Glauser v. State

66 S.W.3d 307, 2000 WL 1476677
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 16, 2001
Docket01-98-00891-CR, 01-98-00892-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 66 S.W.3d 307 (Glauser 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
Glauser v. State, 66 S.W.3d 307, 2000 WL 1476677 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

OPINION ON FURTHER MOTION FOR REHEARING AND FOR REHEARING EN BANC

PRICE, Justice.

We issued an opinion affirming appellant’s convictions on March 16, 2000. Appellant’s counsel filed a motion for rehearing which we denied in a per curiam opinion on May 18, 2000. Justice O’Con-nor filed a dissenting opinion on motion for rehearing.

On June 16, 2000, appellant filed a further motion for rehearing and for rehearing en banc. These motions are denied. [310]*310However, we withdraw our previous opinions and issue the following opinion.

Appellant, William Walton Glauser, was convicted by a jury of two charges of intoxication manslaughter. See TexPenal Code § 49.08. The jury assessed punishment at four years imprisonment in each case. In nine points of error, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence, and complains of the following trial errors: the trial court’s overruling of his objection to the State’s voir dire; the trial court’s denial of two of appellant’s challenges for cause; the State’s jury arguments on guilt and punishment; and the trial court’s submission to the jury of the special issue on the use of a deadly weapon. We affirm.

THE FACTS

On Saturday, December 14, 1996, 18-year-old Jason Faul and 15 year old Autumn Alford spent the evening with friends in Galveston. Between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. the next morning, Faul borrowed Amanda Nixon’s 1988 Hyundai to take Alford home. Neither Faul nor Alford had been drinking.

During the early morning hours of December 15, 1996, Donald Ciaccio, traveling with passengers Gary Johnson and Dan Robinson, was driving south on Interstate 45 north of Almeda mall. A black Honda Accord, which appeared to be going 100 to 120 miles per hour, passed their vehicle. They later saw the same Honda parked on the shoulder of the road and a man urinating beside it. Ciaccio had his cruise control set on 67 miles per hour, and when he drove by the La Marque factory outlet stores, the Honda again passed him in the right lane. Ciaccio estimated its speed at over 100 miles an hour. About 150 yards south, Ciaccio saw the Honda run into the back of the Hyundai. Other than the Hyundai, there were no other cars in front of Ciaccio when appellant passed him. Ci-accio called 911 and stopped to help.

That same morning Robert Meier and his wife were driving south on Interstate 45 in Galveston County. Meier was driving his pickup at 65 miles per hour in the center lane when he noticed a vehicle approaching from behind. The vehicle changed lanes without signaling and went around Meier in the left lane so close that Meier thought the car was going to hit him. Meier estimated the vehicle’s speed to be over 100 miles per hour because “it passed [him] like [he] was standing still.” After it passed Meier, the vehicle returned to the center lane, again without signaling. Other than the speeding vehicle, Meier saw no other cars on the straight highway. About a mile to a mile and a half down the highway, Meier saw an “explosion, a ball of flame.” He pulled over and stopped to render assistance.

Kenneth Walker, John Thayer, and Paul Pinkston were northbound on Interstate 45 that morning. As they crossed an overpass, they saw the explosion on the south side of the highway and also stopped to help. Walker jumped over the median and saw Faul on the highway. After checking Faul’s body for a pulse, he proceeded toward the Hyundai.

Nixon’s Hyundai, its headlights still on, was on fire, and Alford was in the front seat. Meier, Johnson, Walker, and Pink-ston tried unsuccessfully to free her from the car, but the door was jammed and Alford’s legs were trapped. The men flagged down other drivers, asking if anyone had a fire extinguisher or a chain to pull the door open. Alford begged them to put out the fire and pour water on her. She screamed that she was hot. They were not able to get her out of the car or extinguish the fire which engulfed the car. She died at the scene.

[311]*311Appellant was standing next to his Honda Accord when Walker approached. Walker could smell alcohol on appellant. Appellant asked what happened, and Walker told him he had hit somebody. Appellant’s response was that “they were stopped in the middle of the highway.” Pinkston heard appellant say he did not see any lights or flashers.

Department of Public Safety Trooper Wayne Neubauer was dispatched to the scene at 2:52 a.m. and arrived at 2:55 a.m. The La Marque Fire Department, paramedics, the Galveston County Sheriffs Department, and the La Marque Police Department had already arrived. Neu-bauer saw a body, later identified as Faul, in the middle lane of Interstate 45. A red Hyundai was on fire. Appellant was standing beside his Honda. He told Neu-bauer that he was driving, and that “those stupid people just stopped in the road with no lights on.” He also said that he had been going only 45 miles an hour, and that he put on his brakes and tried to miss them. Neubauer smelled a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on appellant’s breath. According to Neubauer, appellant swayed as he stood and slurred his speech when he spoke. In Neubauer’s opinion, appellant was intoxicated.

At the point of impact, Neubauer found no skid marks on the highway to indicate that appellant had applied his brakes before the collision. Neubauer testified that appellant’s Honda in that situation was a deadly weapon. In Neubauer’s opinion, a person traveling 67 miles an hour in the same lane as a disabled vehicle at this location would have seen the disabled vehicle in time to stop. The area was well lit by the lights from the La Marque factory outlet mall just north of the burn scene and by freeway street lights.

The right front side of the Honda sustained significant damage and had human blood and fibers in several locations. Neu-bauer concluded that Faul was outside the Hyundai at impact because of the severe damage to his legs. It is a reasonable inference from the evidence that, at impact, Faul was pushing the disabled Hyundai while Alford was steering from the driver’s side.

Neubauer collected light bulbs from the Hyundai and submitted them to the crime lab. David Spence tested the bulbs and discovered that the two-filament bulb of the right rear brake/running light indicated that one of the filaments was burning at impact.

Appellant was taken by ambulance to John Sealy Hospital in Galveston. Neu-bauer directed Galveston County Sheriffs Deputy Donald Wheelus to collect a sample of appellant’s blood. Wheelus went to the hospital and located appellant in the emergency room. He identified himself and advised appellant of his rights. Appellant consented to having a sample of his blood drawn. Cindy Siurko, a registered nurse working in the emergency room, drew the sample. She smelled alcohol on appellant’s breath. After Wheelus left, Si-urko heard appellant say to one of the nurses, “I’m f — ed, aren’t I?” The nurse asked appellant what he meant, and he said, “Well, I have been drinking on and off all day and I had a couple of more drinks before the accident.”

Wheelus took the blood sample to Neu-bauer who delivered it to the Department of Public Safety crime lab. The lab supervisor, Lou Haby, tested the sample and found it contained 0.21 grams of alcohol per one hundred milliliters of blood.

The Chief Medical Examiner for Galveston County, Dr. William Korndorfer, performed autopsies on the bodies of Faul and Alford. He determined that the numerous injuries to Faul were consistent with his [312]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 S.W.3d 307, 2000 WL 1476677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glauser-v-state-texapp-2001.