In Re JBC

233 S.W.3d 88, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 5978, 2007 WL 2152885
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 26, 2007
Docket2-06-175-CV
StatusPublished

This text of 233 S.W.3d 88 (In Re JBC) 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
In Re JBC, 233 S.W.3d 88, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 5978, 2007 WL 2152885 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

233 S.W.3d 88 (2007)

In the Matter of J.B.C.

No. 2-06-175-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

July 26, 2007.

*90 Swanda & Swanda, P.C. and Dean M. Swanda, Arlington, TX, for Appellant.

Tim Curry, Criminal District Atty., Charles M. Mallin, Assistant Criminal District Atty. and Chief of the Appellate Section, Kimberly Colliet Wesley, Sheila Wynn, and George Dewayne Huston, Assistant Criminal District Attys., Fort Worth, TX, for Appellee.

Panel F: HOLMAN, GARDNER, and McCOY, JJ.

OPINION

BOB McCOY, Justice.

I. Introduction

In three issues, Appellant J.B.C. appeals the trial court's decision that he engaged in delinquent conduct by committing murder. We affirm.

II. Factual and Procedural Background

In spring 2005, Kris Lee opened up her home to care for her two grandsons (ages nineteen and sixteen) while their mother, Lee's daughter, was in prison for aiding and abetting a drug offense. Not having had the opportunity to get to know either boy, Lee saw the opportunity as a new lease on life. On July 6, 2005, Lee was found dead on her bedroom floor from a single gunshot wound to the back of her head.

The State presented a great deal of circumstantial evidence against J.B.C. at trial, from which the jury found beyond all reasonable doubt that J.B.C. had engaged in delinquent conduct by committing murder.

A. Introduction

Michael C.[1], the older of Lee's two grandsons, arrived first and did not present Lee with many problems. It was after J.B.C. arrived that family members and neighbors indicated that problems arose. By all accounts, including the testimony of J.B.C. himself, J.B.C. was disrespectful to his grandmother and her home. He *91 cussed at and argued with her. He trashed her house, broke her belongings, and essentially confined her to living in her bedroom. He smoked marijuana in her presence, and he used methamphetamines in her home.

B. Events of July 6, 2005

On the morning of July 6, 2005, Michael was playing video games with Shawn Franks, Jeremy Bonsignore, and Bryan Frailey at Franks's house, which was just down the street from the home Lee shared with her grandsons. The boys decided to go to Lee's house to get J.B.C. and his video game, "Madden 2005," so that together they could return to Franks's house to smoke some pot and play the video game. Upon arriving at the house, the four boys went to the back door. After banging on the door and getting no immediate answer, Michael went around to the front door. The other three boys stayed at the back door. With a "ghostly look" on her face, Lee eventually answered the back door and, without saying a word, let the boys in the house. Lee immediately went back down the hallway towards her bedroom.

Apparently the noise created by the four boys as they came in the house awakened J.B.C., who had been asleep on the living room couch. J.B.C. used the living room as his bedroom. One of the boys informed J.B.C. that his pot plant was missing from the backyard. Frailey testified that he heard J.B.C. mutter angrily "I bet my fucking granny did it" referring to the missing pot plant. J.B.C. admitted at trial that he had said he thought his "fucking granny did it."

J.B.C. got up from the couch and went down the hall to go get dressed. While J.B.C. was out of the room getting dressed, the other four boys remained in the living room and watched T.V. while waiting for J.B.C. to return clothed and with the video game.[2] None of the boys heard any unusual sounds or a gunshot while J.B.C. was down the hallway, though Frailey testified that he heard what may have been a door shutting.

J.B.C. testified that after waking up, he went to Michael's room and took no more than two minutes getting dressed before returning to the living room with the video game in hand. Then, J.B.C. testified, he and Franks walked back down the hallway to Lee's bedroom so that he could tell his grandmother that he was leaving. According to J.B.C., he entered his grandmother's bedroom, found a note on the bed, and read it as he walked back out to the living room. Written in several different ink colors, the note read:

Dear Jake and Josh,
Do not think this is your fault, I'm just so tired of seeing people hurt people— especially family. I can't believe my own family can believe the lies someone is making up about me. Hope you have a wonderful life.
Love always,
Granny
xoxoxo
P.S. Josh: I told you I had somewhere better to go!

Realizing that she may have been referring to "heaven" and committing suicide when she said "somewhere better to go," J.B.C. said he ran back to Lee's room. He first searched his grandmother's closet before finding her face down on the other *92 side of the bed. A handwriting analyst determined that Lee in fact wrote the note. J.B.C.'s prints were not among the suitable latent fingerprints found on the note.

In contrast to J.B.C.'s account, as detailed above, the testimony of Frailey, Bonsignore, and Franks adduced at trial supports the theory that J.B.C. was absent for more than the two minutes he claimed, and that Michael was the one who found and initially read the alleged "suicide note."

According to Frailey, after J.B.C. spent about ten minutes down the hall, he went outside and messed around with a metal bucket. Frailey also testified that it was he who followed Michael down the hallway to Lee's room while J.B.C. was, he guessed, still outside. Michael discovered the note on Lee's bed and said that he needed to show it to J.B.C. Michael and Frailey walked back out to the living room to show J.B.C. the note. J.B.C. responded that his grandmother hadn't left, she was hiding. J.B.C. denied at trial ever saying that he thought she was hiding. Frailey testified that everybody then followed J.B.C. down the hall to Lee's bedroom.

Similarly, according to Bonsignore, the next time he saw J.B.C., J.B.C. was coming inside through the back door with his dog. After coming back inside, J.B.C. washed his hands in the kitchen sink. Bonsignore testified that he did not know how J.B.C. had gotten outside. He further testified that Michael and Frailey went down the hallway while he was in the kitchen talking to J.B.C. Michael came back out reading a note he found in Lee's bedroom. Commenting that the letter sounded serious, Bonsignore testified that Frailey looked out the window to see that Lee's car was still in the driveway. Everyone except for Bonsignore went down the hallway to Lee's bedroom.

According to Franks, J.B.C. was the only one who had left the living room, and he spent about three to five minutes down the hallway. However, he too identified Michael as the one who returned with the note in his hands. At trial, Franks could not explain how Michael had gotten the note, or say for certain that Michael had actually been in the living room the entire time.

The boys found Lee's body face down between the wall and the side of the bed. J.B.C. testified that he screamed "Granny, Granny, Granny" a couple of times, and after getting no response, he ran out of the bedroom. J.B.C. said that he did not try to do anything to help her because he was scared. When J.B.C. said that his grandmother was dead and had killed herself, everyone got out of Lee's house. J.B.C. then ran to the neighbor's house, screaming that his granny was dead, and asked that they call the police.

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Bluebook (online)
233 S.W.3d 88, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 5978, 2007 WL 2152885, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-jbc-texapp-2007.