Elizando v. State

649 S.W.2d 674, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4069
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 17, 1983
DocketNo. 13-81-065-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 649 S.W.2d 674 (Elizando 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
Elizando v. State, 649 S.W.2d 674, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4069 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

BISSETT, Justice.

This is an appeal from a jury conviction for the offense of murder. Appellant, Armando Elizando (Elizando), a juvenile of the age of 16 years, was charged with the offense of murder in juvenile proceedings. The 36th Judicial District Court of San Patricio County, Texas, sitting as a Juvenile Court, waived jurisdiction of the Juvenile Court and transferred the cause to “the Criminal District Court of San Patricio County, Texas, for criminal proceedings .... ” An examining trial was held, and Elizando was bound over to the grand jury. Appellant was indicted for the offense of murder. A motion to quash the indictment was overruled.

Upon a trial by jury and over a plea of not guilty, Elizando was convicted of the offense of murder, and punishment was assessed by the jury at 15 years’ imprisonment in the Texas Department of Corree-[675]*675tions. Appeal was properly perfected to this Court.

Appellant brings forth four grounds of error. He does not attack the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction.

The State’s evidence reflects that on the night of December 22, 1978, the deceased, Casimiro Lamas, and two other individuals were sitting in a vehicle parked in the parking lot of a drive-in type grocery store. The deceased was sitting on the passenger’s side of the front seat of the vehicle, with the door ajar, when he was approached by Elizando. Some words were exchanged in Spanish, then Elizando fired at the deceased with a handgun. The deceased suffered a wound to the chest as a result of the shooting. This wound caused the deceased’s death.

In his first ground of error, appellant alleges that the juvenile court committed fundamental error in transferring the proceedings, as it transferred the proceedings to the “Criminal District Court” and not expressly to the 36th District Court. Section 54.02(a), V.T.C.A., Family Code, provides:

“(a) The juvenile court may waive its exclusive original jurisdiction and transfer a child to the appropriate district court or criminal district court for criminal proceedings if ...”

Appellant does not contend that the juvenile court improperly waived jurisdiction over the cause, but rather that the district court never properly obtained jurisdiction as it was never expressly identified. We disagree. See James v. State, 554 S.W.2d 680 (Tex.Cr.App.1977).

In his second ground of error, appellant contends that the indictment in this cause was defective, as the grand jury that returned it was substantially underrepresents ed by persons of Mexican descent. He asserts that its makeup was the result of intentional racial discrimination.

To establish a prima facie case of an equal protection violation under Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977), the defendant must first show that the procedure employed in composing a grand jury resulted in a substantial underrepresentation of his race or of an identifiable group to which he belongs. Second, he must prove this underrepresen-tation by comparing the suspect group in total population to the proportion of the group called to serve as grand jurors, over a significant period of time.

Defense counsel made no statistical showing to the trial court that there has been any underrepresentation of persons of Mexican descent in the makeup of prior grand juries. He did, however, request that grand jury lists, for the year§ 1974-1978, both inclusive, be made part of the record. Those lists were introduced into evidence. They show that for the five-year period involved, the percentage of grand jurors with Mexican surnames on the panel averages out to about 34.6%, and the percentage of grand jurors with Mexican surnames who actually served on the several grand juries averages out to about 39.0%.

The number of persons with Mexican surnames who were on the grand jury panel and those who actually served as grand jurors, as shown by the aforesaid lists, are:

[676]

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

Related

Guerra v. State
760 S.W.2d 681 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Garza v. State
695 S.W.2d 249 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
649 S.W.2d 674, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4069, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elizando-v-state-texapp-1983.