Jaynes v. State

673 S.W.2d 198, 1984 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 699
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 11, 1984
Docket68524
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 673 S.W.2d 198 (Jaynes v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jaynes v. State, 673 S.W.2d 198, 1984 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 699 (Tex. 1984).

Opinions

OPINION

McCORMICK, Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction for failure to stop and render aid. Punishment was assessed at eight years, probated.

Appellant argues that the evidence is insufficient to show that she drove the motor vehicle involved in the offense and that she acted knowingly in failing to stop and render aid. Article 6701d, Sections 38 and 40, V.A.C.S. The indictment alleged in pertinent part that appellant:

“... did then and there drive and operate a motor vehicle on a public highway and while driving said motor vehicle the Defendant did then and there knowingly strike a person to-wit: Ocie Franklin, Jr., and did then and thereby knowingly injure the person of the said Ocie Franklin, Jr., and the said BILLIE SUE JAYNES did then and there unlawfully fail to stop and render reasonable assistance to the said Ocie Franklin, Jr. in that the said BILLIE SUE JAYNES did then and there knowingly fail to stop and carry and knowingly failed to make arrangements for the carrying of the said Ocie Franklin, Jr. to a physician for medical treatment, it being apparent that such treatment was necessary by reason of the injuries received as aforesaid.”

Ocie Franklin, Jr., the complainant, testified that he was standing beside his parked car talking to Curtis Jones when he was struck by a passing brown GMC pickup truck. The impact knocked Franklin over the front of his car and onto the ground. Franklin testified that after he had been hit he heard the truck back up and then speed off. Franklin did not see the driver of the pickup and could not identify appellant as the driver of the pickup.

Curtis Jones testified that he was standing in front of his house located on Teak Avenue talking to the complainant when a pickup truck drove by and struck the complainant’s car. The complainant was standing next to the open door on the driver’s side of his car and the impact of the collision threw him over the front of his car. Jones testified that the truck was driven by a white female and there was only one person in the truck. Jones related that after the truck had struck the complainant, the truck stopped, backed up and then sped off. Jones testified that he copied down the license plate number on the truck. He then ran into his house. When he came out, he saw the pickup truck parked a block down the street. Jones could not identify appellant as the driver of the truck.

Milton Crittenden testified that he was on his way to work on the morning of the offense. He was stopped at a stop sign on Teak Avenue when the appellant walked in front of his truck and around to the passenger side and climbed inside. Crittenden looked back in the direction from where appellant had come and saw a GMC pickup truck parked in the road. The. front radiator of the GMC pickup truck was damaged and water was draining from the radiator. When appellant got into Crittenden’s truck, she said, “Let’s go.” Crittenden asked appellant where she wanted to go and she told Crittenden to take her to the “flats.” Crittenden replied that he could not take her any place because he was on his way to pick up a co-worker and then they had to go to work. The appellant refused to get [200]*200out of Crittenden’s truck so he drove to his co-worker’s house about three blocks away. As he was waiting in front of his co-worker’s house, a bus pulled up beside Critten-den’s truck and the bus driver told Critten-den that appellant had run over someone a few blocks down Teak Avenue. Appellant again told Crittenden, “Let’s go.” Critten-den again tried to get appellant to exit his vehicle. When she refused, he headed off to work. As they were driving beside Ella Isles elementary school, Crittenden stopped again and appellant finally got out of the truck. Crittenden testified that when appellant entered his truck she appeared to be “pretty loaded.”

Ema Alexander, the director of a day care center near Ella Isles elementary school, testified that between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the offense the appellant came to the day care center and asked to use the telephone. Appellant told Alexander that two men in a truck had dropped her off and she needed to call her mother for a ride. Appellant had trouble dialing the correct number and eventually Alexander dialed the number for her. After completing the call, appellant was told to wait in the front of the day care center. A few minutes later, someone found appellant passed out on the front porch of the center. Alexander testified that she thought appellant was high on something. Alexander called police and appellant was taken away in an ambulance.

Officer Tim Smith of the Lubbock Police Department testified that he responded to an accident call on the day of the offense. When he arrived at the scene, he found the complainant lying on the ground in front of his car. The car had been knocked part way onto Curtis Jones’ lawn and the car had heavy damage to its left rear end. After Jones gave him a description of the vehicle involved in the accident, Smith noticed a vehicle matching that description parked in the middle of the street approximately a block north of where the accident occurred. This vehicle had extensive damage to its right front end. After completing his on-the-scene investigation, Officer Smith went to the hospital to see the complainant. While at the hospital, some two hours after he initially responded to the call, Officer Smith encountered appellant. Appellant was having trouble walking, her eyes were red and occasionally seemed to roll back, and she appeared to have no control over coordination. Officer Smith testified that in his opinion appellant was intoxicated or high. In addition, Officer Smith noticed needle marks on appellant’s arms and around her toes.

Finally, Dr. Gerald Woolam testified that he treated the complainant for injuries suffered as a result of this offense. Woolam diagnosed the complainant as having a blunt injury to the left side of the abdomen and flank. Appellant was hospitalized for forty-eight hours.

Testimony was introduced to show that the owner of the brown GMC pickup truck involved in the accident was Genita Harris, appellant’s mother.

Appellant testified that she remembered nothing that occurred on the day of the offense. She related that the last thing she remembered was riding around with a friend. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the hospital.

The relevant question in reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Wilson v. State, 654 S.W.2d 465 (Tex.Cr.App.1983); Denby v. State, 654 S.W.2d 457 (Tex.Cr.App.1983); Freeman v. State, 654 S.W.2d 450 (Tex.Cr.App.1983). As noted above, appellant contends that the evidence was insufficient to prove that she drove the vehicle. We disagree. Testimony was presented to show that a white female was driving the pickup and that she was alone in the truck. The truck, later identified as belonging to appellant’s mother, was found a short distance from the accident scene and appellant was spotted nearby. We find that the evidence excluded every other reasonable hypothesis and is sufficient to show she was [201]

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Bluebook (online)
673 S.W.2d 198, 1984 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 699, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jaynes-v-state-texcrimapp-1984.