Dedrick Bunton v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 27, 2007
Docket03-05-00717-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Dedrick Bunton v. State (Dedrick Bunton 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
Dedrick Bunton v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-05-00717-CR

Dedrick Bunton, Appellant

v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF TRAVIS COUNTY, 147TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT NO. D-1-DC-05-202462, HONORABLE WILFORD FLOWERS, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Dedrick Bunton appeals his conviction for robbery. See Tex. Penal Code

Ann. § 29.02(a)(1) (West 2003). A jury found appellant guilty and assessed his punishment at ten

years and six months’ imprisonment.

POINTS OF ERROR

Appellant advances three points of error. First, appellant challenges the legal

sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his robbery conviction. Second, he complains that he was

denied his choice of having the trial court assess punishment when his counsel failed to object to the

unauthorized assessment of punishment by the jury at the penalty stage of the bifurcated trial. Third,

appellant urges that the judgment is subject to modification and reformation because it fails to

correctly spell his name. We will affirm the judgment of conviction, as reformed. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

At about 2:00 a.m. on May 20, 2005, Nicole Riddle and her boyfriend, Timothy

Daniel Cabellero, returned to her automobile, a BMW 325i parked at 7th and Lavaca Streets in

downtown Austin. They had been in the warehouse or entertainment district of Austin for a late

dinner. When Riddle started the car, she noticed that a display signal was indicating that a rear

taillight of the car was “out.” Cabellero had worked on the problem before and knew how to fix the

taillight. Riddle “popped” the trunk and Cabellero went to the rear of the car.

Riddle, sitting in the driver’s seat of the BMW, soon noticed a man sitting on a ledge

on the sidewalk to her left. According to Riddle, the man was staring at her in a weird way. The

man approached Riddle, walking slowly with his hand in his pocket. He was looking at her the

entire time. The man opened the driver’s door and in a threatening and forceful manner told Riddle,

“Get out of your car.” Riddle was concerned that the man might have a gun. Nevertheless, Riddle

pushed the man away, told him to “get out of there” and pulled the door shut. The man ran off.

Riddle testified that about five minutes later, she saw the man again. This second

time, she grabbed her cellular phone and completed a call to 911 before the man opened the

passenger door and got in the car. The man got his arm around Riddle’s neck and throat and used

a head lock, causing what Riddle described as pain in her throat. Riddle struggled with the man for

about a minute to prevent being pulled out of the car on the passenger side. Riddle had no doubt that

the man wanted her BMW 325i.

Cabellero, from the rear of the car, got no response when he asked Riddle if the

taillight was now working. He testified that he then walked from behind the car and noticed a man

2 trying to pull Riddle out of the car by her neck. He yelled at the man, “What are you doing?” The

man got out of the car, jumped on the hood, leaving dents and foot marks, and ran off.

Cabellero stated that he gave chase for several blocks until he saw a police car and

waved it down and pointed to the running man. Cabellero never lost sight of the man. When the

police caught and arrested the man, Cabellero identified him as the man struggling with Riddle in

the car. The man was identified at trial as appellant.

Stephen McCarthy, a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission agent, on duty at the

time, heard the “in progress call” from the dispatcher. McCarthy was half a block away and

responded. He saw Cabellero pointing out appellant to him. McCarthy approached appellant in his

car, identified himself, and ordered appellant to stop. Appellant continued to run. McCarthy radioed

other officers as to the location and gave a description of appellant.

Officer Theresa Ann Jester and Officer Harvey of the Austin Police Department heard

McCarthy’s message and joined him in the chase. Officer Jester heard Cabellero yelling, “There he

goes, there he goes.” During the chase, appellant fell and was apprehended.

Appellant testified on his own behalf. He admitted that he was in downtown Austin

in the early morning hours of May 20, 2005, to see his girlfriend. He stated that he saw Riddle

standing outside of her car, thought that she was attractive, and approached and asked for her

telephone number. Appellant thought Riddle was alone. He stated that Riddle scornfully and in

cursing language ordered him to get away from her. At this point, the boyfriend walked up, and then

the police arrived on the scene. Appellant said that it was his natural reaction to run as he had

“trouble” with the police in the past and he had “like $3,000 worth of traffic tickets.”

3 Appellant stated that he approached the car once, not twice. He denied ever entering

the car, placing Riddle in a choke hold, or trying to get her out of the car. Appellant stated that it was

not his intent to steal the car. Appellant disclaimed jumping on the car’s hood in his flight from the

scene. He claimed that when apprehended, the police beat him and stole ten dollars of his money.

Appellant was impeached with his admission of two prior felony convictions for theft and

unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of the offense of robbery

as charged in the indictment.

At the penalty stage of the trial, Officer Jester testified that when arrested, appellant

was attempting to chew up and swallow rocks of crack cocaine, some of which spilled out of

his mouth onto his clothes and some of which fell on the ground when he was lying on his stomach.

The substance that was recovered was submitted for chemical analyses and shown to have a crack-

cocaine base in the amount of 0.12 grams. Evidence of the two prior felony convictions was also

introduced at the penalty stage. The jury, as noted, assessed punishment at ten years and six months’

imprisonment.

LEGAL SUFFICIENCY

In his first point of error, appellant claims that the “evidence is legally insufficient

to prove that appellant was in the course of committing theft of property with intent to obtain

or maintain control of property at the time he caused the complainant’s bodily injury”.1

1 In his stated point of error, appellant seems to limit the scope of his challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the robbery conviction.

4 The indictment in this second-degree felony robbery offense was drafted under the provisions of

section 29.02(a)(1).2

The one-count indictment alleged in pertinent part that:

Dedrick Bunton on or about the 20th day of May, 2005, . . . did then and there, while in the course of committing theft of property and with intent to obtain or maintain control of said property, intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly cause bodily injury to Nicole Riddle by choking Nicole Riddle . . .

The case was submitted to the jury in accordance with the allegations of the

indictment and the described statute.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States

Constitution requires every state criminal conviction to be supported by evidence that a rational trier

of fact could accept as sufficient to prove all the elements of the offense charged beyond a reasonable

doubt. In re Winship,

Related

In Re WINSHIP
397 U.S. 358 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Ware v. State
62 S.W.3d 344 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Cardenas v. State
30 S.W.3d 384 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Matlock v. State
20 S.W.3d 57 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Ward v. State
143 S.W.3d 271 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
Roberson v. State
16 S.W.3d 156 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Margraves v. State
34 S.W.3d 912 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
King v. State
157 S.W.3d 873 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Fisher v. State
851 S.W.2d 298 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
King v. State
29 S.W.3d 556 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Guevara v. State
152 S.W.3d 45 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2004)
Johnson v. State
871 S.W.2d 183 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Banks v. State
471 S.W.2d 811 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1971)
Asberry v. State
813 S.W.2d 526 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Miranda v. State
813 S.W.2d 724 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Dillon v. State
574 S.W.2d 92 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1978)
Bustamante v. State
106 S.W.3d 738 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2003)

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