Flores v. State

895 S.W.2d 435, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 566, 1995 WL 46520
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 8, 1995
Docket04-93-00554-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 895 S.W.2d 435 (Flores 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
Flores v. State, 895 S.W.2d 435, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 566, 1995 WL 46520 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

OPINION

RICKHOFF, Justice.

Cesar Flores, appellant, was convicted of unlawfully carrying a weapon. He raises three points of error: (1) that his motion to suppress the evidence of guns found in his car was wrongly denied; (2) that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction; and (3) that his motion for directed verdict was wrongly denied. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Joe Patterson testified at the pre-trial suppression hearing that around 8:00 p.m. on March 28, 1993, after his children and others had just completed little league practice, he saw headlights and heard rapid gunfire coming from an area northeast of his position, behind the park swimming pool. Patterson said he had been a “weapons expert” in the military. He used a cellular telephone to dial 911. He watched the headlights until a “white-with-blue-trim Bronco” appeared. He testified that he saw no other vehicles in the vicinity of the shooting. He was on the phone with the dispatcher when the vehicle came close enough for him to see that it contained a driver and one passenger. Patterson described the vehicle’s location and direction as it exited the east side of the park. He also said he heard a number of shots fired from the area where the Bronco was. Just as he was hanging-up the phone, he noticed a police car turn around and follow the vehicle with lights flashing.

During the trial,1 he testified that he had at first told the children on the field to get down because he did not know whether the shots were fired in their direction. He estimated the range at about 200 to 250 yards away. He said the headlights he observed were from the only vehicle in the vicinity and he visually followed the headlights until he could identify the vehicle and the figures of two people inside. He saw a police (as it turned out, Officer Skrzycki’s) vehicle follow the same Bronco and later saw a wrecker picking it up at a nearby Circle K store. On cross-examination he stated he could not actually see the muzzle flash coming from the Bronco when the shots were fired.

Shannon Hollamon, a police dispatcher with the Seguin Police Department, also testified at trial. During her testimony the State introduced State’s Exhibit No. 1, a transcription of Patterson’s 911 telephone call.2 It reads as follows:

[439]*439DISPATCHER SHANNON HOLLA-MON: Seguin Police?
JOE PATTERSON: Yes, this is Joe Patterson.
DISPATCHER: Yes.
PATTERSON: I’m down at the Senior League baseball field at Little League Complex.
DISPATCHER: Right.
PATTERSON: And some fool is riding through the park area, Parkview.
DISPATCHER: Is he shooting?
PATTERSON: Yes.
DISPATCHER: What kind of ear?
PATTERSON: It was a piek-up — it wasn’t a pick-up. It was a Ford Bronco, possible—
DISPATCHER: Ford.
PATTERSON: —white and—
DISPATCHER: Hang on.
PATTERSON: —blue and white. You heard it already?
DISPATCHER: Blue and white Ford Bronco. Hang on. Seguin 945. Which way is it headed?
PATTERSON: Right now, it’s going back into the park area, over by the—
DISPATCHER: Okay. The shots are seen coming from a blue and white Ford Bronco headed back into the park area. To like the — on the east — east side of the park?
PATTERSON: Yes.
DISPATCHER: Seguin 945, it will be on the east side of the park.
PATTERSON: You all got calls on it?
DISPATCHER: Yeah, uh-huh, but we didn’t have vehicle description so this—
PATTERSON: Yeah.
DISPATCHER: —helps us tremendously. What’s your—
PATTERSON: Sound [sic] like a nine millimeter.
DISPATCHER: Sound [sic] like a nine millimeter, is what they’re shooting.
OFFICER: 10-4, come — coming up to Guadalupe.
PATTERSON: Yes.
DISPATCHER: Okay.
PATTERSON: All righty?
DISPATCHER: Okay. What’s your phone number?
PATTERSON: I’m at a — I’m at a mobile.
DISPATCHER: Okay.
PATTERSON: 260-8586.
DISPATCHER: Okay. Can you still see the vehicle?
PATTERSON: No, it’s gone out of sight.
UNKNOWN: 41, 46.
DISPATCHER: Okay. Thank you, sir.
PATTERSON: Uh-huh.
DISPATCHER: Bye-bye.
PATTERSON: Bye-bye.

Tarinna Skrzycki, a Seguin police officer, testified at the suppression hearing that she received a call reporting shots fired in an area three to four blocks from the park. While responding to that call she received another dispatch concerning shots fired on the east side of the park. The vehicle was described as a white and blue Bronco and was reported to be leaving the east side of the park. She observed a vehicle matching this description in the area reported by the dispatcher. She turned around, activated her police lights and pulled up behind the vehicle at a Circle K store. When she exited her patrol car the driver of the Bronco opened the door but did not get out. For her own safety, she said she pulled her revolver and asked both occupants to step out and put their hands on top of the Bronco. She testified that the suspects were not free to leave until she completed her investigation, but that they were not handcuffed until the weapons were found.

Officer Thomas Edward Meeley testified at the suppression hearing and at trial that after hearing a dispatch concerning shots fired from a white and blue Bronco, he arrived on the scene after Officer Skrzycki and, in his words, “I exited my patrol car, walked [440]*440up and cheeked the vehicle real quick; and I saw a clip laying on the center console of the vehicle.” In the closed console he found a semiautomatic Glock .40 pistol that matched the clip. Both contained black talon rounds. He then went around the side of the vehicle and placed the suspects in handcuffs. Behind the driver’s seat he found a loaded Login .380 handgun in a paper bag on the floor behind the driver’s seat. A third officer testified that he found a .22 caliber rifle and a box of bullets in a case in the back of the Bronco.

The Bronco’s passenger, Abel Soto, did not testify at the suppression hearing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
895 S.W.2d 435, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 566, 1995 WL 46520, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flores-v-state-texapp-1995.