Dalton Dale Rogers v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 15, 2023
Docket06-23-00054-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Dalton Dale Rogers v. the State of Texas (Dalton Dale Rogers v. the State of Texas) 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
Dalton Dale Rogers v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

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

No. 06-23-00054-CR

DALTON DALE ROGERS, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 115th District Court Upshur County, Texas Trial Court No. 19156

Before Stevens, C.J., van Cleef and Rambin, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Rambin MEMORANDUM OPINION

After a jury found Dalton Dale Rogers guilty of possession of a controlled substance,

four grams or more but less than 200 grams, the trial court1 sentenced him to twenty-eight years

in prison and assessed $365.00 in court costs and a fine in the amount of $5,000.00.2 Rogers

appeals, maintaining that (1) the trial court erred when it allowed the State to introduce

extraneous-offense evidence during the guilt/innocence phase of the trial in violation of Rules

403 and 404(b) of the Texas Rules of Evidence, (2) he was harmed by the admission of the

extraneous-offense evidence, and (3) the judgment of conviction should be reformed to

accurately reflect the correct degree of offense. We find that the trial court did not err when it

allowed the State to introduce extraneous-offense evidence. Even so, we must modify the trial

court’s judgment to correct the degree of offense. As modified, we affirm the trial court’s

judgment of conviction.

I. Background

Justin Nustad, a member of a special investigations unit3 for the Upshur County Sheriff’s

Office and the handler of a drug dog named Marco, testified that Marco was certified in locating

methamphetamine, heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, and crack cocaine. To be Marco’s handler, Nustad

was required to participate in specialized training to learn how to communicate with Marco. On

1 This case was originally appealed to the Twelfth Court of Appeals in Tyler. It was transferred to this Court by the Texas Supreme Court pursuant to its docket equalization efforts. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 73.001 (Supp.). We are unaware of any conflict between precedent of the Twelfth Court of Appeals and that of this Court on any relevant issue. See TEX. R. APP. P. 41.3. 2 Rogers pled true to one enhancement paragraph. 3 Specifically, Nustad was assigned to the Narcotics Intervention and Detection Unit. 2 August 3, 2020, Nustad was working drug interdiction, which basically meant that he sat and

watched “for activity, vehicle traffic.” That night, a driver drove past Nustad in a vehicle that

did not have a working license plate light. Nustad activated his emergency lights and attempted

to stop the vehicle. Although the driver did not stop immediately, when he did, he quickly exited

his vehicle, closed the door behind him, and began walking toward Nustad. Nustad said that he

was familiar with the driver and knew him to be Rogers. According to Nustad, Rogers attempted

to distance himself from the vehicle so that Nustad could not see or smell what was inside of it.

Rogers was the sole person in the vehicle.

Pursuant to existing warrants, Nustad arrested Rogers for failure to maintain financial

responsibility, failure to display a driver’s license, and displaying an expired registration. Based

on those arrests, Nustad asked Rogers if he would consent to a search of his vehicle. Rogers

denied consent, but he told Nustad that he would allow Marco to do a free-air search of the

vehicle. Marco made a positive alert for the existence of drugs in the driver’s-side quarter panel

of the truck. Specifically, the drugs were found “in the window mechanism where you roll your

windows up and down, the whole panel basically was loose.” Nustad said that he simply “stuck

[his] finger in there and just popped it open.” Nustad then “shined [his] light down there and

immediately could see [the drugs].” According to Nustad, Rogers’s vehicle contained a large

amount of methamphetamine, which was, in his opinion, well beyond an individual-user

amount.4 Nustad also found a bag containing Xanax on the top of the methamphetamine and a

4 The methamphetamine weighed 11.39 grams. 3 hypodermic syringe.5 Nustad explained that methamphetamine could be used in a variety of

ways, including by injecting it into a body part with the aid of a syringe. Although Rogers

conceded that the truck belonged to him, he told Nustad that he did not know anything about the

drugs that were found in his truck.

After hearing from several more witnesses, the jury found Rogers guilty of possession of

a controlled substance, more than four grams but less than 200 grams. He was sentenced to

twenty-eight years’ imprisonment and assessed court costs and a fine. This appeal followed.

II. The Trial Court Did Not Err When it Admitted Extraneous-Offense Evidence

Rogers appeals, maintaining (1) that the trial court erred when it allowed the State to

introduce extraneous-offense evidence during the guilt/innocence phase of the trial in violation

of Rules 403 and 404(b) of the Texas Rules of Evidence, (2) that he was harmed by the

admission of the extraneous-offense evidence, and (3) that the judgment of conviction should be

reformed to accurately reflect the correct degree of offense.

A. The Extraneous Offenses

At trial, the State offered, and the trial court admitted, two extraneous offenses that

Rogers objected to at trial and now complains of on appeal. The first offense was alleged to

have occurred on December 21, 2010. John Beasley, an investigator with the Mount Pleasant

Police Department,6 testified that Mr. Lopez, a loss-prevention officer at the Walmart in Gilmer,

contacted him about potential narcotics activity at the store. When Beasley arrived at Walmart,

5 Rogers claimed that the syringe belonged to a diabetic friend of his. 6 In December 2010, Beasley was assigned to the narcotics unit of the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office. 4 Lopez told him about Rogers’s interest in purchasing pseudoephedrine. Pursuant to that

information, Beasley struck up a conversation with Rogers, who ultimately offered to sell Rogers

marihuana, Xanax, or hydrocodone in exchange for Beasley purchasing pseudoephedrine for him

from Walmart.7 After Beasley purchased the pseudoephedrine, he met Rogers in the parking lot

to complete the transaction. At that point, Rogers was arrested for delivery of a controlled

substance or offer to deliver a controlled substance. During a search of Rogers’s person, officers

located Xanax and a hypodermic needle. Rogers claimed that he had a prescription for Xanax.

In 2011, a jury found Rogers guilty, and the trial court sentenced him to the maximum

punishment.

Beasley also explained that there are laws in the State of Texas that place limits on the

amount of pseudoephedrine a person can buy from a store. To get around those laws, it was

common for an individual to purchase pseudoephedrine for another individual so that they could

manufacture methamphetamine. Beasley believed that Rogers needed pseudoephedrine for that

reason.

Nustad testified about the second extraneous offense (trial court cause number 19179),

which was alleged to have occurred approximately one year after the offense occurred in this

case. In cause 19179, Rogers was driving a U-Haul rental truck when Nustad and his partner

stopped Rogers based on a traffic violation.8 At that time, there was an outstanding warrant for

Rogers related to another offense. Rogers would not give the officers consent to search the

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