In the MATTER OF M.I.S., a Juvenile

498 S.W.3d 123, 2016 WL 2944148, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 5358
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 19, 2016
DocketNO. 01-14-00684-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 498 S.W.3d 123 (In the MATTER OF M.I.S., a Juvenile) 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 the MATTER OF M.I.S., a Juvenile, 498 S.W.3d 123, 2016 WL 2944148, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 5358 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Jane Bland, Justice

A jury found that M.I.S. had engaged in delinquent conduct by committing aggravated robbery. When the jury deadlocked on a second question asking it to determine whether M.I.S. used or exhibited a firearm in connection with the robbery, the trial court issued a supplemental instruction directing the jury that, if it could not reach unanimity on the question, to answer that M.I.S. did not; The trial court entered affirmative findings pursuant to the jury’s finding that M.I.S. had committed aggravated robbery, found that M.I.S. was in need of rehabilitation, and placed him in the custody of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department for ten years.

M.I.S. appeals, contending the trial court erred by (1) giving a supplemental instruction to the jury during its deliberations; (2) denying his motion to suppress the complainant’s pretrial identification of M.I.S.; (3) admitting the complainant’s in-trial identification of M.I.S.; and (4) denying M.I.S.’s motion for continuance. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Around nine in the evening in October 2013, Orlando Caval waited in a Marshall’s store parking lot for his wife, who worked at the . store. He sat inside his car in a lighted area near the store entrance. As he waited, another car pulled into the parking space on the passenger side of Caval’s car. The female driver and the two male passengers, one wearing a hoodie sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, attracted Caval’s attention. Caval rolled down his window, and the driver asked Caval for directions. In an effort to assist them, Caval began to search for a location on his cell phone. While Caval was looking at his phone, the passenger • wearing the hoodie, later identified as M.I.S., exited the car and headed for Caval’s car door. M.I.S. tried to open the door, but it was locked. Caval told M.I.S. to wait while Caval continued to search for directions.

M.I.S. went back to the other car and returned with a shotgun. He pushed the gun’s barrel through the open window and held it, with his finger on the trigger, no more than 12 inches from Caval’s head. The female driver then ordered Caval to leave his wallet and walk away from the car. As Caval walked away from his car and toward the store, he heard both cars drive away.

Caval called 9-1-1, A police officer arrived, and Caval described the three individuals involved. The day after the robbery, a witness identified Brenda Flores as a suspect. Sergeant S. Ashmore, the lead investigator in the case, proceeded to the district attorney’s office to secure a warrant for Flores’s arrest. On his way home *127 from the district attorney’s office, Sergeant Ashmore overheard some “radio traffic” about a burglary in progress, nearby and headed to the scene. When Sergeant Ashmore arrived, he found that officers had taken M.I.S., Flores, and Neiman Gasper into custody for suspected commission of that burglary.

Sergeant Ashmore transported the three suspects to a police substation. He placed M.I.S, in a juvenile holding area while he conducted separate interviews with Flores and Gasper. Both- Flores and Gasper identified M.I.S. as the gunman in the Caval carjacking. Later that day, Sergeant Ashmore showed’ Caval a photo array containing images of six men. Caval selected the photo of M.I.S. from the array and identified him as the person who held the gun to Caval’s head. Caval recounted that he was “very positive” of the identification. He also identified the other two assailants from photo arrays.

At trial, Caval testified that M.I.S. held the shotgun during the incident. The jury also heard testimony, however, that Gas-per lied to police in stating that M.I.S. held the gun. On the witness stand, Gasper testified that he was the one who had the gun:

Q. So on October 20th of 2013, you told Sergeant Ashmore that [M.I.S.], in Petitioner’s Exhibit 149, which you were looking at the time, is the ' person who carjacked the man with the red car, right?
A. I was lying.
Q. Oh okay. So why is it that you were lying?
A. Just talking.
Q. You were pissed off?
A. No, I was just talking. I was high.
Q. So who did carjack the man in the red car?
A. I jacked him.
Q, So you had the gun that day?
A. Yep.
Q. And this is what you looked like that day, Petitioner’s Exhibit 121?
A. I don’t know. Look like me.

The jury also heard testimony that the shotgun belonged to Brenda Flores.

M.I.S. raised no objection to the court’s charge to the jury, which contained two questions. Question 1 asked for a finding of guilt or innocencé on the aggravated robbery charge. It instructed the jury to find that M.I.S. engaged in delinquent conduct if, beyond' a reasonable doubt, it unanimously concluded either that: '

[M.I.S.] ... while in the course of committing theft of property owned by ORLANDO CAVAL and with intent to obtain and maintain control of the property, intentionally OR knowingly threatened OR placed ORLANDO CAVAL in fear of imminent bodily injury OR death, and [M.I.S.] did then and there use or exhibit a deadly weapon, to wit: A FIREARM

or alternatively, that:

BRENDA FLORES AND/OR NEI-MAN GASPER, did then and there unlawfully, while in the course of committing theft of property owned by ORLANDO CAVAL and with intent to obtain ’ and maintain control of the property, intentionally OR knowingly threaten OR place ORLANDO CAVAL in fear of imminent bodily injury OR death, ' and BRENDA FLORES AND/OR NEIMAN GASPER did then and there use OR exhibit a- deadly weapon, to wit: A FIREARM, and that the respondent, [M.I.S.], with the intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense of AGGRAVATED ROBBERY, solicited, encouraged, directed, aided or attempted to aid to the other person or persons to commit *128 the offense of AGGRAVATED ROBBERY, then you will find the respondent did engage in delinquent conduct of the offense of AGGRAVATED ROBBERY as charged in the petition.

Question 1 thus allowed the jury to affirmatively find that M.I.S. had committed the offense of aggravated robbery either as a primary actor or under the law of parties.

Question 2 asked the jury:

Do you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the respondent [M.I.S.] did then and there use or exhibit a deadly weapon, namely a firearm, during the commission of or during the immediate flight from the commission of the aggravated robbery alleged in the petition?
After the jury retired to deliberate, it reported that it was
Hopelessly deadlocked on Question No. 2.
A, should we leave it blank; B, say deadlocked?”

In response, the trial court instructed the jury to refer to the general instruction concerning a unanimous verdict.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
498 S.W.3d 123, 2016 WL 2944148, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 5358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-mis-a-juvenile-texapp-2016.