In the Matter of R.R., a Juvenile

420 S.W.3d 301, 2013 WL 6835288, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 15427
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 27, 2013
Docket08-12-00284-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 420 S.W.3d 301 (In the Matter of R.R., 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 R.R., a Juvenile, 420 S.W.3d 301, 2013 WL 6835288, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 15427 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

*302 OPINION

GUADALUPE RIVERA, Justice.

Appellant, R.R., a juvenile, was charged by petition with the delinquent conduct of possession of less than two ounces of marijuana in a drug-free zone. See Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. §§ 481.121(a), (b)(1), 481.134 (West 2010). After a hearing, the trial court adjudicated Appellant delinquent. Following a disposition hearing, Appellant was placed on probation until his eighteenth birthday. On appeal, Appellant challenges the trial court’s finding that he engaged in delinquent conduct by possessing two ounces or less of marijuana. In a single issue, Appellant argues the evidence is legally insufficient to support his conviction. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

At the adjudication hearing, Esperanza Garcia, a class guard monitor at San Eliza-rio High School in El Paso County, Texas, testified that she observed Appellant with other boys by the side of the school’s field house on May 24, 2012. Garcia saw Appellant smoking and passing what appeared to be a pen cap to the other boys. Garcia told Alfonso Sepulveda, a security officer at the school, what she had seen and asked him to stop the boys. Appellant was stopped, and when he denied smoking, Garcia asked to smell Appellant’s hands which he allowed her to do. Garcia testified that she smelled the odor of marijuana on Appellant’s hands.

Garcia and Sepulveda started to walk Appellant to the administrator’s office and Appellant became very nervous and started to shake and brush something off of his pant leg. Garcia observed a folded piece of white paper fall from Appellant’s pants. She watched Sepulveda pick up and open the piece of paper and saw that it contained a green weed substance which she recognized to be marijuana. 1

Sepulveda testified that he smelled an odor of marijuana on Appellant’s hands and that Appellant’s eyes were a little glassy. Appellant started to stall, fidget, and pull on his pant legs when they started to walk to the administrator’s office. At that point, Sepulveda saw a white folded-up paper fall from Appellant’s pant area. Sepulveda picked up and opened the paper which contained a green leafy substance he believed to be marijuana. 2

El Paso Sheriffs Office Deputy Carlos Muñoz testified that his drug training consisted of the identification of different drugs including marijuana, as well as sight recognition of the general amounts of marijuana. As a deputy, Muñoz had identified marijuana ten to fifteen times. During his prior position as a detention officer in the jail annex, Muñoz identified marijuana two to three times. On May 24, 2012, Deputy Muñoz was dispatched to San Elizario High School in reference to a student’s possession of narcotics.

At the school, Deputy Muñoz spoke to the hall monitor and the security guard among others and was advised that Appellant possessed marijuana. Deputy Muñoz viewed the green leafy substance contained in the folded piece of white paper and recognized it to be marijuana. Deputy Muñoz testified the marijuana appeared to be less than two ounces of marijuana and that it was a usable amount. The substance field tested positive for marijua *303 na and weighed less than two ounces. Deputy Muñoz subsequently arrested Appellant.

DISCUSSION

Appellant contends the evidence is legally insufficient to sustain the trial court’s finding that he engaged in delinquent conduct. Specifically, he argues the State’s evidence was not legally sufficient to sustain the trial court’s delinquent conduct finding because the State failed to prove that the substance was marijuana and that the marijuana weighed two ounces or less. We disagree.

Standard of Review

Although juvenile appeals are categorized as civil cases, we use the same standards applicable in criminal appeals when reviewing challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a finding that a juvenile engaged in delinquent conduct. See In re J.R.C.S., 393 S.W.3d 903, 909 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2012, no pet.); In re H.G.G.D., 310 S.W.3d 43, 45 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2010, no pet.); In re M.D.T., 153 S.W.3d 285, 287 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2004, no pet.). In a legal sufficiency analysis, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2788-89, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Burden v. State, 55 S.W.3d 608, 612 (Tex.Crim.App. 2001). On review, we do not resolve any conflicts of fact or re-evaluate the weight and credibility of the evidence. King v. State, 29 S.W.3d 556, 562 (Tex.Crim.App.2000); In re H.G.G.D., 310 S.W.3d at 46. Instead, our duty is to determine whether the explicit and implicit findings of fact made by the trier of fact are rational by viewing all the evidence admitted at trial in the light most favorable to the verdict. See Adelman v. State, 828 S.W.2d 418, 421 (Tex.Crim.App.1992). In doing so, any ev-identiary inconsistencies are resolved in favor of the verdict. Matson v. State, 819 S.W.2d 839, 843 (Tex.Crim.App.1991).

Possession of Marijuana

To prove that Appellant engaged in delinquent conduct, the State had to establish that Appellant knowingly or intentionally possessed a usable quantity of marijuana in the amount of two ounces or less. Tex. Health & Safety Code Ann. § 481.121(a), (b)(1) (West 2010); Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 51.03(a)(1) (West 2008). Accordingly, the State bore the burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant (1) exercised care, control, and management over the contraband and (2) that he knew he possessed contraband. Brown v. State, 911 S.W.2d 744, 747 (Tex.Crim.App.1995).

First, Appellant contends the State failed to prove that the substance was marijuana. He complains the evidence is legally insufficient because the State: (1) only offered the testimony of Deputy Mu-ñoz, a rookie officer; (2) failed to offer the testimony of an expert such as a lab analyst; (3) did not offer the alleged marijuana or photos of the marijuana into evidence; and (4) failed to introduce the chain of custody for the marijuana into evidence. However, we find Appellant’s arguments unpersuasive. In Osbourn v. State,

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Bluebook (online)
420 S.W.3d 301, 2013 WL 6835288, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 15427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-rr-a-juvenile-texapp-2013.