Gonzalez v. State

544 S.W.3d 363
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 11, 2018
DocketNO. PD–0181–17
StatusPublished
Cited by338 cases

This text of 544 S.W.3d 363 (Gonzalez v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gonzalez v. State, 544 S.W.3d 363 (Tex. 2018).

Opinion

NEWELL, J., delivered the unanimous opinion of the Court.

Appellant, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, was charged with capital murder of a police officer. The jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of murder and sentenced him to fifty years' imprisonment. During the trial, the State introduced evidence that Appellant had taken ecstasy earlier in the day while at school and that he had additional ecstasy pills in his possession when he committed the offense. The court of appeals reversed, holding the admission of the drug evidence was erroneous and *365harmful. We granted review to determine whether the court of appeals erred in its analysis regarding the admission of the drug evidence and its harm. While we agree that the evidence was erroneously admitted, we disagree that the admission of the evidence was harmful. We will reverse.

Background

On September 25, 2012, Appellant and his two friends, Alan Medrano and Juan Gomez, were walking home from school.1 Gomez "keyed" several parked cars as they walked down Trowbridge Avenue, a residential street in El Paso. One of those cars belonged to police officer Jonathan Molina, who was off-duty at the time. Molina confronted Gomez. There is some dispute as to what occurred next, but the encounter eventually escalated into a fight. During the fight, Appellant used a judo move to take Molina to the ground causing Molina's head to strike the sidewalk. The blow to Molina's head caused a fatal brain injury.2

The State's Case

The details of the incident were presented by three passerby witnesses, Mario Ramos, Laura Mena, Erin Lile, and Appellant's friend Medrano.3 The passerby witnesses did not know Appellant, Appellant's friends, nor Molina prior to the day of offense. At trial, they referred to Appellant and his friends as "the teenagers," differentiating between them by their physical descriptions and involvement in the incident. They each testified that Appellant was easily identified as the tallest of the three teenagers. They referred to Molina as "the older man." For clarity, we refer the participants by their names.

Mario Ramos was driving westbound on Trowbridge Avenue between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on the day of the incident.4 He noticed a group of males standing close to each other and their body language caught his attention. He pulled over two or three houses down and observed the situation through his side-view mirror. He noticed that Appellant was arguing with Molina, and the other two teens were not involved. Ramos could not hear the argument between them. Appellant had his back to Ramos, preventing Ramos from seeing Appellant's facial expressions and blocking Ramos's direct view of Molina. Ramos observed Appellant punch Molina and both men fell; Molina did not see how they landed. About ten seconds later, Appellant and his friends began walking away and then broke into a run. Ramos performed a U-turn with his vehicle. He saw Molina on the ground, apparently seizing, and called 911. Ramos followed the teens for about *366two and a half minutes before losing sight of them. Later at the police station, Ramos identified Appellant out of a line-up, but qualified the identification: Appellant was "one of the guys that was in the group but not sure."

Laura Mena was also driving westbound on Trowbridge Avenue between 4:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Mena noticed a group of people in the driveway of a house with an elderly woman sitting on the porch. Mena made a U-turn because she thought there was going to be a fight and she didn't want the elderly woman to see it. By the time she parked and exited her car, Appellant and his friends were already walking down the street and Molina was on the ground. Mena called out to the teens to come back, but Appellant threw his hand up in the air and pointed his index finger skyward; they did not return. Mena noticed Molina was having some type of seizure and she called 911.

Erin Lile was driving eastbound on Trowbridge Avenue with her daughter that afternoon. She saw what looked like an after school fight. As she passed the group, Appellant and Molina raised their arms to each other, then broke apart and backed up from each other. Then, from her rear view mirror, she saw Appellant "bum rush" Molina, which she described as running towards him and knocking him off his feet. Appellant then jumped on top of Molina and started "pummeling" him, which Lile described as punching him in the face. Lile then made a U-turn. She noticed Molina was making a snoring sound and was trying to get up. His forehead was knotted up and his whole face was "blown up" from being injured. Lile noticed Molina had a gun on his waistband and instructed Laura Mena, who was on the phone with the police, to tell them that Molina had a gun. She sent her daughter back to the car and they stayed at the scene until the police let them go.

The State also called Appellant's friend, Alan Medrano, to testify.5 According to Medrano, he was walking home from school with Appellant and Gomez along Trowbridge Avenue. As they were walking, Medrano noticed that Gomez had a piece of metal and was scratching cars.6 One of the cars turned out to be Molina's. As they were crossing the street, Medrano heard Molina yelling from his house to come back; he testified that Molina was mad and aggressive. However, Medrano had originally told the police that Molina was not mad and just yelled "Hey bro." According to Molina, the three ignored Molina and kept walking.

When they were on the next block down, Molina pulled up beside the boys in his car. Molina got out of his car and asked Gomez why he scratched his car; Gomez denied scratching the car and the two began to argue. According to Medrano, Molina started to curse at Gomez, calling him a "little kid" and a "fag," but Medrano's earlier statement to the police never included that word. Less than a minute into the argument between Molina and Gomez, Appellant stepped in. Medrano explained that Appellant tried to calm the situation by telling Molina to "chill out." Appellant and Molina began to argue and got closer to each other. Molina told the three teens to "get the fuck out of there," but Appellant replied that it was a public sidewalk.

*367Molina then told Appellant that he was a police officer. Appellant demanded to see Molina's badge and Molina responded, "I don't have to show you shit." Medrano's prior statement to the police, however, indicated that when Appellant asked to see Molina's badge, Molina merely told the elderly woman on the porch to "call the cops, call the police." Medrano testified that the argument continued, with Molina and Appellant getting within three inches of each other before Molina pushed Appellant with his shoulder. According to Medrano, Appellant responded immediately by hitting Molina, though Medrano later acknowledged that he had told the police earlier that Molina had turned his attention away from Appellant and began to yell at Gomez when Appellant hit him. According to Medrano's statement to the police, Appellant hit Molina "because he got mad." Medrano testified that Molina then raised his hands as if he was ready to fight before Appellant hit him again. However, Medrano did not mention that Molina had put his fists up in his police statement.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
544 S.W.3d 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gonzalez-v-state-texcrimapp-2018.