Gonzales v. State

807 S.W.2d 830, 1991 WL 41040
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 3, 1991·No. 01-89-00183-CR·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinion

OPINION

WILSON, Justice.

A jury found appellant guilty of murder, made a deadly weapon finding, and assessed punishment at life imprisonment. Central to our consideration of this appeal is the confession given by appellant to the Houston police department the day following the commission of the crime. We affirm.

On July 17, 1988, sometime between noon and 2:00 p.m., 19-year-old Anthony Salazar’s life was ended by a brutal homicide, likely drug related. Salazar was stabbed to death in his garage apartment by an assailant wielding a knife. The autopsy revealed Salazar’s body received 26 cutting or stabbing wounds, four of which were of sufficient magnitude to inflict death. One of the possibly fatal wounds was in decedent’s back.

The murder investigation’s link between the homicide and appellant’s alleged involvement was related by State’s witness R.C. Garcia, a Houston police officer assigned to the homicide division. Garcia *832 testified he became active in the case on the morning following the murder by reviewing the reports of other investigators.

Based on the preliminary reports, Garcia proceeded to interview a witness named Pedro Elizondo. This interview resulted in Garcia’s decision to visit appellant.

Garcia went to appellant’s house, and it is uncontroverted appellant promptly agreed to help with the investigation by immediately accompanying Garcia to the police station to answer questions. On the way to the police station, Garcia read appellant his Miranda 2 rights from a card the officer carried. The officer testified appellant stated he understood those rights as he had just been studying about them in his government class. At the police station, appellant was taken to an interview room in the homicide division where questioning began, first by Officer Garcia, and later by Sergeant Foster and his partner.

Salazar’s aunt, Louise DeHoyos, testified she helped in cleaning Salazar’s apartment. During the cleaning, she found a bloody shirt and undershirt in trash bags ready to be thrown out. DeHoyos stated she knew the shirts did not belong to Salazar. At some point after the shirts were found, and coincidentally, during the same time period appellant was being questioned by homicide officers, Salazar’s mother called police about the discovery. Officers picked up the shirts from Salazar’s family and took them to the station.

Sergeant Foster testified that during appellant’s interview, he showed the bloody shirt to appellant. On seeing the shirt, appellant became visibly shaken, and admitted the shirt was his and that he had killed Salazar. Foster then placed appellant under arrest) read him his Miranda rights, and ultimately took a written confession from him.

In point of error one, appellant complains the trial judge did not file findings of fact and conclusions of law on the voluntariness of the written statement taken from appellant by police. On November 22, 1989, this Court entered an order abating this appeal and directing the trial court to make findings of fact and conclusions of law in compliance with Tex.Code Crim.P.Ann. art. 38.-22, § 6 (Vernon 1979). On February 8, 1990, the trial court supplemented the appellate record in compliance with this Court’s order.

Therefore, appellant’s first point of error is moot and is hereby overruled.

In point of error two, appellant contends the trial court committed reversible error by admitting appellant’s written statement. He claims there was uncontra-dicted testimony by appellant that the statement was made as a result of coercive acts by police, and was therefore inadmissible at trial.

While appellant did not testify at the Jackson v. Denno 3 hearing, he did testify during trial that while being questioned by the police he was afraid and confused, and was so exhausted that he laid his head on the table and only responded by shaking his head. He further stated that when the officers showed him the shirt, he turned his head and told them he didn’t want to look at it, but they kept insisting that he look. Appellant contends his testimony clearly shows the officers were aware that the sight of blood made him ill. Appellant also testified that, due to his state of confusion and exhaustion, he did not read the statement before he signed it.

Appellant contends this testimony is evidence of coercion, and since it is uncon-tradieted, the confession was inadmissible. In support of this claim, he relies on Farr v. State, 519 S.W.2d 876 (Tex.Crim.App.1975), and the line of cases citing the rule set forth in Farr. The rule declared in Farr is that when an accused testifies the confession was a result of coercive acts by police, and this testimony is uncontradicted, the confession is inadmissible as a matter of law. Id. at 880. However, when the facts are disputed regarding coercion, it is a question for the trier of fact whether the confession was voluntarily given. Id. The *833 totality of the circumstances surrounding the confession must be considered by the fact finder when determining whether a confession was voluntarily given. McCoy v. State, 713 S.W.2d 940, 955 (Tex.Crim.App.1986), cer t. denied, 480 U.S. 940, 107 S.Ct. 1590, 94 L.Ed.2d 779 (1987).

Mere emotionalism or confusion alone does not render a confession inadmissible. Appellant’s testimony that he confessed after officers showed him the bloody shirt does not itself amount to evidence of coercion. Rather, it shows that the confession was an emotional reaction to the bloody shirt. Further, Sergeant Foster testified appellant exhibited no discomfort even after the shirt was shown to him. The fact that appellant was confronted with legal evidence of his guilt does not affect the admissibility of his confession. Thomas v. State, 629 S.W.2d 112, 115 (Tex.App. — Dallas 1981), aff'd, 638 S.W.2d 481 (Tex.Crim.App.1982).

Appellant complains that he was interrogated nonstop for four and one-half hours by three different officers working in shifts. There was testimony from officers that not only was appellant not coerced in any way, he was also free to leave at any time before he admitted killing Salazar. Officers further testified that appellant was not promised anything, nor was he threatened in any way.

Officer Garcia was the first to interview appellant. Garcia testified that after speaking with appellant for two hours, Garcia had to leave to go to another job. At that time, he asked appellant if he needed to leave. Garcia told appellant that if it was an inconvenience for appellant to stay, Garcia would make arrangements to have him taken home. Garcia stated that “[appellant] wanted' to be there.”

When Garcia left, Sergeant Foster took over the investigation.

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Gonzales v. State, 807 S.W.2d 830, 1991 WL 41040 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

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