Darby v. State

145 S.W.3d 714, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 7851, 2004 WL 1920000
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 25, 2004
Docket2-03-020-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by42 cases

This text of 145 S.W.3d 714 (Darby 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
Darby v. State, 145 S.W.3d 714, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 7851, 2004 WL 1920000 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

DIXON W. HOLMAN, Justice.

Appellant Darrell Dareell Darby appeals his capital murder conviction. In four issues, he argues that the trial court erred in failing to suppress search and arrest warrants and that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the verdict. We affirm.

Factual and PROCEDURAL Background

Phong Huu Do and his wife Tuyet Mai Thi Tran opened the Vinh-Huong Bakery in Arlington, Texas, in 1996. Typically, Tran began her work day at the bakery around 9:00 a.m. after dropping off their children at school and Do would arrive at the bakery in time for her to pick the children up from school at 3:00 p.m. Do would then finish up the day’s work and begin preparing food for the next day’s sales. Do usually worked until 4:00 a.m., but it was not unusual for him to stay at the store until 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. Do often left the door to the store open as he worked because the kitchen grew hot.

On the morning of May 23, 2001, Phan Thi Nguyen reported to work at the bakery only to find Do lying on the floor. *717 When Do did not respond to Nguyen, she ran out of the bakery to seek help. Paramedics arrived on the scene and determined that Do was deceased. The ensuing police investigation discovered that Do suffered a single gunshot wound above his right ear, which incapacitated him immediately.

After police determined that a credit card belonging to Do was missing, they contacted the credit card company to find out whether or not the card had been used at any time after the murder occurred. Police discovered that someone attempted to make several purchases at an Arlington K-Mart store and over the Internet using Do’s credit card. The Internet purchaser requested delivery of the merchandise to 1954 Pebble Creek, apartment number 152. Although the purchaser asked that delivery be made to Brittany Parker at the Pebble Creek address, police discovered that the apartment was actually registered to Kimberly Goode. Goode was later identified as Appellant’s girlfriend.

This information, along with a crime stoppers’ tip from Marion Milton Scott, led police to develop Appellant as a suspect. Detective Danny Nutt made arrangements to meet with Scott, but before the meeting she was involved in a domestic disturbance and taken to the Arlington City Jail. Detective Jim Ford interviewed Scott while she was in the Arlington jail. Scott informed Detective Ford that Appellant told her about the robbery and murder on the afternoon of May 23, 2001. According to Scott, Appellant “cased out” the store ahead of time and planned the robbery for a time when he knew Do would be alone at the store. Appellant told Scott that he intended to only rob Do, but when Do grabbed the gun, the two men struggled and the gun went off. Do fell to the ground and Appellant took money out of the cash register. After returning to the Pebble Creek Apartments and telling some friends what happened, Appellant went back to the bakery to wipe his fingerprints off of everything that he had touched. According to Scott, Appellant’s demeanor was calm and he did not seem upset. After telling Scott about the robbery and murder, Appellant asked Scott to go with him to K-Mart to see if the store would accept Do’s credit card. Appellant, Scott, and a friend named Roderick walked to the K-Mart where Scott purchased a compact disc player using Do’s credit card.

Detective Ford obtained an arrest warrant for Appellant and a search warrant for Goode’s apartment on May 26, 2001. During the execution of the search warrant on May 27, 2001, police seized: 1) Do’s wallet, driver’s license, various forms of identification, and business cards; 2) Goode’s laptop computer; and 3) handwritten notes regarding some of the Internet purchases made with Do’s credit card. Appellant surrendered to police on May 28, 2001, and provided, in pertinent part, the following confession:

Last Tuesday night I was at the Pebble Creek Apartments snorting cocaine. I borrowed a gun at about 7:00 P.M. or 8:00 P.M. from this dude who goes by the nickname “Rock”. Rock left the Pebble Creek Apartments after that and I did not see him again until I was back at the Pebble Creek Apartments about thirty minutes after the robbery when I gave him the gun back.... Rock told me that the gun wasn’t loaded. I told Rock that I was going to use the gun to rob the bread shore [sic] across the street from Pebble Creek....
Last Tuesday night about 10:00 P.M. is when I decided to rob the bread store. I walked to the bread shop across the street from Pebble Creek by myself. Nobody went with me. Rock stayed behind at the Pebble Creek Apart *718 ments.... When I got to the bread store the front door was unlocked and propped open with a little piece of metal wedged under the bottom of the door. I walked in through the front door and the man was in the kitchen.... I walked up to the man and I was holding the gun in my right hand. The hammer on the gun was already cocked when Rock gave it to me and I didn’t know how to let the hammer down. I was two or three feet away from the man when I pointed the gun at him. I told him to give me all of the money. He said “okay, okay.” Then he reached up with his right hand and grabbed the gun and grabbed my right hand and he said “no, no, no, no, no.” Then the gun went off accidentally and shot him on the right side of the head. He was on his knees when he got shot. After he got shot he fell onto his back on the kitchen floor.... His head shook for a split second and then quit shaking and his head turned to the left and then he died. I took his black leather wallet out of his right back pants pocket. I saw this black bag sitting on the shelf in the kitchen and I took it also because I thought there was money in it. I took the wallet and the bag and I went out the back door which leads into a big hallway. I couldn’t find a way out or a door that wasn’t locked so I left the wallet and the black bag in the hallway and I left out of the front door of the bread store and ran straight back to Kim’s apartment. I told Kim what had happened. Kim was my girlfriend at that time and I was living with her at her apartment. She lives in apartment # 152 at the Pebble Creek Apartments .... I paged my friend Roderick and asked him to come over to Kim’s apartment. About five minutes later Roderick and Little Charles came to Kim’s apartment.... When Roderick and Little Charles got there I told them what had happened. I told them that I had accidentally shot the man during the robbery at the bread store across the street. Roderick asked me if I got anything during the robbery and I told him that I left a wallet and a black bag in the hallway behind the bread store. Roderick told me to go back and get the stuff.... I walked in the front door of the bread store by myself. I walked behind the counter and I got some paper money out of the cash register.... I went out the back door and walked down the hallway and got the wallet and the black bag.... Earlier I have [sic] been drinking beer, brandy, smoking marijuana, and snorting cocaine. When I met back up with Little Charles and Roderick in the Pebble Creek Apartments I got sick and threw up and passed out. Little Charles carried me into Kim’s Apartment. Roderick carried the wallet and the black bag into Kim’s Apartment. I woke up about 10 or 15 minutes later after Kim poured some water on me. Then we looked through the wallet and the black bag.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
145 S.W.3d 714, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 7851, 2004 WL 1920000, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/darby-v-state-texapp-2004.