Gustavo Dominguez v. State

474 S.W.3d 688, 2013 WL 1748810, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 4875
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 18, 2013·No. 11-11-00152-CR·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinion

OPINION

MIKE WILLSON, Justice.

The jury convicted Gustavo Dominguez of money laundering and assessed his punishment at confinement for ten years and a $10,000 fine. Appellant challenges his conviction for money laundering in three issues. Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction, *692 the admissibility of two out-of-court statements, and the trial court’s decision to permit Trooper Brody Moore’s and Has-kell County Chief Deputy Sheriff Winston Stéphen’s testimony related to drug'trafficking. We affirm.

I. Charged Offenses

The grand jury indicted Appellant for the felony offense of money laundering, alleging that' Appellant knowingly concealed criminal activity proceeds from the delivery of a controlled substance. 1 A person commits the offense of money laundering when he knowingly conceals the proceeds of criminal activity. 2 “Proceeds” are defined as the funds acquired or derived from an act or funds-produced or realized through an act; “criminal activity” includes any offense classified as a felony ip Texas. 3 The State had to prove that Apr pellant knowingly concealed $200,000 obtained from the delivery of a controlled substance. The State was not required to prove that Appellant knew the “specific nature of the criminal activity giving rise to the proceeds” but, rather, that he knew that the funds came from criminal activity. 4

II. Background

Department of Public Safety (DPS) Trooper Brody Moore stopped a tractor trailer for a traffic violation. Trooper Moore stood on the steps leading to the driver’s door while talking to the driver and could sense that someone was moving around in the sleeper berth, which was behind a curtain. The driver identified himself as Victor Acosta and said his passenger’s name was “Gus.” Appellant emerged from the sleeper section and identified himself as Gustavo Dominguez. Appellant told Trooper Moore that he was a part-time disc- jockey who wanted to learn to be a truck driver. Appellant did not have a commercial driver’s license. Acosta’s lip quivered, and he appeared nervous as he answered questions. ' The men told Trooper Moore they were returning to El Paso and had left Illinois the morning before. Acosta maintained eye contact when he told Trooper Moore he did not have any drugs or gun's, but broke eye contact whén he denied having cash in the vehicle. Acosta consented to a search of the vehicle.

Trooper Moore searched the cab and noted there was a tool box in the middle of the walkway between the driver’s compartment and the sleeper. When he shined his flashlight into the speakers, Trooper Moore discovered that something had been hidden inside the speaker box. He noticed that one of the screws holding the cover in place- was missing and that the other screws had been recently tooled. Rather than retrieve one of his own tools, Trooper Moore opened the nearby tool box and immediately found the appropriate screwdriver “on the top.” Trooper Moore found vacuum-sealed bags of money in the speaker box. Trooper Moore arrested Acosta and Appellant and waited for a narcotics investigator and a canine unit.

Haskell County Chief'Deputy Sheriff, Winston Stephens brought two duffel bags from his home. Trooper Kyle Taylor, DPS K-9 Specialist, confirmed that the duffel bags had not been around narcotics and prepared for the search. Trooper Taylor divided the currency and placed it into the two bags. Trooper Taylor took *693 one bag of money .and placed -it in a line with two empty boxes, and the dog alerted on the bag containing the currency. He set up a second line of empty boxes and the second bag of money, and the dog positively alerted on the bag of money" a second time. Trooper Moore and Chief Deputy Stephens took the money to Has-kell National Bank. The officers and bank personnel divided the money into denominations and ran it through á counting machine. The currency totaled $502,020.

Appellant argued that he was not aware that the money was concealed in the truck. The jury heard expert testimony from Trooper Moore and Chief Deputy Stephens concerning their past experiences with drug and money interdiction and com-, mon conduct of people involved with drug trafficking. Trooper Moore testified that an unlicensed passenger is usually a friend or family member of the driver, that traffickers work in teams of two to protect the load and to blame each other if caught, and that money is transported in vacuum-sealed bags to conceal it better by both reducing the size and covering the odor of money commingled with illegal narcotics. Deputy Stephens testified there, is a pattern to the flow of money and drugs; he explained that drugs are usually headed north from El Paso to be sold, and the money is transported back to El Paso.

The officers found five cell phones in the truck, but no one claimed the phone found in the sleeper section. Trooper Moore thought it was “unusual” that Appellant had two cell phones when he did not have a full-time job. Chief Deputy Stephens told the jury that it is not unusual for a person to have more than "one cell phone but that more than one usually indicates illegal activity.

Ill, Standard of Review

We review the legal sufficiency of the evidence under the standard set out in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). On appeal, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution and determine whether “any rational trier of fact could have fpund the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781; Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 899 (Tex.Crim.App.2010).

“The admissibility of an out-of-court statement under the exceptions to the general hearsay exclusion rule is within the trial court’s discretion.” Zuliani v. State, 97 S.W.3d 589, 595 (Tex.Crim.App.2003). “We review a trial court’s decision to admit evidence over objection under an abuse of discretion standard and will not reverse the decision absent a clear abuse of discretion.” Apolinar v. State, 155 S.W.3d 184, 186 (Tex.Crim.App.2005). A trial court abuses its discretion “only when the decision lies outside that zone of reasonable disagreement.” Zuliani, 97 S.W.3d at 595. "

A party can challenge the expert’s qualifications, the relevance of the opinion, and the reliability of the opinion, and an expert .opinion is unreliable if it is only “subjective belief or unsupported speculation.” Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm., Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 590, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993).

IV. Analysis

• A, Legal Sufficiency '

Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on three grounds.

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

Gustavo Dominguez v. State, 474 S.W.3d 688, 2013 WL 1748810, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 4875 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

474 S.W.3d 688 (Gustavo Dominguez v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Randle Jack Goodrum Jr. v. the State of Texas
Tex. App. Ct., 2nd Dist. (Fort Worth), 2026
Isaiah Renteria v. the State of Texas
Tex. App. Ct., 11th Dist. (Eastland), 2026
Lonnie Carlston Davis v. the State of Texas
Tex. App. Ct., 9th Dist. (Beaumont), 2026
Michael Bryan Castillo v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Blaze Daniel Hicks v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Pamela Marie Ybarra v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Andrew William Cox v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Ronnie Jackson v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Rey Arevalo v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Kevin Boykin v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Roberto Dominguez v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
James Scott Pfeffer v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Miguel Angel Claudio v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
in Re Commitment of Joel Wayne Blakeney
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Derek Justin Paredes v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
John David Toran v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Thomas Wayne Lester v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Dedra Lynn Crider v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018