Hayden v. Texas

155 S.W.3d 640, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 243, 2005 WL 181656
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 13, 2005
Docket11-03-00069-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by85 cases

This text of 155 S.W.3d 640 (Hayden v. Texas) 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
Hayden v. Texas, 155 S.W.3d 640, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 243, 2005 WL 181656 (Tex. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

Opinion

JIM R. WRIGHT, Justice.

Mark Allen Hayden appeals his conviction by a jury of the offense of robbery. The jury assessed his punishment at 30 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division. Appellant presents 11 issues in connection with this appeal. We affirm.

Appellant contends in issue one that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for instructed verdict at the close of the State’s evidence; while in issue two, he urges that the evidence is factually insufficient to support his conviction. A challenge to the trial court’s ruling on a motion for instructed verdict is in actuality a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction. Cook v. State, 858 S.W.2d 467, 470 (Tex.Cr.App.1993).

In a legal sufficiency review, we view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and then determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). In a factual sufficiency review, we view all of the evidence in a neutral light, and we will set the verdict aside only if the evidence is so weak that the verdict is clearly wrong and manifestly unjust or if the contrary evidence is so strong that the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt could not have been met. See Zuniga v. State, 144 S.W.3d 477 (Tex.Cr.App.2004).

[643]*643A person commits robbery if, in the course of committing theft as defined in TEX. PEN. CODE ANN. ch. 31 (Vernon 2003 & Supp.2004-2005) and with intent to obtain or maintain control of the property, he or she intentionally or knowingly threatens or places another in fear of imminent bodily injury or death. TEX. PEN. CODE ANN. § 29.02(a)(2) (Vernon 2003). Appellant argues that the evidence is insufficient to show that he threatened or placed another in fear of imminent bodily injury.

Ben Jeremiah Stembridge testified that he was working at a Brown County convenience store when a woman came in the store and asked if she could take beer out to the car, put gas in the car, and then come in and pay for it. Stembridge’s testimony is that these events happened on June 25, 2001, between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. He said that she came in twice within seconds. He related that, when he refused to let her take the beer without an “I.D.,” she asked him if he wanted her to get her “old man” to come in.

Stembridge testified that shortly thereafter appellant came in. He indicated that appellant had a cap on; was wearing no shirt; had a “high level” of tattoos located on his chest, back, and stomach; was wearing shorts; and was unshaven. Stem-bridge identified a store video that showed tattoos on appellant’s chest, stomach, and arms. He related that appellant asked him if he were “playing his woman.” He said that at that point he felt threatened and was getting nervous and a little scared. Stembridge indicated that appellant went back to where the beer was kept and got a case. Stembridge said appellant told him, while making a gesture pointing at him, that, if he called the police, he would “come back and f~k me up.” He stated that appellant told him that they were going to take the beer and gas and not to call the cops. Stembridge insisted that the threat was related to appellant’s taking the beer. Stembridge said that he took it as a threat; that he believed him; and that he was thinking of calling the cops, which scared him a little, and shook him up. He acknowledged that he was trained not to fight with appellant or not to physically try to keep him from taking the beer. He said he thought that, if he tried to keep appellant from taking the beer, he might get attacked and that appellant might be able to hurt him.

We must determine if the accused’s words and conduct were sufficient to place a reasonable person in the victim’s circumstances in fear of imminent bodily injury. Welch v. State, 880 S.W.2d 225, 226 (Tex.App.-Austin 1994, no pet’n). The evidence may be sufficient even if there is no evidence that the defendant was armed or expressly threatened the victim. Id. at 227. We hold that appellant’s appearance, words, and gesture, as set forth herein, were sufficient to place a reasonable person in Stembridge’s circumstance in fear of imminent bodily injury.

Appellant urges that the evidence is insufficient because it was a conditional threat — -that he merely committed the offense of theft coupled with a threat of harm in the event that the theft were reported. He primarily relies upon the cases of Devine v. State, 786 S.W.2d 268, 270 (Tex.Cr.App.1989), and Blount v. State, 542 S.W.2d 164, 166 (Tex.Cr.App.1976). We find both of those cases to be distinguishable.

In Devine, the victim’s ex-wife continually threatened death or injury to him unless he gave her money. Devine v. State, supra at 269. The victim gave her money for a time; but when she demanded $2,500, he refused and went to the police. Id, After police wired him with a microphone, the victim met the defendant in a [644]*644restaurant, where she was arrested after he gave her some marked money. Id. The defendant told the victim at the restaurant that she had almost had him killed the day before but that she had canceled the plan when he agreed to show up with the money. Id. The court held that threatening to kill the victim at some time in the future if he had refused to hand over the money was not sufficient to show a threat of bodily injury or death to be inflicted imminently. Id. at 270-71.

In Devine, the evidence reflected that the victim was giving the money to the defendant because of her prior threats of future harm and in order to make a criminal case against her, not because of any words or conduct on her part at their meeting constituting a threat of imminent bodily injury. In the case at bar, appellant, who was bigger than Stembridge, was about two feet from him. Appellant appeared agitated. Appellant’s appearance, language, and gesture, coupled with his threat of future harm while he was taking out the beer, were sufficient to place a reasonable person in fear of imminent bodily injury. Id. at 270.

In Blount, the court held that the evidence of a threat of future harm made after a rape was insufficient to support the charge of aggravated rape because it did not show that the rape was compelled by the threat of death, serious bodily injury, or kidnaping to be imminently inflicted on anyone, where no weapon was used and where the only threat of serious bodily injury was made after the rape, was conditioned on the victim going to the police, and related to some indefinite time in the future. Blount v. State, supra at 166; see also Bright v. State, 585 S.W.2d 739, 742 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). As in Blount, no weapon was used in the case at bar; and the threat related to an indefinite time in the future, conditioned on the victim contacting the police.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
155 S.W.3d 640, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 243, 2005 WL 181656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hayden-v-texas-texapp-2005.