Guidroz v. State

679 S.W.2d 586, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6702
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 29, 1984
Docket04-81-00155-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 679 S.W.2d 586 (Guidroz 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
Guidroz v. State, 679 S.W.2d 586, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6702 (Tex. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinions

OPINION

CADENA, Chief Justice.

A jury found appellant guilty of murder, after he had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sentenced to 99 years’ imprisonment.

We consider first appellant’s claim that the trial court erred in denying his motion that the jury be instructed to find him not guilty by reason of insanity because the State had stipulated that at the time of the alleged offense he was legally insane as that term is defined in section 8.01 of the Texas Penal Code in that .. as a result of mental disease and defect, [he] was incapable of conforming his conduct to the requirements of the law he is alleged to have violated in the indictment.” We find no such stipulation in the record.

After a jury had found that appellant was incompetent to stand trial, he was committed to a state hospital. After his release from the hospital some six months later, the court found that he was competent to stand trial. Seven months later a jury again found that appellant was incompetent to stand trial and he was again committed to a state hospital, from which he was released seven months later. It was at the termination of this second competency hearing that the stipulation on which appellant relies was made.

About a month after his second release, after a jury had found him competent to stand trial, appellant was found guilty of murder and his punishment set at 99 years’ imprisonment. Because of further proceedings concerning appellant’s competency, he was not sentenced until about eight months following the finding of guilt.

The stipulation in question is no more than an agreement that, as of some eight months prior to the trial, “all of the evidence known to the State and all doctors report that” appellant was legally insane, as that term is defined in section 8.01, at the time of the offense. The stipulation also provided that the stipulation, doctors’ reports and other testimony introduced at the competency hearing would be admissi[588]*588ble in all future proceedings concerning the offense for which appellant had been indicted.

It must be borne in mind that the hearing in quesiton was limited to determination of appellant’s competency to stand trial. The question of appellant’s mental condition at the time of the offense was, at most, only peripherally relevant at that time. The State presented no evidence concerning appellant’s mental condition on the date of the offense. The stipulation merely recited that as of the time of the stipulation all of the evidence known to the State, which was the testimony presented by appellant at the hearing, was to the effect that appellant was legally insane on the date of the offense. Nowhere in the stipulation does the State admit that appellant was legally insane on the date of commission of the offense.

The meaning of the stipulation is so clear that, at the trial, appellant’s counsel conceded that he had not understood that the State had agreed that appellant was insane at the time of the offense.

The trial court did not err in refusing to instruct the jury to find appellant not guilty by reason of insanity nor, in view of the nature of the stipulation, did the trial court err in permitting the State to introduce evidence that appellant was not legally insane at the time of the offense.

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction. Although this contention is phrased in terms of the State’s failure to prove that he intentionally or knowingly killed his wife, it is clear that he relies solely on his plea of insanity to negative the existence of the required culpable mental state.

Under section 8.01, insanity is an affirmative defense and the burden was on appellant, under section 2.04 of the Penal Code, to establish the existence of the defense by a preponderance of the evidence. Under the record in this case, appellant’s contention that the evidence is insufficient to establish the required culpable mental state is technically incorrect, since, as already pointed out, it rests solely on the existence of a fact—legal insanity—which appellant had the burden of proving. Appellant’s point, since it assumes that the State had the burden of proving that appellant was not legally insane, misplaces the burden of proof. However, we shall treat appellant’s points concerning the quantum of the evidence as embodying the contention that he established his legal insanity at the time of the offense as a matter of law.

All of the medical experts testified that appellant was legally insane at the time of the offense. But expert testimony, even if uncontradicted, does not establish insanity as a matter of law. Such unrebut-ted testimony only raises an issue of fact to be resolved by the trier of fact. Graham v. State, 566 S.W.2d 941, 949-50 (Tex.Crim. App.1978). Even if we were to adopt the indefensible position that appellant’s claim that insanity was conclusively established can be determined by considering only the evidence supporting a finding of insanity and disregarding all evidence to the contrary, appellant’s contention is without merit.

Several non-expert witnesses testified at length concerning appellant’s behavior. All agreed that he never exhibited unusual, peculiar or irrational behavior. Although the experts testified that a man suffering from the mental defect they attributed to appellant could not render satisfactory performance on the job, the testimony of appellant’s employer was that appellant performed his duties in a satisfactory manner and had done nothing to create any problems. The evidence showed that appellant read many books on the subject of mental illness and was familiar with symptoms of such illness. In fact, he had boasted to several persons that he had secured his discharge from the military service by pretending to be insane.

The medical experts based their diagnoses on their observations of appellant after the date of the offense. They relied strongly on his irrational behavior and statements. However, several lay witnesses testified emphatically that appellant had [589]*589not behaved in such fashion prior to or at the time of the killing.

Although no witness testified, in so many words, that appellant was sane, the testimony of his family and acquaintances painted a picture of a person who acted normally at all times, was well acquainted with behavior patterns of the mentally ill, and boasted that he could successfully feign insanity and had duped military doctors into discharging him because they believed that he was mentally ill.

While the medical testimony would have supported a finding of insanity, there is abundant testimony to support the conclusion that appellant’s strange behavior after the killing, which formed the basis for the conclusions of the experts, was the manifestation of a deliberate effort by appellant to manufacture the defense of insanity and was completely at variance with his behavior prior to the killing of his wife. The testimony of the lay witnesses concerning the absence of strange, unusual or bizarre behavior by appellant becomes more persuasive when viewed in the light of the statement by one of the experts that if a person was “floridly, overtly psychotic,” as was appellant, those with whom he associated would recognize easily that he was mentally ill.

We cannot conclude that the verdict of the jury is so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust.

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Related

Brooks v. State
719 S.W.2d 259 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1987)
Guidroz v. State
679 S.W.2d 586 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
679 S.W.2d 586, 1984 Tex. App. LEXIS 6702, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guidroz-v-state-texapp-1984.