Jeremy Howard v. State

482 S.W.3d 249, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 12551, 2015 WL 8486496
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided December 10, 2015·No. NO. 01-14-00911-CR·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

*251 OPINION

Evelyn V. Keyes, Justice

A jury convicted .appellant, Jeremy Howard, of the first-degree felony offense of aggravated robbery and assessed his punishment at thirty years’ confinement. 1 In four issues, appellant argues that the trial court erroneously .denied his motion to suppress three recorded statements because the recordings did not contain a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of his statutory rights and that the trial court erroneously overruled ■ his objection to testimony concerning his post-arrest, post-Miro%da invocation of his right to remain silent and right to counsel.

We affirm.

Background

A. Factual Background

On June 8, 2013, Judy Gorman stopped by a Tobacco Mart store .in northwest Houston around 8:00 or 8:30 .in the morning. Gorman pulled up to the drive-thru window and rang the bell, but no employee answered or came to the window. Gorman then banged on the window and honked her car horn. While she honked her horn, she heard a “pop pop” sound “like a car backfiring.” Gorman believed that the noise might have been coming from her car, so she checked underneath it but did not see anything out of the ordinary. When she stood back up, she saw the cashier of the Tobacco Mart standing at the drive-thru window, “and he was holding himself and blood was everywhere.” Gorman called 9-1-1. After' speaking with the 9-1-1 dispatcher, she saw a truck swerve oüt from the Tobacco Mart parking lot, and she followed the truck to report its license plate number to the dispatcher. Gorman followed the truck for a little while, but the truck was driving recklessly, and the dispatcher told her to return to the T.obacco Mart and wait for the police. Gorman could not see the faces of anyone inside the truck.

Alkarim Virani, the complainant, worked as a manager at the Tobacco Mart. Around 8:45 in the morning on June 8, 2013,. two black men entered the Tobacco Mart and requested a pack of cigarettes. When Vi-rani turned to put the cigarettes on the counter, one of the men removed a gun from his pocket and shot Virani in the stomach. Both of the men then jumped over Virani and started putting cigarette packs in a trash bag. The shooter asked Virani where money was- located in the store, and Virani showed him to the office. After the shooter left the office, Virani tried to shut the door, but the shooter shot through the door and hit Virani in the finger. After the shooter and the other man left the Tobacco Mart, Virani pushed a panic button and spoke with a customer who called the police.- Virani saw the faces of both men during the robbery, but he was unable to identify any suspects in a photo-array, and he did not identify appellant in court as being involved in the robbery. The trial court admitted a copy of the surveillance video from the inside of the Tobacco Mart, which depicted the robbery, during Virani’s testimony.

Houston Police Department (“HPD”) Officer A. Larkin responded to the panic call. When he walked toward the Tobacco Mart, he saw a stack of cash sitting bn the wheelchair ramp. Inside, Officer Larkin found Virani and called for an ambulance. Officer Larkin discovered spent shell casings and a bullet inside the Tobacco Mart, and he also found surveillance cameras that looked as though they had been ripped from the ceiling.

*252 B. Hearing on Motion to Suppress Oral Statements

The trial court held a pre-trial hearing on appellant’s motion to suppress four custodial statements. 2

Officer M. Houston and his partner Sergeant Mora, with the HPD robbery division, coiiducted an interview with appellant on June 9, 2018.- Officer Houston began the interview by reading appellant each of his statutory rights. Appellant nodded his head after Officer Houston read each right, which Houston interpreted as appellant indicating that he understood each right; Appellant appeared to understand what Officer Houston was reading, and appellant had no questions about any of his rights. 1 After Officer Houston finished reading appellant his rights, appellant began answering Houston’s questions. Appellant seemed relaxed throughout the interview, and Officer Houston did not threaten or coerce appellant into giving a statement, and he never promised appellant anything in exchange for a statement. Officer Houston testified that, appellant was coherent throughout the interview, that he did .not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and that he appeared eager to “share his side of things.” Appellant did not invoke his right to remain silent or his right to counsel during this interview. This interview lasted approximately ten minutes.

Officer J. Curtis, , also with the robbery division, interviewed appellant on two occasions — June 13, 2013, and June 21, 2013. Officer Curtis testified that before he spoke with appellant about the offense on June 13, he read appellant his statutory and constitutional rights. After reading each of the rights, Officer Curtis asked appellant if he understood and waited for appellant to respond before moving on to the next one. Officer Curtis stated that appellant “affirmatively’-’ responded that he understood each of his rights. Appellant did not ask any questions about his rights, and Officer Curtis did not feel as though appellant didvnot understand his rights. Once-Officer Curtis had read appellant his rights and appellant had stated that he understood each one, Curtis began questioning appellant, and appellant answered Curtis’s questions. Appellant never stopped-the interview or -asked for -an ¿ttorney. Appellant did not indicate that he did not want to speak to Officer Curtis or that he wanted to invoke his statlitory rights, and Curtis believed that appellant voluntarily provided information to him during this interview. Officer Curtis testified that he never threatened or coerced appellant into giving a statement, that he ■never promised appellant anything in exchange for a statement, and that appellant did not appear incoherent' or ■ under- the influence of anything during the interview. Officer Curtis characterized appellant’s demeanor as relaxed, “very' matter of fact,” and not “troubled by anything” at the time of the interview. This- interview lasted approximately 15 minutes.

Officer Curtis spoke with appellant again on June 21, 2013, after he had been charged with aggravated robbery in the Tobacco Mart ease. Officer Curtis again read appellant his statutory warnings and ensured that appellant -affirmatively responded that he understood each one before Curtis read the next warning. Officer Curtis testified that he did not coerce appellant into giving a statement, and he did not promise appellant anything in ex *253 change for a statement. Appellant had a “relaxed matter of. fact demeanor” during this interview. In this interview, after approximately eighteen minutes of questioning, appellant stated that he did not want to make any farther statements without an attorney present. Officer Curtis then terminated the interview.

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Jeremy Howard v. State, 482 S.W.3d 249, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 12551, 2015 WL 8486496 (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

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