Deryl Jackson v. the State of Texas

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided February 27, 2023·No. 08-22-00009-CR·Published

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS EIGHTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS EL PASO, TEXAS

DERYL JACKSON, § No. 08-22-00009-CR

Appellant, § Appeal from the

v. § 85th Judicial District Court

THE STATE OF TEXAS, § of Brazos County, Texas

Appellee. § (TC# 19-04458-CRF-85)

OPINION

The State of Texas charged Appellant, Deryl Jackson, with one count of aggravated assault

with a deadly weapon and one count of murder, and the jury found Appellant guilty of the lesser-

included offense of manslaughter on the murder charge. Appellant challenges his conviction in

two issues, arguing that the trial court abused its discretion by (1) admitting testimony regarding

Appellant’s commission of an extraneous offense over Appellant’s objection under

TEX. R. EVID. 403 and (2) admitting a witness’s video-recorded interview as a prior consistent

statement under TEX. R. EVID. 801(e)(1)(B). For the following reasons, we affirm Appellant’s

conviction. 1

1 This case was transferred from our sister court in Waco, and we decide it in accordance with the precedent of that court to the extent required by TEX. R. APP. P. 41.3. I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual background

On the afternoon of July 5, 2019, a police dispatcher in Bryan, Texas, received a 911 call

reporting that a man had been stabbed. Law enforcement and emergency services responded to a

local residence where they found the victim, Jevell Kinney, laying in the front yard of another

nearby house. As emergency personnel treated Kinney at the scene, officers spoke to Dresdyn

Jackson—Kinney’s wife and Appellant’s sister. Dresdyn told officers that Kinney was outside the

house “high,” screaming, and hitting a car that belonged to her sister, Denariss Jackson. Dresdyn

further related that when Denariss asked Appellant to get Kinney away, Dresdyn saw Appellant

run out of the house with a knife and flee the scene. 2 Paramedics transported Kinney to a hospital

where he subsequently died. According to a medical examiner who performed an autopsy, the

cause of Kinney’s death was from two stab wounds in his chest that were consistent with having

been inflicted with a single-edged knife. A toxicology test also showed the presence of

phencyclidine (PCP) and ketamine in Kinney’s blood at the time of his death.

Detective Candido Amaya of the Bryan Police Department was assigned to investigate the

homicide. When he arrived at the scene, Joyce Jackson, the owner of the house, gave Detective

Amaya consent to search the house. Inside, officers found a trail of blood droplets on the floor and

several items with blood on them; Detective Amaya believed the blood came from Appellant

through wounds he sustained while stabbing Kinney. Detective Amaya also spoke with Kinney’s

2 At trial, without objection from Appellant, the court admitted a copy of the bodycam recording of Denariss’s conversation with officers at the scene.

2 minor stepson, D.B., and conducted a recorded interview that we recount in detail below. 3 Officers

subsequently obtained an arrest warrant for Appellant and began searching for him. Appellant

turned himself in to law enforcement five days after the stabbing. When Appellant surrendered

himself, an officer observed that Appellant had a large cut on the palm of his hand, which the

officer testified was “[v]ery common for suspects to actually get cut themselves during an assault

with a knife” because the hand gets slippery to where it continues to travel over the blade.

The State charged Appellant with Kinney’s murder, further alleging in the indictment that

Appellant was a habitual offender by having previously been finally convicted of (1) possession

of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and (2) aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

At trial, the State introduced Detective Amaya’s video-recorded interview of D.B. over

Appellant’s hearsay objection. The State also introduced testimony from Appellant’s neighbor,

Yolanda Johnson, who testified over Appellant’s TEX. R. EVID. 403 objection that Appellant had

previously stabbed her boyfriend, Lee Anthony Davis, in 2005. We recount that testimony below.

The jury found Appellant guilty of the lesser-included offense of manslaughter and

affirmatively found that Appellant used a deadly weapon (a knife) during the commission of the

offense. Having found the State’s habitualization allegations true, the jury assessed punishment of

sixty years’ imprisonment. This appeal followed. Appellant raises two issues challenging his

conviction: (1) the trial court abused its discretion by admitting Johnson’s testimony that Appellant

previously stabbed Davis because the probative value of the testimony was substantially

outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice, thereby violating TEX. R. EVID. 403; and (2) the trial

court abused its discretion by admitting the recorded interview of D.B. because the interview did

3 Because D.B. was a minor at the time of trial, we refer to him by his initials in place of his true name. See TEX. R. APP. P. 9.10; see also Fernandez v. State, 597 S.W.3d 546, 551 n. 4 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2020, pet. ref’d) (using a minor party’s initials to protect her identity).

3 not contain D.B.’s prior consistent statements under TEX. R. EVID. 801(e)(1)(B), thus violating the

hearsay rule. We consider each issue in turn.

II. EXTRANEOUS-OFFENSE EVIDENCE

In his first issue, Appellant argues that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting

Johnson’s testimony regarding a previous stabbing incident over Appellant’s objection under

TEX. R. EVID. 403. For the following reasons, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its

discretion by admitting Johnson’s testimony.

During an admissibility hearing outside the jury’s presence, Johnson testified that she knew

Appellant as “Hootie.” Johnson testified that in 2005, she was in her residence sitting with Davis

on a couch when Appellant came through the door without permission, asked where Davis was,

and stabbed Davis with a knife. Johnson recounted that she attempted to stop Appellant, but he

pushed her down whereupon Davis fled to a bathroom and locked the door. Appellant left when

Johnson threatened to call the police. Johnson took Davis to the hospital where they were told the

wound was not deep enough for stitches. Appellant was arrested for aggravated assault with a

deadly weapon, and Johnson testified at Appellant’s trial for that incident.

At the conclusion of the admissibility hearing, defense counsel argued that Johnson’s

testimony was inadmissible under TEX. R. EVID. 403 because the evidence’s probative value was

substantially outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice. The prosecutor responded that Johnson’s

testimony regarding the stabbing was admissible because it was relevant to rebut Appellant’s self-

defense theory, which defense counsel raised in both his opening statement and through his cross-

examination of witnesses regarding the effects of PCP and Kinney’s intoxication on PCP at the

time of his death. Defense counsel denied having sufficiently raised a self-defense theory in his

4 opening statement. The State responded that the testimony was also admissible because of the

similarity between the Davis and Kinney stabbings. The trial court overruled Appellant’s Rule 403

objection and allowed Johnson to testify about the Davis stabbing, but the court issued a verbal

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