Denton v. State

896 S.W.2d 580, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 691, 1995 WL 135673
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 30, 1995
DocketNo. 2-93-452-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 896 S.W.2d 580 (Denton 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
Denton v. State, 896 S.W.2d 580, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 691, 1995 WL 135673 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION

RICHARDS, Justice.

Robert Earl Denton appeals his conviction by a jury for the offense of murder. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.02 (Vernon 1994). The jurors assessed punishment at twenty-two years’ confinement.

Appellant presents eight points of error on appeal, including challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence and complaints concerning alleged improper jury argument by the State at the guilt/innocence stage of the trial. We reverse and remand the case for new trial.

We begin by reviewing appellant’s sufficiency challenges.

In point of error one, appellant contends the trial court erred in denying his motion for instructed verdict, which challenged the [582]*582sufficiency of the evidence. In his second point of error, appellant alleges the evidence was insufficient to support the guilty verdict returned by the jury.

A review of the trial testimony is necessary.

On the night of September 23,1989, appellant entered his estranged wife’s home and discovered her in bed with Clayton Brown. Appellant then drove to his home, obtained his shotgun, and returned to his wife’s residence where he shot and killed Brown. The defense advanced at trial was that the shooting was accidental.

In support of the State’s theory that the shooting was intentional, the following testimony was introduced during the State’s casein-chief. Myra Brown, the victim’s wife, testified she received a phone call from appellant at approximately 3:00 a.m. on the night of the shooting. Appellant inquired as to whether Myra knew where her husband, Clayton, was. When she responded she did not know, appellant told her, “[W]ell, I caught the son of a bitch with my wife and I’m going to kill him.” Brown testified she begged appellant not to kill her husband.

Appellant was standing in the open doorway of the residence when police officers responding to the reported shooting arrived. When one of the officers asked what was going on, appellant allegedly responded, “I shot the guy inside.” Appellant also informed the officer his wife, Pamela, had fled down the street.

Appellant provided the police authorities a written statement which was introduced at trial. In the statement appellant related that he had been receiving hang-up phone calls at his residence and the calls had ceased after Pamela moved out. On the night of the murder, appellant had dinner at Pamela’s apartment. While he was there, the phone rang but the caller hung up. Suspicious, appellant asked his wife if she was seeing someone. She denied she was. Appellant then decided to place a tap on Pamela’s phone to determine if she was, in fact, seeing someone else. He left and returned in the middle of the night. He hooked up the recorder and then let himself into the apartment to determine whether the recorder was working. Inside, he discovered his wife with Brown. When he left the apartment he saw a vehicle he knew belonged to Brown. He slashed the back tires to prevent Brown from leaving. He then took his wife’s car, returned to his home, and retrieved his camera to enable him to document his wife’s transgression. He returned to the apartment and pushed his way in. According to his statement, only when Pamela told him to shoot her did he remember he brought the shotgun with him. A struggle ensued and the gun went off.

At trial, appellant testified the shooting was accidental and occurred when he and Pamela struggled over the weapon. His testimony was basically consistent with his written statement.

Richard Ernest, a firearms examiner employed by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, testified and demonstrated the operation of appellant’s shotgun. Ernest described the various steps necessary to fire the gun and testified the shotgun was in excellent working order and could not be accidentally discharged. Finally, a deputy medical examiner testified he performed an autopsy on the body of Clayton Brown and that Clayton died as a result of a shotgun wound to his chest.

We now turn to the standard of review.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict. Narvaiz v. State, 840 S.W.2d 415, 423 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 113 S.Ct. 1422, 122 L.Ed.2d 791 (1993). A challenge to the denial of a motion for instructed verdict is actually an attack on the sufficiency of the evidence and is measured under the same standard as a sufficiency challenge. Madden v. State, 799 S.W.2d 683, 686-87 (Tex.Crim.App.1990), cert, denied, 499 U.S. 954, 111 S.Ct. 1432, 113 L.Ed.2d 483 (1991). The critical inquiry is whether, after so viewing the evidence, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Moreno v. State, 755 S.W.2d 866, 867 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).

[583]*583“This familiar standard gives full play to the responsibility of the trier of fact fairly to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979).

The sufficiency of the evidence is a question of law. The issue on appeal is not whether we as a court believe the State’s evidence or believe that the defense’s evidence outweighs the State’s evidence. See Matson v. State, 819 S.W.2d 839, 846 (Tex.Crim.App.1991); Wicker v. State, 667 S.W.2d 137, 143 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 892, 105 S.Ct. 268, 83 L.Ed.2d 204 (1984). The verdict may not be overturned unless it is irrational or unsupported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Matson, 819 S.W.2d at 846.

We find the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction under the above standard. Evidence that shortly before the killing appellant told Brown’s wife that he had caught Brown in bed with Pamela and said, “I’m going to kill him,” coupled with appellant’s use of the deadly weapon which caused Brown’s death, was sufficient justification for the jurors to reject appellant’s claim of accident. A rational jury could conclude from the evidence that appellant murdered Brown because he caught him in bed with his estranged wife.

Points of error one and two are overruled.

In point of error four, appellant complains of two references by the State during jury argument to evidence which was not introduced at trial. Both references concern statements allegedly made by appellant to his wife at the time of the shooting — statements which, if believed, would conclusively show the shooting was not accidental.

Of critical significance to the instant issue is whether there is evidence in the record showing what words, if any, were spoken by appellant immediately prior to the discharge of the gun.

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Bluebook (online)
896 S.W.2d 580, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 691, 1995 WL 135673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/denton-v-state-texapp-1995.