Jesse Rudolfo Gonzales v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 12, 2019·No. 05-18-00895-CR·Published

Opinion

AFFIRMED and Opinion Filed July 12, 2019

S In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-18-00895-CR

JESSE RUDOLFO GONZALES, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 401st Judicial District Court Collin County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. 401-80739-2016

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Schenck, Osborne, and Reichek Opinion by Justice Reichek Jesse Rudolfo Gonzales appeals his convictions for five counts of sexual assault of a child

and four counts of indecency with a child by contact. In four issues, appellant contends the evidence was legally insufficient to prove that he committed one of the offenses, the jury charge violated his right to a fair trial, and the trial court erred in allowing certain testimony that constituted hearsay and/or improper bolstering. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Background

In 2015, the complainant in this case, B.M., was sixteen years old. B.M. was in a relationship with a nineteen-year-old man named Houston Luna. Appellant was Luna’s employer.

In early 2015, Luna was incarcerated on a drug offense. While he was in jail, Luna asked B.M. to get some money for him from appellant. B.M. met appellant at a restaurant where he gave

her twenty dollars. During the meeting, appellant talked to B.M. about her relationship with Luna and asked her how old she was. B.M. told appellant she was sixteen years old and appellant told her that, if they wanted to communicate with each other, they could do so only through Snapchat. Testimony at trial explained that Snapchat is a social media application in which text messages and photographs sent to another person are automatically erased after a set amount of time.

B.M. testified she and appellant began messaging each other on Snapchat and, in the beginning, the conversations were normal. B.M. then asked appellant to help her obtain some alcohol for a party. Appellant agreed and they met in a shopping center parking lot near B.M.’s apartment. It was evening, and the parking lot was empty. B.M. got into appellant’s truck and asked for the alcohol. According to B.M., they began talking and appellant reached over and began touching her breasts. B.M. then stopped speaking. When appellant asked her what was wrong, she was too scared to answer him and appellant asked B.M. to move closer to him. Again, B.M. did not respond and appellant repeated the request until B.M. moved closer. Appellant continued feeling B.M.’s chest through the top of her tank top and began touching his penis through his jeans. When appellant began undoing his belt, he asked B.M. how she would feel about “going down there.” When B.M. again didn’t answer, appellant pulled his penis out of his pants and asked her to perform oral sex. After he made the request several times, B.M. decided she “might as well do it” because he wasn’t going to stop asking and she wanted to get away from him. When she was done, appellant gave her the alcohol and she left.

B.M. stated that, during the time she and appellant were communicating, she had begun to think of appellant as a friend. B.M. had disagreements with her mother and she felt she had no one else to talk to. She said appellant was open and supportive and she felt she could talk to him since he was older.

B.M. described multiple other incidents that occurred after the encounter in the parking lot in which she met with appellant and they engaged in sexual conduct. In one incident, appellant took B.M. to a motel room where he lay on the bed next to her and touched her breasts and vagina over her underwear. Appellant then took his clothes off, told her to take her underwear off, and had sex with her. In another incident, appellant drove B.M. out to a field and had sex with her in the back of his truck. B.M. described two occasions in which appellant took her to a house he owned in Blue Ridge, Texas. On the first occasion, appellant took her into a bedroom that appeared to have belonged to his daughter. B.M. stated they lay down on a mattress and appellant touched her vagina and put his fingers inside her. Appellant then proceeded to have sex with her. On the second occasion at the Blue Ridge house, appellant and B.M. had sex on the floor in a different room. B.M. stated appellant again put his fingers inside her vagina before they had intercourse.

B.M. stopped communicating with appellant in November 2015 when she learned Luna was being released on parole. B.M. stated she knew Luna would not like that she and appellant had been talking. According to B.M., when Luna returned home, he could tell something was wrong with her and that she was hiding something. Luna then became upset when he saw appellant’s number on B.M.’s phone and B.M. confessed that she had sex with him.

Luna arranged to meet with appellant in a parking lot. During the meeting, which Luna recorded, Luna told appellant he wanted appellant’s truck or some money or he would go to the police. B.M. stated she did not know Luna was going to record his conversation with appellant or that Luna was planning to ask him for money.

Later that day, Luna and B.M. were arguing and the argument was overheard by B.M.’s mother’s boyfriend. The boyfriend phoned B.M.’s mother to inform her about the argument and she came home. After confronting B.M., she drove B.M. to the police department to file a report. When they arrived at the station, B.M. stated she wasn’t going in and she ran away. B.M.’s mother

went into the station and gave a statement to a detective. Police later found B.M. and brought her home.

A few days after the report was made, appellant contacted Investigator Danny Stasik.

Stasik stated appellant appeared aware he was going to be investigated for sexual assault of a child and he talked about how he was being blackmailed by Luna. Although appellant told Stasik he reported the alleged blackmail to the McKinney Police Department, Stasik could not find any record of such a report. During the course of the conversation, which Stasik recorded, appellant admitted he purchased alcohol for B.M. and that he told her he loved her. Appellant also admitted B.M. performed oral sex on him in his truck for about “fifteen seconds.” Appellant signed a handwritten statement in which he said B.M. undid his pants to “go down” on him and, after a few seconds, he told her to stop.

The next day, B.M. underwent a forensic interview at the Child Advocacy Center. The interview was conducted by Rachel McConnell. Stasik observed the interview on a closed-circuit television in another room. During the interview, B.M. discussed some, but not all of the sexual encounters she ultimately claimed to have had with appellant. B.M. disclosed other encounters, such as the one in the parking lot and the one in the motel room, in later discussions with Stasik. Stasik testified that, based on the information he obtained from B.M., he conducted an investigation to corroborate some of the details B.M. had revealed. Stasik went to the motel that B.M. described and obtained records showing appellant had stayed there. Stasik also found a house in Blue Ridge owned by appellant. Although Stasik did not recover any physical evidence from the house showing that B.M. had been there, he testified B.M.’s description of the house matched what he found.

McConnell testified at trial concerning her interview of B.M. She said B.M. was consistent and detailed in her descriptions of what had happened. McConnell also generally testified

regarding the different phases of disclosure a child might go through with respect to revealing abuse that has occurred. McConnell stated that certain barriers might prevent a child from disclosing in an initial interview all the abuse that had occurred. During her interview with B.M., McConnell observed several of these barriers such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, and fear.

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