Earnest Dewayne Clayton v. the State of Texas

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided January 11, 2023·No. 05-21-00329-CR·Published

Opinion

Affirm and Opinion Filed January 11, 2023

In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-21-00329-CR

EARNEST DEWAYNE CLAYTON, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 1 Rockwall County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. CR17-2027

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Molberg, Reichek, and Garcia Opinion by Justice Molberg

The trial court found appellant Earnest Dewayne Clayton guilty of a Class B misdemeanor offense of driving while intoxicated (DWI),1 sentenced him to sixty days’ confinement in jail and a $250 fine, suspended the imposition of the jail sentence, and placed him on fifteen months of community supervision, subject to certain terms and conditions. In four issues, Clayton argues the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction (third issue); the trial court erred by admitting

1 See TEX. PENAL CODE § 49.04(a), (b).

and denying his motion to suppress certain evidence (first and second issues); and the trial court erred by failing to file findings of fact and conclusions of law upon his request (fourth issue). Because his fourth issue is now moot and we overrule his other issues, we affirm the trial court’s judgment in this memorandum opinion. See TEX. R. APP. P. 47.4.

DISCUSSION

A. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law We begin with Clayton’s fourth issue, in which he argues the trial court erred

by failing to file findings of fact and conclusions of law upon his request and asks that we remand the case to the trial court for the issuance of such findings and conclusions.

Clayton’s complaint and request are now moot. After Clayton filed his brief on appeal, we issued an order that (1) noted Clayton filed a request for findings of fact and conclusions of law and a motion to enter findings of fact and conclusions of law after the trial court denied his motion to suppress, (2) ordered, by a particular date, the trial court to issue findings of fact and conclusions of law and the county clerk to file a supplemental clerk’s record containing the trial court’s findings, and (3) abated the appeal to allow the trial court to comply with our order.2

2 See State v. Elias, 339 S.W.3d 667, 674 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011); State v. Cullen, 195 S.W.3d 696, 699 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006). In Elias, 339 S.W.3d at 674, the court stated, “[U]pon the request of the losing party on a motion to suppress evidence, the trial court shall state its essential findings.” Elias explained that by “essential findings” the court meant “findings of fact and conclusions of law adequate to provide an appellate court with a basis upon which to review the trial court’s application of the law to the facts,” see

The trial court then issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law, and the county clerk filed in our Court a supplemental record including those findings and conclusions. We then reinstated the appeal.

In his brief in our Court, Clayton has not discussed the trial court’s specific findings and conclusions, nor has he discussed the effect, if any, their issuance has on his fourth issue.3 Because his fourth issue raises an error the trial court has corrected, the issue is now moot, and we need not consider it. See TEX. R. APP. P. 44.4(b) (stating, in part, that if a trial court’s failure or refusal to act prevents the proper presentation of a case to the court of appeals and the trial court can correct its failure to act, the court of appeals “must direct the trial court to correct the error” and “then proceed as if the erroneous action or failure to act had not occurred”).

B. Sufficiency of the Evidence In his third issue, Clayton argues the evidence, when considered in its totality,

is legally insufficient to support his conviction for driving when intoxicated.

When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether any rational trier of

id. (quoting Cullen, 195 S.W.3d at 699) and that this requirement “assures that appellate resolution of the suppression issue ‘is based on the reality of what happened [at the trial court level] rather than on [appellate] assumptions that may be entirely fictitious’”). Id. (quoting Cullen, 195 S.W.3d at 698). The findings may be written or stated on the record at the conclusion of the hearing. See Nadeau v. State, No. 05-19-01137- CR, 2022 WL 3053917, at *3 (Tex. App.—Dallas Aug. 3, 2022, pet. ref’d) (citing Cullen, 195 S.W.3d at 699).

That Clayton did not discuss the trial court’s findings and conclusions in his original brief is 3

understandable, as such findings and conclusions had not yet been issued. Once the trial court issued them and we reinstated the appeal, the State made note of the trial court’s findings and conclusions in its brief, and Clayton did not file a reply.

fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Ramjattansingh v. State, 548 S.W.3d 540, 546 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979)). The factfinder is the sole judge of witness credibility and the weight to be given their testimony. See Martin v. State, 635 S.W.3d 672, 679 (Tex. Crim. App. 2021). We may not re-evaluate the weight and credibility of the evidence or substitute our judgment for that of the factfinder. Bohannan v. State, 546 S.W.3d 166, 178 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017). “When the record supports conflicting inferences, we presume that the factfinder resolved the conflicts in favor of the verdict, and we defer to that determination.” Murray v. State, 457 S.W.3d 446, 448–49 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015). The evidence is legally sufficient if it would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to reach the decision under review. See Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 922 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010).

In conducting our review, we consider “all evidence in the record of the trial, whether it was admissible or inadmissible.” Winfrey v. State, 393 S.W.3d 763, 767 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (citations omitted); see Powell v. State, 194 S.W.3d 503, 507 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (“[A] reviewing court is permitted to consider all evidence in the trial-court record, whether admissible or inadmissible, when making a legal-sufficiency determination.”). Thus, regardless of whether the evidence Clayton challenges in his first and second issues was properly admitted, such evidence is properly considered in a review of the sufficiency of the evidence. Winfrey, 393 S.W.3d at 767.

“A person commits Class B misdemeanor DWI if the person is intoxicated while operating a motor vehicle in a public place.” Ramjattansingh, 548 S.W.3d at 546 (citing TEX. PENAL CODE § 49.04(a), (b)). “‘Intoxicated’ means either ‘not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties’ by reason of ‘the introduction of alcohol’ (or ‘any other substance’) into the body, or ‘having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more.’” Id. (citing TEX. PENAL CODE § 49.01(2)(A), (B)).

Ramjattansingh states:

In order to prove the offense of driving while intoxicated, the State must prove that the defendant operated a motor vehicle while intoxicated. If the State intends to rely upon the per se definition of intoxication, it must prove that the defendant had an alcohol concentration of at least .08 at the time of driving. If the State does not intend to rely upon that definition of intoxication, it need only prove intoxication at the time of driving by showing that the defendant had experienced a loss of the normal use of his or her mental or physical faculties.

548 S.W.3d at 548 (internal footnotes omitted). Also, as to its statement regarding the State’s reliance on the per se definition of intoxication, the court stated:

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