Esther Garcia Ortega v. State

472 S.W.3d 779, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 7924, 2015 WL 4594113
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 30, 2015·No. NO. 14-14-00090-CR·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

OPINION

J. Brett Busby, Justice

Appellant Esther Ortega was charged with, and convicted of, possession of a gambling device. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 47.06 (West 2011).- Appellant appeals her conviction, raising four issues. We conclude that appellant did not preserve her first issue, which challenges the trial court’s jurisdiction on the ground that the jurat in the complaint was undated. In her third issue, appellant asserts that dismissal is required because her right to a speedy trial was violated as a result of the State’s failure to prosecute her in a timely manner. We overrule this issue because appellant has not made a prima facie showing that she was prejudiced by the delay of twenty-seven months.

Appellant urges in her fourth issue that she was entitled to testimonial immunity under Texas Penal Code section 47.08 because she was required to furnish self-incriminating testimony to one of the investigating sergeants on the scene. We overrule this issue because the trial court could reasonably have concluded that appellant was not required to furnish testimony to the sergeant but instead voluntarily provided the information.

Finally, appellant seeks a new trial in her second issue, arguing that the court denied her a fair trial for two reasons. Regarding appellant’s complaint that the trial court refused to enforce her subpoena for the motherboards from seized gambling devices, we hold the court did not abuse its discretion given that the motherboards had been auctioned off or destroyed. As to appellant’s contention that the trial court violated her right to compulsory process when it did not allow her to question a bank teller about seized funds, we hold that she failed to preserve this complaint for appellate review. We therefore affifm the trial court’s judgment.

Background

From October 22 to November 9, 2010, the Harris County Sheriffs Department conducted an undercover investigation of the “Treasure Island Arcade.” As part of the investigation, an undercover deputy, Terrence Burks, visited the arcade on three different occasions and gambled on several' video gaming devices, commonly known as “eight-liners.” Deputy Burks determined the eight-liners were illegal because they paid out more than five dollars, or more than ten times the value of the original wager. During one of his visits to the Treasure Island Arcade, Deputy Burks placed a 40-cent wager and won $108.80. Appellant was' working as a floor attendant at the arcade and paid Deputy Burks his winnings in cash.

As,a result of Deputy Burks’s investigation, a search warrant was obtained and executed on November 9, 2010. Appellant was working her assigned shift as a floor room attendant when the search warrant was executed. During the search, deputies seized approximately seventy gambling devices and the money found inside the arcade, including the money inside the eight-liners. After the warrant was executed and the premises were secured, Sergeant Touchasee Kributr interviewed appellant inside one of the arcade’s offices. Appellant was not read her Miranda warnings before or during the interview, a recording of which was admitted into evi *784 dence. 1 Sergeant Kributr and appellant each testified that Kributr advised appellant she was not under arrest and was free to leave at any time. Kributr asked appellant if she would voluntarily agree to talk with him about the arcade’s operations. Appellant told Kributr that her duties were to give change to. the customers, pay out cash, and keep the arcade’s refrigerator clean and loaded with snacks. Furthermore, appellant admitted that she was aware gambling was illegal in Texas and that Treasure Island Arcade was involved in illegal gambling.

Appellant was charged in February 2011 with possession of a gambling device. Appellant filed a motion to dismiss the case based on a defective complaint and invalid information, and the trial court granted the motion on July 11, 2011. The State then refiled the complaint and information against appellant on July 15, 20Í1. The State, however, failed to arrest appellant for nearly two years. As a result, appellant was unaware that a warrant had been issued for her arrest.

In July 2013, appellant finally became aware of the outstanding warrant against her and surrendered to police. Appellant was tried and convicted of possession of, a gambling device. She was sentenced to serve two days’ imprisonment' in the county jail and fined $700. Appellant timely filed this appeal:

Analysis

I. Appellant waived any error concerning the trial court’s jurisdiction by failing to object to the undated jurat in the complaint.

In her first issue, appellant argues that the trial court never’had jurisdiction because the complaint lacked a date in the jurat, rendering the charging instrument invalid. For misdemeanor offenses, a prosecutor “shall forthwith prepare an information based upon such complaint and file the same in the court having jurisdiction.” Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 2.05 (West 2005). Appellant contends in her first issue that a complaint lacking a date in the jurat is fundamentally defective, citing Shackelford v. State, 516 S.W.2d 180 (Tex.Crim.App.1974). Shack-elford held that because “there can be no valid information in the absence of a valid complaint, a complaint without a proper jurat will not support an information.” Id.

We hold that appellant failed to preserve this challenge in the trial court. If a “defendant does not object to a defect, error, or irregularity of form or substance in an indictment or information before the date on which the trial on the merits commences, he waives and forfeits the right to object to the defect, error, or irregularity, and he may not raise -the objection on appeal or in any other postconviction proceeding.” Ramirez v. State, 105 S.W.3d 628, 630 (Tex.Crim.App.2003). Appellant does not point out where in the' record she timely objected tu the alleged defect, and our own independent review of the record failed to locate an objection. Because appellant failed to object to the allegedly defective complaint on-which the information was based, we overrule appellant’s first issue. ' •

II. Appellant’s right to a speedy trial was not violated.

In her third issue, appellant argues she is entitled to dismissal because her right to a speedy trial was violated as a result of a twenty-seven-month delay between the date she was. formally charged with possession of a gambling device and the date of her motion seeking dismissal on speedy-trial grounds.

*785 A. Standard of review and applicable law

An áccused is guaranteed the right to a speedy trial under both the United States and Texas Constitutions. U.S. Const, amend. VI; Tex. Const, art. I, § 10. Texas courts apply the same standard to enforce the state constitutional right to a speedy trial as federal courts use to enforce the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. Harris v. State,

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Esther Garcia Ortega v. State, 472 S.W.3d 779, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 7924, 2015 WL 4594113 (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

472 S.W.3d 779 (Esther Garcia Ortega v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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