Hernandez v. State

13 S.W.3d 78, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 157, 2000 WL 6114
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 7, 2000
Docket06-98-00284-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 13 S.W.3d 78 (Hernandez 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
Hernandez v. State, 13 S.W.3d 78, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 157, 2000 WL 6114 (Tex. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice ROSS.

Ruben Hernandez appeals from his conviction by a jury for driving while intoxicated, third offense. He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and a $10,000.00 fine. Hernandez contends on appeal that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict and that the trial court erred by admitting the videotaped recording of his interview into evidence.

In our review of the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we employ the standards set forth in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979), and Geesa v. State, 820 S.W.2d 154 (Tex.Crim.App.1991), and look to see whether, after viewing all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In our review, we must evaluate all of the evidence in the record, both direct and circumstantial, whether admissible or inadmissible. Dewberry v. State, 4 S.W.3d 735, 736 (Tex.Crim.App.1999).

In our review of the factual sufficiency of the evidence, we view all the evidence and set aside the verdict only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. Jones v. State, 944 S.W.2d 642, 647 (Tex.Crim.App.1996); Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 129 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). Examples of such a wrong and unjust verdict include instances in which the jury finding is manifestly unjust, shocks the conscience, or clearly demonstrates bias. Clewis, 922 S.W.2d at 135. If we find factual insufficiency, we vacate the conviction and remand for a new trial. Jones, 944 S.W.2d at 648; Clewis, 922 S.W.2d at 133-35.

In determining the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court must consider all the evidence, whether properly or improperly admitted. Johnson v. State, 871 S.W.2d 183, 186 (Tex.Crim.App.1993); Beltran v. State, 728 S.W.2d 382, 389 (Tex.Crim.App.1987). Evidence as to the identity of a perpetrator of an offense can be proved by either direct or circumstantial evidence. Earls v. State, 707 S.W.2d 82, 85 (Tex.Crim.App.1986).

Hernandez contends that the evidence is insufficient because there is no or insufficient evidence to show that he was the driver of the pickup truck. The evidence shows that a pickup truck hit, from behind, a vehicle that was stopped to make a turn. One witness, Stan Gentry, testified that he saw Hernandez walking from the driver’s side of the pickup truck to the other vehicle. Stacey Whitfield, the driver of the vehicle struck from behind, testified that Hernandez asked her if she was all right. No witness testified that they saw Hernandez behind the wheel of the pickup truck.

Hernandez did not testify. During his interview by officers, he stated that the pickup truck belonged to him. He also stated repeatedly to officers that he was not the driver and that the real driver had run away. Whitfield testified that she did not see any other individuals in the area and that she saw only Hernandez standing outside the truck immediately after the collision. Gentry testified that he heard the impact, pulled up alongside the passenger’s side of the pickup, and saw Hernandez walking alongside the driver’s side of the pickup and toward the front, and that Hernandez was the only person he saw.

As noted above, circumstantial evidence will support -a verdict. Hernandez was placed by witnesses, immediately after the accident, on the driver’s side of a pickup *81 truck which belonged to him. Although he had stated in the interview that another person was driving the vehicle, he could not identify that person. Hernandez had also informed officers at the scene that another person was driving the truck, and Officer W.D. Kirkley stated that his efforts to locate a third party had been fruitless.

The evidence as summarized above is both factually and legally sufficient to support the verdict. These contentions of error are overruled.

Hernandez next contends that the videotape of his intoxication interview made at the jail after his arrest is inadmissible because the statute that formerly authorized such an interview has been repealed, and that the interview was not otherwise admissible because of inadequacies in the constitutional warnings given by the officer who conducted the interview.

The statutory argument is based on the Legislature’s repeal in 1995 of a statute originally set out in 1983. The statute— which can only be described as Section 24 — was never given an official number by the Legislature 1 and was thus never made a part of the intoxication statute (Tex.Rev.Civ. Stat. Ann. art. 6701Z-1 (repealed)). Section 24 required counties to purchase videotape equipment and visually record persons arrested for driving while intoxicated. Article 6701Í-1 was repealed in 1995 as part of the transfer of the statutes setting out the offense to the Penal and Transportation Codes. 2 The videotape provision was not transferred to the Penal Code, and thus may still exist. The Houston court, in Cooper v. State, 961 S.W.2d 222, 225 n. 2 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1997, pet. ref'd), detailed the history of the statute in a footnote and concluded that since Section 24 had never been made part of the intoxication statute, it was not affected by the repeal of that statute and its transfer to the Penal Code and Transportation Code.

We do not find the existence or nonexistence of that statute controlling. Section 24 did not separately guarantee admission of such a videotape, but required that one be made, and that the State’s failure to do so would be admissible at the trial. The question before this Court is whether the videotape was admissible as evidence. A long line of cases have held that the video portions of such recordings are admissible, because such sobriety tests are nontesti-monial in character. See generally Vester v. State, 916 S.W.2d 708, 712-18 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1996, no pet.).

Defendants often successfully object to efforts to admit the audio track, and that portion of the tape is often kept from the jury because it contains self-incriminatory statements. See id. In the present case, the audio track was played for the jury.

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Bluebook (online)
13 S.W.3d 78, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 157, 2000 WL 6114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hernandez-v-state-texapp-2000.