Jeffrey Demon Riles v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 23, 2021
Docket02-19-00421-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Jeffrey Demon Riles v. the State of Texas (Jeffrey Demon Riles v. the State of Texas) 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
Jeffrey Demon Riles v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

In the Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth ___________________________

No. 02-19-00421-CR ___________________________

JEFFREY DEMON RILES, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

On Appeal from Criminal District Court No. 1 Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 1551892D

Before Kerr, Birdwell, and Wallach, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Kerr MEMORANDUM OPINION

A jury found Jeffrey Demon Riles guilty of aggravated robbery with a deadly

weapon and engaging in organized criminal activity (EOCA). See Tex. Penal Code Ann.

§§ 29.03(a)(2), 71.02(a). On appeal from his EOCA conviction, Riles complains in two

points that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for EOCA and

(2) the trial court abused its discretion by overruling his objection to the State’s gang

expert’s testifying that Riles committed the robbery “to gain street credibility and

notoriety with a gang.” Because the evidence is insufficient to support Riles’s EOCA

conviction, we sustain his first point and render a judgment of acquittal. And because a

sufficiency review requires us to consider all evidence that the jury heard, even if some

of it was improperly admitted, our disposition of Riles’s first point makes it unnecessary

for us to consider Riles’s second point.

I. Background

On June 2, 2018, Riles walked into a Fort Worth Valero convenience store,

pretended to make a routine purchase, and then jumped onto the counter while pointing

a pistol at the cashier. The cashier fled to a nearby business to call the police, and Riles

stole the cash box and a few packs of cigarettes. The Valero’s surveillance system

captured the robbery on video. As that video reflects, Riles wore distinctive clothing

when he committed the robbery, and tattoos on the backs of his hands were visible.1

His black sweatshirt, emblazoned with the blue and red words “Winter League 1

Champs,” depicted a cartoon athlete swinging a baseball bat. His baseball cap was also

2 A Fort Worth Police Department surveillance team tracked Riles down through

a green Honda Accord registered to his then-girlfriend Kayla Walker and linked him to

the June 2 robbery.2 While the team surveilled Riles over the next nine days, they

noticed him driving in the Honda, going to Walmart multiple times, spending the night

at Walker’s apartment in Arlington, and “standing outside of the apartment complex

where he lived.”3 They also observed him meeting with two other individuals at a

different complex.

Fort Worth Police arrested Riles on June 11 while he was in the Honda with

another man and Walker.4 Witnesses did not identify the second male by first and last

name—although one law-enforcement witness recalled that his first name was Davin,

and Walker mentioned that he was a “dude” who lived in her apartment complex—nor

did the State ask about this second person’s relationship to Riles, to Walker, or to any

gang. In the car were the shoes and sunglasses Riles had been wearing when he robbed

the Valero clerk. During a later search of Walker’s apartment, where Riles kept some

blue and red, featured a cartoon character wielding a pickaxe and a ball, and bore a silver sticker on the brim. No testimony linked any features of his clothing with gang colors or symbolism, although its distinctiveness allowed both the Valero cashier and Riles’s former girlfriend to identify Riles from the surveillance video. 2 The Valero cashier did not see the robber get into a vehicle, nor did he see any vehicle parked outside. 3 The record is unclear which apartment complex was being referred to. 4 Walker’s then-four-year-old son was also in the car.

3 personal belongings, the police found the sweatshirt and baseball cap Riles had worn

during the robbery.

Although the jury heard and saw evidence about the robbery itself, the police

department’s surveillance efforts following the robbery, and the items recovered from

searching Walker’s car and apartment, the State did not present evidence indicating how

the police department knew to track Walker’s car. The State did not ask Paul Vega—

the detective who had asked the surveillance team to track this vehicle—how he had

connected the car to Riles.5 In addition, the jury heard nothing about Riles’s activity

leading up to and after the robbery. Despite calling Walker to testify, the State never

asked her with whom Riles associated or what he did during the day. Although she

testified that Riles frequently stayed overnight at her apartment and used her car, the

State did not ask her if Riles ever brought anyone to the apartment or if she knew where

he went or what he did with her car.

After Riles was in custody, the crime-scene unit photographed his tattoos. At

trial, Fort Worth Police Officer Chris McAnulty—a gang expert assigned to the Fort

Worth Police Department’s gang unit who teaches gang-identification classes and gives

5 The trial court had granted a motion in limine that precluded the State’s witnesses from explaining why they were looking for the green Honda. At another point in the trial before calling one of several law-enforcement witnesses to testify, the State explained in a bench conference that the witness had been instructed about “an investigation and not talking about certain other offenses” and mentioned the motion in limine. The jury heard nothing about other offenses in the guilt–innocence phase.

4 lectures about gang investigations—testified to the importance of tattoos in a gang

investigation. Officer Elizabeth Duemig, who photographed Riles’s tattoos, testified

that tattoos “give us some behavioral indicators or things the individual . . . might be

involved with.” According to both officers, Riles’s torso, arms, and hands sported

tattoos teeming with gang imagery. 6

Officer McAnulty testified that the Fort Worth Police Department maintains a

gang database and that Riles has been in that database since 2012 as a member of the

Five Deuce Hoova Crips. According to Officer McAnulty, in the early 1990s the Five

Deuce Hoova Crips became the first documented Crip group in Fort Worth. Between

70 and 80 confirmed members currently belong to that group, although not every gang

member is documented. The Five Deuce Hoova Crips’ “bread and butter is illegal

narcotics trafficking,” that is, “selling drugs, as well as robbery and burglaries.”

Officer McAnulty testified that respect and credibility are two of the most

important elements to gang members and that a gang member’s solo commission of a

crime increases his credibility within his gang. When the State asked Officer McAnulty

whether Riles had committed the robbery on his own “with the intent to establish,

6 Officer McAnulty testified in great and uncontroverted detail about the meaning of Riles’s numerous tattoos and how they reflected Five Deuce Hoova Crips symbolism. Because Riles did not challenge the fact of his Crips membership—beyond eliciting Officer McAnulty’s agreement that the tattoos’ ages were unknowable, implying that Riles might be a former but not a current Crip—we need not dwell on the specifics.

5 maintain, or participate as a member of a criminal street gang,” the defense objected to

this question as calling for speculation, but the trial court overruled the objection.

Officer McAnulty responded as follows:

A. Yes, ma’am. To -- to establish yourself in that gang, a lot of times it’s about committing crimes.

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