Gomez v. State

234 S.W.3d 696, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 5152, 2007 WL 1881499
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 29, 2007
Docket07-05-0460-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 234 S.W.3d 696 (Gomez 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
Gomez v. State, 234 S.W.3d 696, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 5152, 2007 WL 1881499 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION

MACKEY K. HANCOCK, Justice.

Appellant, Michael Gomez, was convicted of murder and sentenced to forty years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and fined $10,000. Appellant challenges the conviction by three issues: 1) that the arrest of appellant was illegal and the evidence obtained as a result of the arrest should have been suppressed; 2) that the trial court erred in refusing to give a requested jury instruction regarding the legality of appellant’s arrest; and 3) the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to prove each essential element of the crime charged. We affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

In early June 2004, the Lubbock Police Department received a “Crime Line” tip regarding Julio Arismendez, III, and appellant. As a result of the tip, Detective Ray Martinez, of the Lubbock Police Department, began investigating a possible crime involving the two individuals. After some initial investigation, Detective Martinez contacted Hockley County officials about a body found in Hockley County that might be that of Arismendez. The body, which was determined to be Arismendez, was found at an abandoned farm house in Hockley County by Anthony Lozano, a friend of Arismendez, and Genaro Garcia, a cousin of Arismendez.

Subsequently, appellant was arrested in Lubbock by Corporal Ray Lara. Lara initially stopped the vehicle, in which appellant was riding, after ascertaining that a female associated with the vehicle was shown to have an outstanding warrant for her arrest. After determining that there was a female among the three occupants of the vehicle, Lara stopped the vehicle. Appellant was asked to identify himself and gave a fictitious name. Upon discovery of appellant’s deceit, appellant was arrested for failure to identify. Incident to the arrest of the female and the appellant, an inventory of the vehicle was performed and items seized from the vehicle were later admitted into evidence at appellant’s trial. Additionally, appellant gave incriminating statements to the police after the stop and after being given his Miranda warnings. 1

*700 Appellant filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized and various statements made as a result of the stop of the vehicle and his arrest. The trial court denied appellant’s motion to suppress during pretrial hearings. After the evidence at the guilt/innocence phase of the trial had concluded, appellant requested a jury charge on the legality of the arrest and seizure of evidence, pursuant to article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. The trial court denied the request. The jury found the appellant guilty and he now appeals.

Initial Detention

Appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress because the arrest was made without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. Appellant posits that, as a result of the illegality of the arrest, the evidence seized at the time of the arrest and the subsequent statements made by appellant should have been excluded. Appellant based his suppression motion and objections to the evidence on the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution; article I, section 9 of the Texas Constitution; and article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

Appellant contends the testimony of Lara did not establish any legal justification to stop the vehicle in which appellant was riding. The record reveals that Lara was on patrol in the city of Lubbock when he began to pass the vehicle in which appellant was riding. As Lara got next to the vehicle, he looked at the driver, who appeared nervous, and saw the right front passenger bend down and commence what Lara described as “a lot of furtive movement.” Based upon these observations, Lara made a determination to run the vehicle’s registration number for warrants. He pulled in behind the vehicle and ran the vehicle’s registration number. The registration check revealed that the owner, a young female, had a warrant outstanding. Lara testified that he then pulled next to the vehicle at a traffic light to determine if any passengers were female. Upon observing that a passenger was a female, Lara got behind the vehicle and initiated a traffic stop.

Appellant zeroes in on Lara’s testimony on cross-examination when Lara agreed with the statement of appellant’s counsel that, after obtaining the information from the computer and verifying that a passenger was female, “Basically you are guessing that that was who it was.” Appellant asserts that this testimony on cross-examination dooms the admission of any evidence or statements obtained as a result of the stop because it proves that Lara had neither probable cause nor a reasonable suspicion to support the initial stop of the vehicle.

We generally review the granting or denial of a motion to suppress under an abuse of discretion standard. See Oles v. State, 993 S.W.2d 103, 106 (Tex.Crim.App.1999). However, if the facts determinative of the motion are undisputed, then the review is de novo. Id. When, as here, there are no explicit findings of fact made by the trial court, appellate courts assume that the trial court made implicit findings of fact which find support in the record and which support the conclusion of the court. See State v. Ross, 32 S.W.3d 853, 855 (Tex.Crim.App.2000).

In determining if Lara’s temporary detention of the vehicle was justified, we must determine whether Lara articulated specific facts which, when taken together with rational inferences arising from those facts, constitute reasonable suspicion. See Woods v. State, 956 S.W.2d 33, 38 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). The decision to *701 detain someone is made from a consideration of the totality of the facts. Garcia v. State, 43 S.W.3d 527, 530 (Tex.Crim.App.2001).

Lara’s testimony reveals the following facts relied upon in deciding whether or not to detain the vehicle: 1) the nervous appearance of the driver when he noticed the police car; 2) the passenger ducking down below eye level while making furtive movements; 3) obtaining the computer readout on the vehicle’s registration that showed a female associated with the vehicle had an outstanding warrant; and 4) ascertaining that a passenger was, in fact, a female. This information was sufficient to justify Lara’s stop of the vehicle, as it was more than just a hunch or some un-particularized suspicion of wrongdoing. United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989). The appellant relies upon words taken from precise questions to attempt to demonstrate that Lara lacked any reasonable suspicion to detain the vehicle in which appellant was riding. However, as pointed out above, it is the totality of the circumstances that must be considered. Garcia, 43 S.W.3d at 530.

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

Related

Roman Angelo Royal v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Daniel Ray Garcia v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Gregorio Ramirez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Almaguer, Arturo Sanchez
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Curtis Allen Garrison v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Arturo Sanchez Almaguer v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
234 S.W.3d 696, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 5152, 2007 WL 1881499, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gomez-v-state-texapp-2007.