Howard v. State

527 S.W.3d 348, 2017 WL 1483442, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 3649
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 25, 2017
DocketNO. 01-16-00120-CR
StatusPublished

This text of 527 S.W.3d 348 (Howard 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
Howard v. State, 527 S.W.3d 348, 2017 WL 1483442, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 3649 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

Harvey Brown, Justice

Ashley Howard and her two friends stole merchandise from a department store, fled in a getaway car, and led the police on a high-speed chase, which came to an abrupt end when they ran a red light and crashed into a vehicle passing through the intersection, killing the driver, Rosalba Quezada. Howard was indicted for felony murder. She was convicted and sentenced to 35 years’ confinement and fined $10,000. In two issues, Howard contends that the trial court erred by (1) instructing the jury to find her guilty of felony murder upon a predicate finding that her friends caused Quezada’s death while acting in furtherance of a misdemeanor conspiracy and (2) denying her motion to suppress a videotape of a statement she made to an officer while at the hospital in police custody. We affirm.

Background

It was undisputed at trial that Howard and her friend, Racquel Gonzalez, agreed to steal polo shirts from a department store. They recruited another friend, Shi-quinta Franklin, to help them steal the shirts by driving Howard’s vehicle as the getaway car.

Howard picked up Gonzalez and Franklin, and they drove to the department store. Howard and Gonzalez entered the store while Franklin waited in the driver’s seat of the car. Howard and Gonzalez proceeded to grab sixteen shirts off a clothing [351]*351rack1 and run out of the store, setting off the theft-prevention sensors. They jumped into the getaway car and told Franklin to go. Franklin sped out of the parking lot, and, almost immediately, the police began to pursue them.

In an attempt to evade arrest, they led the police on a dangerous, high-speed chase on and off the highway and through residential areas, during which they ran stop signs, reached speeds of over 100 miles per hour, and passed other vehicles on the inside shoulder.

They eventually came to a red light at an intersection on the feeder road. Gonzalez testified that she told Franklin to stop the car but that Howard told Franklin to “keep going” because she “had too much to lose.” Franklin likewise testified that Howard told her to “go, go, go” through the’ red light. Franklin ran the red light at over sixty miles per hour and crashed into another vehicle passing through the intersection, killing the vehicle’s driver, Rosalba Quezada, and injuring her three children, one seriously.

Howard attempted to flee the accident scene on foot but was apprehended by the police and taken to the hospital. At the hospital, she was questioned by Officer R. Klementich. Howard admitted that she, Gonzalez, and Franklin had conspired to steal the shirts and then tried to evade arrest when the police began to pursue them.

Howard was indicted for felony murder, tried, and convicted. She appeals.

Charge Error

In her first issue, Howard contends that the trial court instructed the jury to convict under an erroneous theory of liability. The charge’s second application paragraph instructed the jury to find Howard guilty of felony murder upon a predicate finding that Franklin caused Quezada’s death while acting in furtherance of a conspiracy with Howard to commit state jail felony theft. Howard argues that a conviction for felony murder cannot be based on a conspiracy to commit state jail felony theft because such a conspiracy is not itself- a felony but rather a misdemeanor. The State responds that a conviction for felony murder can be based on a conspiracy to commit a state jail felony under Section 7.02(b) of the Penal Code, which establishes a conspiracy theory of party liability. According to the State, under this statute, Howard may be convicted for Franklin’s felony murder of Quezada because Franklin committed the felony murder while driving the getaway car in furtherance of her and Howard’s conspiracy to commit felony theft.

A. Applicable law and standard of review

Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the trial court must “deliver to the jury ... a written charge distinctly setting forth the law applicable to the case.... ” Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 36.14. “The purpose of the jury charge is to inform the jury of the applicable law and guide them in its application to the case....” Hutch v. State, 922 S.W.2d 166, 170 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996). In reviewing a jury-charge issue, we determine whether error exists and, if so, whether sufficient harm resulted from the error to compel reversal. Ngo v. State, 175 S.W.3d 738, 743 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005); Ryser v. State, 453 S.W.3d 17, 27 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2014, pet. ref'd).

[352]*352B. The charge correctly applied the law to the facts .

Howard was prosecuted for felony murder. Section 19.02(b)(3) of the Penal Code sets forth the offense of felony murder. It provides that a person commits felony murder if he “commits or attempts to commit a felony, other than manslaughter, and in the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempt, or in immediate flight from the commission or attempt, he commits or attempts to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual.” Tex. Penal Code § 19.02(b)(3).

The State’s theory of liability, however, was not based on Section 19.02(b)(3). Instead, it was based on Section 7.02(b), which establishes a conspiracy theory of party liability. Id. § 7.02(b). Section 7.02(b) provides that “[i]f, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and whs one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy.” Id.; see Leal v. State, No. 01-14-00972-CR, 2016 WL 796950, at *6 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] Mar. 1, 2016, pet. refd) (mem. op., not designated for publication) (“Under Section 7.02(b), all the conspirators intending to commit one felony may be convicted for any other felony actually committed in furtherance of the intended felony if such felony was one that should have been anticipated in the attempt to carry out the intended felony”).

The conspiracy here was a conspiracy to commit state jail felony theft. Section 31.03(a) of the Penal Code defines “theft” as the unlawful appropriation of property with the intent to deprive the owner of the property. Tex. Penal Code § 31.03(a). At the time that Howard and Franklin conspired to steal the shirts, the offense of theft was a state jail felony if the value of the property was $1,500 or more but'less than $30,000.2 The value of the shirts they conspired to steal was $2,200. Therefore, their conspiracy was a conspiracy to commit state jail felony theft.3

Franklin is guilty of felony murder because she caused Quezada’s death by committing an act clearly dangerous to human life while in immediate flight from the commission of felony theft. Id. § 19.02(b)(3).

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Related

Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Missouri v. Seibert
542 U.S. 600 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Ngo v. State
175 S.W.3d 738 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Martinez v. State
272 S.W.3d 615 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Joseph v. State
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Carter v. State
309 S.W.3d 31 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Ervin v. State
333 S.W.3d 187 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Hutch v. State
922 S.W.2d 166 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1996)
Drew Ryser v. State
453 S.W.3d 17 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Donald Wayne Warren v. State
377 S.W.3d 9 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
527 S.W.3d 348, 2017 WL 1483442, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 3649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howard-v-state-texapp-2017.