Hardin v. State

951 S.W.2d 208, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 4239, 1997 WL 461199
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 14, 1997
Docket14-95-00375-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by87 cases

This text of 951 S.W.2d 208 (Hardin 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
Hardin v. State, 951 S.W.2d 208, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 4239, 1997 WL 461199 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

*210 OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

Leonard Hardin was charged with the felony offense of possession of a controlled substance with two enhancement paragraphs alleging prior convictions. A jury convicted him and sentenced him to 38 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Corrections. On appeal, appellant brings ten points of error generally challenging (1) the admissibility of the cocaine discovered as a result of the alleged illegal search of appellant’s person and his subsequent arrest; (2) the adequacy of the 38.23 instruction included in the jury charge; (3) the State’s reading of the enhancement paragraphs in the indictment prior to the guilt/innocence phase of trial; (4) the denial of appellant’s right to the effective assistance of counsel; and (5) the failure of the judgment to match the jury verdict. We reform the judgment to match the verdict and, in all other respects, affirm the judgment of the trial court.

On July 25, 1994, two Houston police officers were on patrol in an area commonly known for narcotics and prostitution. At about 2 A.M., the officers came upon two men standing in the middle of the road. One of the men, appellant, was facing the patrol car and holding a paper bag in his left hand. Appellant’s right hand was extended, and he appeared to be placing something into both hands of the other man. The officer’s suspected that the two men were engaged in a drug transaction and stopped to investigate. At that point, appellant began to walk away, but the officers asked him to stop. Appellant began to place something in the paper sack he was carrying. One of the officers grabbed his arm. Appellant then closed his hand into a fist and placed it into the right, front pocket of his pants. The officer believed appellant to be in possession of illegal narcotics and reached into the man’s pocket, retrieving a substance that later tested positive as cocaine. Appellant was arrested, tried, and convicted for the offense of possession of a controlled substance.

In his first four points of error, appellant challenges the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress the cocaine because he argues that it was seized in violation of his rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 9 of the Texas Constitution. We need not address the merits of these arguments because we find appellant has waived these points of error. Ordinarily, by filing a motion to suppress, a defendant preserves his right to complain of the admission of evidence at trial even if he fails to object when that evidence is introduced at trial. Gearing v. State, 685 S.W.2d 326, 329 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). However, when the defendant’s attorney affirmatively states that he has no objection to the admissibility of the evidence when it is introduced at trial, he waives his right to object to its admission on appeal. Id.

In this ease, defense counsel filed a pretrial motion to suppress the cocaine. However, when he stated, “No objections, your honor,” at the point when the prosecutor offered the cocaine into evidence, he waived his right to complain on appeal about its admissibility. Therefore, we overrule points of error one through four.

In his fifth point of error, appellant argues that the jury charge did not adequately instruct the jurors with regard to the legality of the seizure of the cocaine in accordance with Article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Under article 38.23, the court is required to exclude any evidence that it finds, as a matter of law, was obtained in violation of the Constitution or the laws of the United States or of the State of Texas. Atkinson v. State, 923 S.W.2d 21, 23 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). However, where there is a fact issue regarding the manner in which the evidence was obtained, article 38.23 permits the court to submit the question to the jury with an instruction that if the jurors find that the evidence was obtained in violation of the law, they are not to consider it in reaching their verdict. Id.

A defendant is only entitled to an instruction under article 38.23 when the record demonstrates a factual dispute concerning how the evidence was obtained. Thomas v. State, 723 S.W.2d 696, 707 (Tex.Crim.App.1986). In this case, appellant challenged the *211 admissibility of the cocaine on legal, not factual grounds, and the evidence contains no conflicts regarding the maimer in which the cocaine was obtained. Therefore, appellant was not entitled to an article 38.23 instruction. Appellant’s fifth point of error is overruled.

In his sixth and seventh points of error, appellant argues that he was denied the right to a fair and impartial trial when the State read the enhancement paragraphs from the indictment at the commencement of the guilt/innocenee phase of his trial rather than waiting until the punishment phase of trial as is required by article 36.01(a)(1) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Appellant failed to object to the State’s reading of the enhancement paragraphs. However, on appeal, appellant contends that the State’s error constitutes grounds for reversal despite his attorney’s failure to object because it denied him his right to a fair and impartial trial. We disagree. Absent an objection, any violation of article 36.01 is waived. Cox v. State, 422 S.W.2d 929, 930 (Tex.Crim.App.1968). Thus, appellant’s sixth and seventh points of error are overruled.

In his eighth and ninth points of error, appellant contends that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel due to his attorney’s failure to (1) use peremptory challenges on biased jurors; (2) request an application paragraph for an Article 38.23 instruction; and (3) to object to the State’s reading of the enhancement paragraphs of the indictment at the guilt/innocence phase of trial. In order to support his complaint about the ineffective assistance of his trial counsel, appellant was required to show: (1) that counsel’s performance was deficient in that it fell below an objective standard of reasonableness based upon prevailing professional norms; and (2) that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s deficient performance, the outcome of the case would have been different. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064-65, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).

Initially, appellant complains that his attorney was ineffective in that he failed to strike four potential veniremembers who allegedly expressed some bias against the law set out at article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, commonly referred to as the Exclusionary Rule. Our review of the record of the voir dire in this ease indicates that, although these veniremembers all stated varying degrees of distaste for “legal loopholes,” they each concluded that they could follow the law despite their personal disagreement with it.

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Bluebook (online)
951 S.W.2d 208, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 4239, 1997 WL 461199, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hardin-v-state-texapp-1997.