Jenise Leann Spruiell v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 5, 2024
Docket14-23-00465-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Jenise Leann Spruiell v. the State of Texas (Jenise Leann Spruiell 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
Jenise Leann Spruiell v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

Affirmed and Memorandum Opinion filed November 5, 2024.

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals

NO. 14-23-00465-CR

JENISE LEANN SPRUIELL, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 268th District Court Fort Bend County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 20-DCR-093101

MEMORANDUM OPINION

A jury found Appellant Jenise Leann Spruiell guilty of murder and assessed punishment at 22 years’ confinement. Appellant appeals her conviction and asserts (1) the evidence is legally insufficient to establish that Appellant was a party to the charged offense, and (2) the trial court abused its discretion by admitting certain evidence. For the reasons below, we overrule Appellant’s issues on appeal and affirm the trial court’s judgment. BACKGROUND

On November 11, 2019, officers with the Stafford Police Department were dispatched to reports of a shooting at a La Quinta hotel located on the Southwest Freeway. When officers arrived, they found Complainant lying face-down in the parking lot with multiple gunshot wounds. Complainant was pronounced dead at the scene.

Appellant was arrested approximately one year later and charged with Complainant’s murder. Appellant proceeded to a jury trial in May 2023. At trial, the State alleged that Appellant was guilty of the charged offense under the law of parties, which imposes criminal responsibility for the conduct of other persons if the defendant (1) acts with the intent to promote or assist in the commission of the offense, and (2) solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the others committing the offense. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 7.02.

The jury heard testimony from eight witnesses. We excerpt relevant portions of their testimonies below.

Officer McDougle

Officer McDougle was one of the Stafford Police Department officers who responded to the reports of Complainant’s shooting. According to Officer McDougle, upon arriving to the hotel parking lot he “observed a black male lying on the ground.” Officer McDougle also recalled seeing “several shell casings around his body.”

Officer McDougle said there were no witnesses to the shooting. However, a guest at the hotel reported hearing “approximately 8 to 10 gunshots” from his hotel room, which overlooked the parking lot. The witness also reported seeing “a black 4-door car blacked out in the parking lot and that it left and he didn’t see a license

2 plate on it.”

Officer Stout

Officer Stout is a crime scene investigator with the Stafford Police Department and responded to the reports of Complainant’s shooting. During Officer Stout’s testimony, the trial court admitted into evidence photographs showing Complainant’s body in the hotel parking lot. Officer Stout said Complainant was found holding in his hand “a cell phone that had sustained damage from a bullet.” Officer Stout also said 13 firearm shell casings were collected from the crime scene. Additional testing of the shell casings did not yield any fingerprints.

During her investigation, Officer Stout examined the hotel room Complainant had been staying in before he was shot. According to Officer Stout, in the hotel room she found (1) bail bond paperwork with Complainant’s name on it, (2) an AK47 firearm “located in the folding bed that was near the door,” and (3) “a box of Monarch 40 Smith & Wesson ammo.” Officer Stout said the spent shell casings collected from the parking lot did not match either the firearm or the ammunition recovered from Complainant’s room.

Officer Combs

Officer Combs is an investigator with the Houston Police Department. At trial, Officer Combs testified about a shooting that had occurred ten days before Complainant’s murder.

According to Officer Combs, he responded to reports of a shooting on November 1, 2019. Officer Combs said Michael Daniel had been shot in the neck and was transported to the hospital. Officer Combs testified that there were no eyewitnesses to Daniel’s shooting. Officer Combs said he was unable to obtain a

3 phone number for Daniel but received one for Daniel’s mother. Officer Combs said he called Daniel’s mother the day after the shooting and for several days thereafter, but she did not return his calls.

Officer Combs said he subsequently received a phone call from an officer with the Fort Bend Independent School District Police Department who had information about Daniel’s shooting. After receiving this information, Officer Combs said Complainant was developed as a suspect in Daniel’s shooting.

Officer Combs said he continued to investigate Daniel’s shooting and discovered that Daniel was released from the hospital on November 6th. Officer Combs testified that he made repeated attempts to contact Daniel and his mother. According to Officer Combs, Daniel’s mother “finally agreed to set up a meeting” and, on December 4, 2019, Officer Combs met with Daniel and his mother in a restaurant parking lot. Officer Combs said he did not find Daniel to be a credible witness and therefore “inactivated his case.”

Detective Melendez

Detective Melendez is employed by the Stafford Police Department and was the lead detective assigned to investigate Complainant’s murder. Detective Melendez responded to the La Quinta the night of the shooting and made contact with three people who also had been staying in Complainant’s hotel room. Detective Melendez stated that these individuals provided her with Complainant’s Instagram username. Detective Melendez said it is “useful” to have a person’s Instagram username when investigating a crime because it “gives us kind of a timeline, depending on how active they are on the account, of where they were, what time they last posted, [and] who they might have been corresponding with.”

Detective Melendez said she also reviewed the hotel’s parking lot

4 surveillance camera footage, which showed the shooting. Detective Melendez testified that the footage showed that Complainant was speaking on the phone shortly before he was shot.

Detective Melendez said she received a call the day after the shooting from a woman who identified herself as Complainant’s girlfriend. According to Detective Melendez, Complainant’s girlfriend provided Complainant’s Instagram username — the same username that also was provided by the occupants of his hotel room. Detective Melendez testified that she also learned from Complainant’s girlfriend “about an incident where [Complainant] confessed to [his girlfriend] that he had recently been involved with killing a man.” Detective Melendez said the Stafford Police Department then contacted the Houston Police Department, from whom they received information regarding Michael Daniel’s shooting on November 1, 2019.

Continuing to describe the course of her investigation, Detective Melendez said she pulled the records for the phone Complainant was found with at the time of his death as well as the records for his Instagram account. Detective Melendez testified that Complainant and Daniel had communicated on Instagram on November 1, 2019 — the day Daniel was shot. Detective Melendez said Complainant also had exchanged messages with Appellant beginning on November 4th, 2019, with their communications ending on November 11th — the day Complainant was shot. Describing Appellant’s connection to Daniel, Detective Melendez said Appellant has a child with Daniel’s half-brother.

Turning to Complainant’s phone records, Detective Melendez said the last call received on his phone came through at 11:11 p.m. the night he was shot. According to the La Quinta’s surveillance camera footage, Complainant was shot in the parking lot approximately two-to-four minutes later, while he was still

5 talking on his phone.

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443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Hooper v. State
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Reese v. State
33 S.W.3d 238 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Salinas v. State
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330 S.W.3d 633 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2010)
De La Paz v. State
279 S.W.3d 336 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2009)
Gear v. State
340 S.W.3d 743 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Gross v. State
380 S.W.3d 181 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Braughton, Christopher Ernest
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Balderas v. State
517 S.W.3d 756 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2016)

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Jenise Leann Spruiell v. the State of Texas, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jenise-leann-spruiell-v-the-state-of-texas-texapp-2024.