Frizzell C. Henderson, III v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 12, 1998
Docket03-96-00446-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Frizzell C. Henderson, III v. State (Frizzell C. Henderson, III 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
Frizzell C. Henderson, III v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN




NO. 03-96-00446-CR
Frizzell C. Henderson, III, Appellant


v.



The State of Texas, Appellee



FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, 368TH JUDICIAL
DISTRICT

NO. 95-712-K368, HONORABLE BURT CARNES, JUDGE PRESIDING

Frizzell C. Henderson, III, ("appellant") was charged in a four-count indictment with engaging in organized criminal activity by conspiring to deliver a controlled substance (Count I), delivery of a controlled substance (Count II), conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery (Count III), and attempted aggravated robbery (Count IV). A jury rejected appellant's pleas of not guilty and convicted him of all four counts. The trial court, finding that a deadly weapon was used in the commission of each offense, assessed punishment at thirty years in prison on Count I and Count II and twenty years in prison on Count III and Count IV. Appellant raises ten points of error on appeal, attacking the sufficiency of the evidence as to Counts I, II and IV and the affirmative deadly weapon findings as to Counts I, II, and III. Appellant does not challenge his conviction for conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery, and the judgment stands on that basis. Further, he does not challenge the deadly weapon finding as to his conviction for attempted aggravated robbery. While we will sustain the challenges to the deadly weapon findings as to Counts I and II, we will affirm the convictions in all other respects.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Kevin Michael Salgado (Kevin) mailed his cousin, Michael Salgado, ten pounds of marihuana. Michael was supposed to deliver the marihuana to Kevin's buyer. On January 5, 1995, as Michael was receiving the marihuana, he was apprehended by an Austin Police Department ("APD") officer posing as a United Parcel Service delivery man. In return for no charges being filed against him, Michael agreed to set up a larger deal with Kevin. When Kevin could not arrange a one-hundred-pound marihuana sale, he and Michael lowered their sights to a two-kilogram cocaine deal. As part of the sting, Michael bought an eighth of an ounce of cocaine from Kevin on April 28, 1995. At the buy, Kevin told Michael that the cocaine in the two-kilo deal was as good as, or better than, the sample. He also told him the cocaine would cost $35,000. Michael paid $150 for the sample to Dawn Seely, Kevin's girlfriend. The two-kilo drug transaction was scheduled to transpire that weekend but had to be rescheduled twice, once because Kevin got a tip that federal agents were in town and once again because APD did not have the manpower for the operation. The parties finally agreed that the deal would take place on May 13, 1995.

On the day before, Dawn, now acting as the middleman in place of Kevin, informed Michael that the cocaine would be at her house the next morning. Michael was supposed to arrive at Dawn's house with the money. The cocaine, however, was not at Dawn's house the next day. While he was waiting at her residence, Michael saw Dawn make a phone call and heard her speak to someone named "Frizzell." Dawn then told Michael that "they" did not want to show the cocaine until "they" saw the money. At the prompting of the APD officers, Michael suggested they make the buy at the Drury Inn. After the officers had set up at the Drury Inn, Michael contacted Dawn. Dawn told Michael that the suppliers had changed their minds about the location and wanted to meet at the same place where Michael bought the sample of cocaine, a house in a residential neighborhood. Not wanting to send Michael to the house by himself with the money, APD arranged for an undercover officer, Stan Farris, to act as the buyer and accompany Michael to the buy.

Once Officer Farris and Michael arrived at the house, they showed Dawn the money, which was in the trunk of Farris' car. (1) Afterwards, they went inside and waited for the suppliers to arrive. Dawn told Farris that she had gone to high school with appellant, that she knew him well, that she had done business with him in the past, and that the cocaine he had to sell was very good quality. Dawn then paged someone. The page was immediately returned, and Farris heard Dawn speaking to someone named "Frizzell." She told the person on the phone that the money was at the house. After the phone call, Dawn told Michael and Farris that the cocaine would be at the house in five to ten minutes.

About ten or fifteen minutes later, appellant and Steven Wallace Flournoy, Jr., (Steve) pulled up in front of the house in appellant's Saab, which appellant was driving. Dawn and Farris went outside. For the next twenty-five to thirty minutes, Dawn negotiated with Farris, who was in his car, and appellant and Steve, who remained in appellant's car. Appellant and Steve would not show Farris the drugs but kept asking to see the money. Farris refused numerous times to show them any money without first seeing the drugs. At one point, appellant demanded to see just $22,000 of the $35,000. Farris repeatedly asked for them to at least hold up the package containing the drugs before he showed them any money. Appellant and Steve then left the scene for about ten minutes but called Dawn to tell her they were returning. Their proposed plan was for Farris to send Dawn over to appellant's car with the money. Appellant and Steve would remove the drugs from the trunk, take the money out of the briefcase, place the drugs in the briefcase and send it back to Farris via Dawn.

Upon returning to the house, Steve retrieved a package wrapped in a green towel from the trunk of the car and placed it in a bag. He got back into the passenger seat and waived the package as if to show they had the drugs. (2) Farris testified that, at that point, he was sure the transaction was not a legitimate drug deal but a "rip-off." Although he gave the signal for the bust, Farris continued to pretend as if he were retrieving the money from the car until the police cover team arrived so as not to tip off appellant and Steve. He did not want the suspects to leave the scene and cause a high speed chase. In addition, Farris further testified that he was afraid appellant and Steve might have a gun because most rip-offs involve guns. In fact, when the police team arrived, one of the officers found a loaded gun on the floor of the passenger side of appellant's car.

After his arrest but while he was still at the scene, appellant made a statement to an officer. He said that Dawn told him that she had a buyer for two kilos of cocaine. She then asked appellant and Steve if they could supply the drugs. Appellant said they called Dawn and told her they had the two kilos of cocaine. He claimed that they planned to rob Dawn and the buyers and that was the sole reason they told her they had the drugs. Appellant also talked to the officer about the gun found at the scene. He said that he and Steve brought the gun in case the deal went bad. He further explained that they needed the gun because they had wrapped up a Nintendo video game to look like cocaine, and, if Dawn opened it and saw it was not the cocaine, they were still going to get the money. Appellant admitted that they would have done whatever it took to get the money, even if he and Steve had to shoot somebody. Appellant then acknowledged his ownership of the gun.

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Frizzell C. Henderson, III v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frizzell-c-henderson-iii-v-state-texapp-1998.