Horhn v. State

481 S.W.3d 363
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 19, 2016
DocketNO. 01-14-00738-CR & 01-14-00739-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 481 S.W.3d 363 (Horhn 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
Horhn v. State, 481 S.W.3d 363 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Evelyn V. Keyes, Justice

A jury convicted appellant William Horhn of the felony offenses of debit' card abuse and fraudulent use of identifying information.1 The trial court assessed his punishment at six months’ confinement for the debit card offense and twenty years’ confinement for the fraudulent use of identifying information offense, to run concurrently. In two issues, appellant argues that the trial court erred (1) in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained in the search incident to his arrest because the affidavit supporting the arrest warrant was insufficient and (2) in denying his motion to quash the.indictment in cause number 1383990 for fraudulent use of identifying information based on his argument that Penal Code- section 32.51 is facially unconstitutional.

We affirm.

Background

Police officers arrested appellant after observing him at a gas station in Harris County and recognizing him as someone who was a suspect in a burglary. .Upon approaching and detaining appellant, officers discovered that the burglary warrant was no longer valid, but they received information that appellant had valid warrants for his arrest based on his failure to appear in municipal court in the city of Oak Ridge North in Montgomery County. The officers arrested appellant, and, incident to the arrest, recovered appellant’s cell phone and a credit card in the name of complainant Marisol Pimentel. Police obtained a warrant to search the cell phone and discovered additional items of identifying information, including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for multiple individuals. Appellant was charged with fraudulent use of identifying information‘of multiple named ■ complainants with the intent to defraud and harm. He was also charged with unlawful possession with the intent to use the debit card of another without effective consent.

Appellant filed a motion to quash his indictment for fraudulent use of identifying information, arguing that Penal Code section 32.51 “is invalid on its face because it’s overbroad and it is a restriction on the First Amendment right to free speech.” The State responded that the- offense addressed possession of information, not acts of “expression,” and that the law was narrowly tailored “to advance the keen interest that the government has in 'protecting its citizens from identity theft.” The trial court denied the motion to quash.

Appellant also moved to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the search incident to his arrest on several grounds. Relevant to this appeal, he argued that the municipal arrest warrant was invalid because the supporting affidavit did not provide probable cause to issue the warrant. He also argued that because his arrest was based on an invalid warrant, his arrest was illegal and the evidence obtained incident to his arrest was likewise-inadmissible. At the suppression hearing, the trial court admitted a copy of appellant’s arrest warrant for failure to appear in the Oak Ridge [367]*367North municipal court and other documents. ,

Sergeant J. Wood ’ testified regarding the circumstances of appellant’s arrest. He first observed appellant and two other associates at a gas station and recognized appellant as a suspect police “had been looking for ... for quite some time in regards to a burglary warrant that had issued for his arrest, in Fort Bend County.” Sergeant Wood and other' uniformed officers who responded to the scene detained appellant “pending verification of the burglary warrant.” The officers determined that the burglary warrant was no longer valid because appellant had posted bond, but appellant had “four arrest warrants from Oak Ridge North for traffic violations.” Officers arrested appellant based on these warrants, identified appellant’s cell phone, and “found a credit card in his wallet that did not bear [his] name as well as other evidence along those same lines containing identifying information in the cell phone.”

Officer C. Flora also testified at thé suppression hearing. He stated that he and his partner verified through dispatch that appellant’s traffic-violation Warrants from Oak Ridge North were still valid and arrived at the scene after appellant had been detained. Prior to informing appellant of his Miranda rights, the officers recovered appellant’s wallet, which contained a credit card in someone else’s name, and a cell phone. Officer Flora asked appellant about-the phone, and appellant acknowledged that the phone was his but stated that it did not work. Officer Flora then asked appellant whether there was anything illegal on the phone that the police needed to know about and asked if the officers could look at it. Officer Flora testified that appellant gave his consent to the examination of the cell phone and noted appellant’s consent in the offense report. ■

Officer Flora testified that he “initially went to the' images on [appellant’s] phone and ... noticed- a few spreadsheets that someone had taken a picture of that contains several names, dates ‘ of birth, social security numbers1 and addresses and some e-mail accounts.” At- that point, Officer Flora contacted the District Attorney’s Office and was advised to- get a- search warrant for the phonfe. Officer Flora provided the affidavit and obtained the search warrant. Pursuant to the search warrant, Flora gave the phone to the police department’s digital forensics lab to recover the information, which yielded much of the evidence presented by the ‘State regarding appellant’s possession and use of identifying information with the intent to defraud or harm.

Officer. T. O’Neill testified that he and his partner responded to Sergeant Wood’s call and detained appellant while the existence of the outstanding warrants was verified. Officer O’Neill stated that once he confirmed the validity of the warrants he arrested appellant and conducted a search incidént to the arrest. He discovered the wallet in appellant’s1 pocket and “[l]ooked for identifying information in the wallet.” He discovered the Visa card in Pimentel’s name and determined that she “was a complainant, in a.theft where a purse was stolen.” He returned the wallet and the rest of its contents to a friend of appellant and retained Pimentel’s card as evidence.

. Appellant testified, that he was helping a friend put oil in his- car when he was detained by the police officers. He stated that he was immediately handcuffed and officers told him that he was being arrested “[b]ecause [he] had warrants, out of Fort Bend.” Appellant .further testified that the officers removed , his shoes and emptied everything out of his pockets be[368]*368fore placing him in the back of the police car. He acknowledged that the police recovered a cell phone from the car, but he stated that he never had a conversation with any of the officers about the phone, never stated that it was his, and never agreed that officers could look inside the phone. On cross-examination, appellant testified that the cell phone did not belong to ..him but he used it. He stated that he had the cell phone in his possession the afternoon he was arrested.

Appellant argued that the affidavit accompanying the municipal arrest warrant relied upon by the State was “wholly con-clusory.” The State respondéd that appellant was arrested pursuant to a warrant and that the trial court was required to give deference to the magistrate’s decision to sign the arrest warrant.

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Bluebook (online)
481 S.W.3d 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/horhn-v-state-texapp-2016.