DeGrate v. State

741 S.W.2d 553, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 8793, 1987 WL 1538
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided November 12, 1987·No. No. 10-86-147-CR·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

OPINION

McDONALD, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal by defendant DeGrate from conviction for aggravated robbery for which the jury assessed life imprisonment in the Texas Department of Corrections.

On January 4, 1986, at approximately 1:15 p.m., Dale Lindsey entered the Hill-crest Baptist Medical Center parking tower where his vehicle was parked. He observed one black male tapping on the glass of a vehicle and another black male using what appeared to be a wire to gain entry into another nearby car. The second subject told Lindsey that he had locked his keys in his car. Lindsey then approached his own pickup truck and noticed that the door had been opened and that the contents of his glove compartment were strewn across the seat and floorboard. He then commented aloud that it appeared his truck had been broken into.

The two subjects approached Lindsey. One of the men held a gun and pointed it at Lindsey telling him to lie down. Lindsey first attempted to cooperate, but changed his mind and stood facing the two men. The subject with the gun fired a shot, striking Lindsey in the chest. The man attempted to fire again but the gun jammed. Lindsey walked away from the men to the medical center’s emergency room.

During the afternoon of the incident, police responded to a report that guns were being discharged at a residence approximately 20 blocks from the medical center. Upon entering the residence, one officer observed defendant “nodding off” on a couch, apparently under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The officers left the [555]*555residence after finding no witnesses or weapons.

Later the same evening, the police department stopped a vehicle owned by defendant which had run a red light. Defendant was a passenger in the backseat of the car. The driver was arrested for driving while intoxicated. The police conducted an inventory of the car, finding two C.B. radios among other items in the trunk. One of the C.B. radios had been stolen from the Hillcrest parking tower that afternoon.

Defendant was arrested and identified by Lindsey in a line-up on January 10, 1986.

Defendant appeals on 10 points.

Point 1 asserts the trial court erred in holding that defense counsel’s failure to object during jury selection waived defendant’s equal protection claim under Batson v. Kentucky.

In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed that the State’s purposeful discriminatory jury selection based on race through the use of peremptory strikes is a violation of defendants’ rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Under Batson, a defendant must make a prima facie showing of discrimination by establishing that he is a member of a cognizable racial group, that the prosecutor used his peremptory strikes to remove potential jurors of defendant’s race, and that other relevant facts raise an inference of discrimination. Once a prima facie showing is made, the burden shifts to the State to come forward with neutral explanations for its use of peremptory strikes. The trial court, considering all the circumstances, must then determine whether a case of purposeful discrimination has been established.

If a prima facie case has been established, the trial court may correct the problem by disallowing the strikes or discharging the venire panel and starting voir dire anew with a different panel. However, in order for the trial court to make the necessary determinations, defendant must make a timely objection. Defendant concedes no objection was made during jury selection as to the racial makeup of the jury due to the State’s use of peremptory strikes. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals holds:

In cases tried after the Batson opinion was issued, the procedures outlined in that case must be followed. We prospectively declare that a defendant may make a timely objection within the Batson lines if such objection is made after the composition of the jury is made known but before the jury is sworn and the venire panel is discharged. It is at this time that the trial court has a number of options to correct any error discovered in a Batson hearing....

Henry v. State, 729 S.W.2d 732, 736-37 (Tex.Cr.App.1987) (emphasis original).

No such timely objection was made. Point 1 is overruled.

Point 2 asserts defendant’s right to a fair and impartial trial was violated when the State interjected extraneous shootings and crimes into its closing argument.

The State made the following argument during the guilt-innocence stage of the trial:

Now folks, don't you think that after those men committed that robbery and shot the man and then the gun jammed on ’em and it wouldn’t fire, that they started wondering, you know, “If we get in another fix like that next time, we want to make sure this thing is going to be working.” And so they took it out and were firing it out there to see why the gun had jammed on them and why they hadn’t been able to finish the job and kill that man there. They wanted a good working gun. I submit that’s a reasonable deduction from the evidence.

Proper jury argument must fall within one of four general areas: summation of the evidence, reasonable deduction from the evidence, answer to argument of opposing counsel, and pleas for law enforcement. McKay v. State, 707 S.W.2d 23 (Tex.Cr. App.1985); Alejandro v. State, 493 S.W.2d 230 (Tex.Cr.App.1973). Even if we were to [556]*556find the argument improper, defendant failed to object and thus, as a general rule, has waived any error. Duffy v. State, 567 S.W.2d 197, (Tex.Cr.App.1978). Defendant contends that the statements were so prejudicial that an .instruction to disregard would not have cured the harmful effect, thus no objection was necessary to preserve the error. Romo v. State, 631 S.W. 2d 504 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). Upon review of the State’s argument, we do not find the statements to be so prejudicial as to require reversal.

Point 2 is overruled.

Points 3 through 5 assert defendant was denied effective assistance of counsel due to the following errors of trial counsel: failure to object to the racial composition of the jury, failure to object to improper statements in closing arguments, failure to preserve error when a biased juror was seated, and failure to challenge the seizure of defendant’s automobile.

To determine whether a defendant was denied effective assistance of counsel, the reviewing court must apply the two-prong test in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed. 2d 674 (1984). First, defendant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient. If this first prong is established, defendant must affirmatively prove prejudice by showing a “reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Moore v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

DeGrate v. State, 741 S.W.2d 553, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 8793, 1987 WL 1538 (Tex. Ct. App. 1987).

741 S.W.2d 553 (DeGrate v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Cruz v. State
762 S.W.2d 624 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)