but such is not required to preserve error on appeal of an evidentiary issue so long as "there is an actual trial objection that comports with the appellate argument." Gibson v. State , 541 S.W.3d 164, 166 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017).

The record reflects that prior to opening arguments the trial court carried the motion to suppress with the trial. During trial, appellant timely made repeated objections and obtained numerous running objections to evidence of the images obtained from the SD card and to the admission of the images themselves. See Ethington v. State , 819 S.W.2d 854 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991) (regarding preservation of error in the admission of evidence). Thus the problem is not a failure to object but the basis for the objections. See Moff v. State, 131 S.W.3d 485, 489 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004) (stating that when a defendant claims on appeal that the trial court erred in admitting evidence, he must have made a proper and specific objection at the time the evidence was offered to preserve his right of review of that evidentiary claim). At trial, the stated basis for objecting to the search was a lack of probable cause to support the search warrant. Other stated grounds for objecting to admission of the images were relevancy and Rule 403. See Tex. R. Evid. 403. Thus this case lacks "an actual trial objection that comports with the appellate argument." Gibson , 541 S.W.3d at 166.

*219However, appellant also referenced his pretrial motions and the trial court repeatedly stated that he understood the objections. To avoid forfeiting a complaint on appeal, the defendant must "let the trial judge know what he wants, why he thinks himself entitled to it, and to do so clearly enough for the judge to understand him at a time when the trial court is in a proper position to do something about it." Lankston v. State, 827 S.W.2d 907, 909 (Tex. Crim. App. 1992). It is the defendant's responsibility to clearly convey to the trial judge the particular complaint, "including the precise and proper application of the law as well as the underlying rationale." Pena v. State, 285 S.W.3d 459, 463-64 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009). Failure to do so forfeits the complaint. Lankston , 827 S.W.2d at 909. But a defendant "need not state his objection with specificity in order to preserve error so long as the record otherwise makes it clear that both the trial court and the opposing party understood the legal basis." Thomas v. State , 408 S.W.3d 877, 884 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) ; see also Clark v. State, 365 S.W.3d 333, 339 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012) ; Resendez v. State, 306 S.W.3d 308, 313 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009) ; and Zillender v. State, 557 S.W.2d 515, 517 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977). In this case, the State expressed no lack of understanding to any of appellant's repeated objections and the trial court voiced an understanding as to why appellant was objecting. Thus the objections were adequately specific. See Thomas , 408 S.W.3d at 884.

What is lacking in this case are any statements on the record that indicate the argument understood by the trial court is, in fact, the argument raised on appeal. See generally Clark v. State ,

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Related

Foreman v. State
561 S.W.3d 218 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2017)

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Bluebook (online)
550 S.W.3d 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/costin-v-state-texapp-2018.