Cruz v. State

877 S.W.2d 863, 1994 WL 247473
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 17, 1994
Docket09-92-257 CR
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 877 S.W.2d 863 (Cruz 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
Cruz v. State, 877 S.W.2d 863, 1994 WL 247473 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for the felony offense of Murder. Following its “guilty” verdict, the jury assessed appellant’s punishment at life in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Appellant raises five points of error on appeal, viz:

Point of Error 1: The trial court erred by impairing the presumption of innocence during jury voir dire. [865]*865Point of Error 2: It was error for the State’s attorney and the Court to inject injurious and prejudicial matters before the jury panel during voir dire examination.
Point of Error 3: The trial court erred in allowing prejudicial jury argument by the prosecution in commenting upon the Court’s reason for allowing evidence.
Point of Error 4: The trial court erred in allowing prejudicial, manifestly improper and harmful jury argument by the prosecution.
Point of Error 5: The evidence was insufficient to sustain the jury’s verdict of guilty.

We begin with point of error five and a rendition of the evidence before the jury in the light most favorable to the verdict. See Madden v. State, 799 S.W.2d 683, 686 (Tex.Crim.App.1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 954, 111 S.Ct. 1432, 113 L.Ed.2d 483 (1991). In the early morning hours of February 17, 1992, the victim, Wilfred “Butch” Thibodeaux, was found dead in his apartment. The victim was found naked on the floor next to his bed. He had been stabbed in the neck and had bled to death. The victim’s face also appeared to have been carved upon in a manner described as “torture” by one of the police witnesses. Numerous “defensive” wounds were also present on the victim’s hands and arms. Blood was present on the bedclothing and mattress of the victim’s bed. An examination of the mirrored headboard of the bed turned up five latent fingerprints. Said fingerprints were not “bloody” and ranged in age from a few hours old to several months old. The fingerprints were identified as the right thumb-print of appellant.

The police also located a brown jacket with bloodstains on the collar and both sleeves. The jacket was found on a pile of trash at a residence directly behind the victim’s apartment. Testimony from a police witness stated that an alleyway ran directly from the victim’s apartment to the spot where the jacket was located. Inside the pocket of the jacket was an “aerosol inhalant” that was of the same type as that found in the victim’s apartment. State’s witness Terrance lies testified that appellant was a long-time friend of his. lies further testified that on the day after the murder was discovered, he chanced to encounter appellant at a local pizza parlor, lies stated that appellant related that the police were trying to “put a murder” on appellant. lies had read in the newspaper that a bloody jacket was found by the police and asked appellant if the jacket belonged to him. Appellant replied that it did.

The State also galled Mary Elizabeth “Liz” Cruz to the witness stand. Liz Cruz is the sister of appellant. She testified that after numerous denials of involvement in the murder of Butch Thibodeaux, appellant told Liz, in the presence of appellant’s girlfriend, Terry Pearson,1 that he (appellant) was there when the murder happened, and that the victim’s lolling was related to the fact that the victim had the AIDS virus.

Perhaps the most damaging testimony from appellant’s standpoint came from another long-time family friend, Deborah Kay Harrington. Ms. Harrington stated that, in a telephone conversation she had with appellant, he admitted to having killed Butch Thi-bodeaux by stabbing him. Appellant also related to Ms. Harrington that he killed the victim because appellant “had been smoking rocks and found out that Butch was supposed to be HIV positive.” Ms. Harrington also testified that appellant mentioned that he got blood on his jacket and had therefore gotten rid of the jacket. Ms. Harrington further testified that appellant was known to carry a knife.

A written statement made by appellant to an investigator in the district attorney’s office was later introduced by the State. ’ Although its overall nature was exculpatory with regard to involvement in the murder, appellant freely admitted that he had known the victim for twelve or thirteen years and that he and the victim had a sexual relationship.

Appellant presented a case in his defense consisting of testimony from his mother, an[866]*866other sister, Cynthia Cruz, a sister-in-law, Serena Kay Cruz, and appellant’s younger brother, Robert Wayne Cruz. Their testimony consisted of the fact that appellant always asserted his non-involvement in the murder; of the non-believability of some of the State’s lay witnesses; of the fact (by appellant’s mother) that appellant never admitted to lies anything concerning the jacket; that appellant did not own and would not wear a jacket such as the one in question; that the incriminating telephone conversation between Ms. Harrington and appellant did not take place (by Cynthia Cruz); and, through the testimony of Robert Cruz, that appellant was provided with an alibi. Appellant did not testify in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial.

As is the rule in Texas in all cases where the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction is called into question because of conflicting or contradictory testimony, the jury is the exclusive judge of the facts proven, the credibility of the witnesses, and the weight to be given to their testimony. Sharp v. State, 707 S.W.2d 611, 614 (Tex.Crim.App.1986), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 872, 109 S.Ct. 190, 102 L.Ed.2d 159 (1988); Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 38.04 (Vernon 1979). Indeed, the law fully provides that a jury may believe a witness even though the witness’s testimony has been contradicted; and that a jury may accept any part of a witness’s testimony and reject the rest. Sharp, 707 S.W.2d at 614; Jackson v. State, 505 S.W.2d 916 (Tex.Crim.App.1974). The following language taken from Moreno v. State, 755 S.W.2d 866, 867 (Tex.Crim.App.1988), quoted often by this court when analyzing similar points of error, provides the current standard for appellate courts to abide by:

The court is never to make its own myopic determination of guilt from reading the cold record. It is not the reviewing court’s duty to disregard, realign or weigh evidence. This the factfinder has already done. The factfinder, best positioned to consider all the evidence firsthand, viewing the valuable and significant demeanor and expression of the witnesses, has reached a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt. Such a verdict must stand unless it is found to be irrational or unsupported by ... the evidence, with such evidence being viewed under the Jackson light. Concrete application of the Jackson standard is made by resolving inconsistencies in the testimony in favor of the verdict, (footnote omitted)

The “Jackson standard” is, of course, taken from Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct.

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Cruz v. State
877 S.W.2d 863 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)

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877 S.W.2d 863, 1994 WL 247473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cruz-v-state-texapp-1994.