Craig DeAllen Davison v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 2, 2020
Docket06-19-00092-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Craig DeAllen Davison v. State (Craig DeAllen Davison 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
Craig DeAllen Davison v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-19-00092-CR

CRAIG DEALLEN DAVISON, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 188th District Court Gregg County, Texas Trial Court No. 45,860-A

Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ. Opinion by Justice Burgess OPINION The main participants in this sordid tale of kidnapping and murder are Craig DeAllen

Davison, Dustin Bennett, Patricia Baker (a/k/a Crickett), Dakeilen Nelson, and Kevin Stephenson.

Nelson and Stephenson are the victims. Bennett confessed to kidnapping and murdering Nelson

and Stephenson, and Baker pled guilty to assisting Bennett in kidnapping them. The present case

involves the State’s aggravated kidnapping charges against Davison.

The State’s theory at trial was that Davison, “acting with intent to promote or assist the

commission of the offense[s], . . . solicit[ed], encourage[ed], direct[ed], aid[ed] or attempt[ed] to

aid” Bennett and Baker in kidnapping Nelson and Stephenson and was therefore guilty of

aggravated kidnapping under the law of parties. TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 7.02(a)(2). At trial,

Davison did not contest that Bennett kidnapped and murdered Nelson and Stephenson or that

Baker assisted Bennett in kidnapping them; rather, he simply denied that he was involved in those

offenses. A Gregg County jury disagreed and found Davison guilty of two counts of aggravated

kidnapping, 1 and the trial court assessed him a punishment of fifty-four years’ imprisonment after

finding the State’s enhancement allegations to be true.

On appeal, Davison challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting his

convictions under the law of parties, contends that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting

evidence of certain extraneous wrongful acts, and contends that the trial court reversibly erred by

failing to instruct the jury regarding the law of parties in the application portion of its jury charge.

Because we find (1) that legally sufficient evidence supports Davison’s conviction, (2) that

1 See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 20.04(b). 2 Davison was not egregiously harmed by the trial court’s jury-charge error, and (3) that

(a) Davison’s complaints regarding the admission of extraneous wrongful acts evidence were

forfeited in some instances and, (b) as for the preserved complaints, the trial court did not abuse

its discretion in admitting the evidence, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

I. Legally Sufficient Evidence Supports Davison’s Convictions

A. Standard of Review

In his first and second issues, Davison challenges the sufficiency of the evidence

supporting his convictions on two counts of aggravated kidnapping. “In evaluating legal

sufficiency, we review all the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s judgment to

determine whether any rational jury could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond

a reasonable doubt.” Williamson v. State, 589 S.W.3d 292, 297 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2019, pet.

ref’d) (citing Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 912 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010) (plurality op.); Jackson

v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979); Hartsfield v. State, 305 S.W.3d 859, 863 (Tex. App.—

Texarkana 2010, pet. ref’d)). “Our rigorous legal sufficiency review focuses on the quality of the

evidence presented.” Id. (citing Brooks, 323 S.W.3d at 917–18 (Cochran, J., concurring)). “We

examine legal sufficiency under the direction of the Brooks opinion, while giving deference to the

responsibility of the jury ‘to fairly resolve conflicts in testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to

draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts.’” Id. (quoting Hooper v. State, 214

S.W.3d 9, 13 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007) (citing Jackson, 443 U.S. at 318–19; Clayton v. State, 235

S.W.3d 772, 778 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007)). In drawing reasonable inferences, the trier of fact “may

use common sense and apply common knowledge, observation, and experience gained in the

3 ordinary affairs of life.” Duren v. State, 87 S.W.3d 719, 724 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2002, pet.

struck) (citing Manrique v. State, 994 S.W.2d 640, 649 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999) (Meyers, J.,

concurring)). As the trier of fact, the jury is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and

the weight to be given their testimony and may “believe all of a witnesses’ testimony, portions of

it, or none of it.” Thomas v. State, 444 S.W.3d 4, 10 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014). We give “almost

complete deference to a jury’s decision when that decision is based on an evaluation of credibility.”

Lancon v. State, 253 S.W.3d 699, 705 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008).

In our review, we consider “events occurring before, during and after the commission of

the offense and may rely on actions of the defendant which show an understanding and common

design to do the prohibited act.” Hooper v. State, 214 S.W.3d 9, 13 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007)

(quoting Cordova v. State, 698 S.W.2d 107, 111 (Tex. Crim. App. 1985)). It is not required that

each fact “point directly and independently to the guilt of the appellant, as long as the cumulative

force of all the incriminating circumstances is sufficient to support the conviction.” Id. Since

circumstantial evidence and direct evidence are equally probative in establishing the guilt of a

defendant, guilt can be established by circumstantial evidence alone. Ramsey v. State, 473 S.W.3d

805, 809 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015); Hooper, 214 S.W.3d at 13 (citing Guevara v. State, 152 S.W.3d

45, 49 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004)). Further, we consider all the evidence admitted at trial, whether it

was properly admitted or not. See Moff v. State, 131 S.W.3d 485, 489–90 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004).

“Legal sufficiency of the evidence is measured by the elements of the offense as defined

by a hypothetically correct jury charge.” Williamson, 589 S.W.3d at 298 (quoting Malik v. State,

953 S.W.2d 234, 240 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997)). “The ‘hypothetically correct’ jury charge is ‘one

4 that accurately sets out the law, is authorized by the indictment, does not unnecessarily increase

the State’s burden of proof or unnecessarily restrict the State’s theories of liability, and adequately

describes the particular offense for which the defendant was tried.’” Id. (quoting Malik, 953

S.W.2d at 240).

Under the statute and the indictment, to obtain the convictions for aggravated kidnapping,

the State was required to show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that on or about March 22, 2016,

(1) Davison (2) intentionally or knowingly (3) abducted Nelson and Stephenson (4) by restricting

the movements of Nelson and Stephenson without their consent so as to interfere substantially

with their liberty by moving them from one place to another, with the intent to prevent their

liberation, (5) by secreting or holding them in a place where they were not likely to be found, and

(6) that Davison did then and there use or exhibit a deadly weapon, to-wit, a firearm, during the

commission of the offense. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 20.01(1)–(2) (Supp.), § 20.04(b). “A

person is criminally responsible as a party to an offense if the offense is committed by his own

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