Johnson v. State

901 S.W.2d 525, 1995 WL 112792
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 13, 1995·No. 08-94-00056-CR·Published·Cited by 42 cases

Opinion

OPINION

BARAJAS, Chief Justice.

Alan Wade Johnson appeals his conviction for the offense of aggravated robbery. An El Paso County grand jury indicted Appellant for the offense as enhanced by prior felony convictions, to which indicted offense he pled not guilty. After a change of venue, a Travis County jury found Appellant guilty and assessed punishment at confinement in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for a life term, whereupon the trial court entered judgment in accordance with the jury’s verdict. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

I. SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE

On October 21, 1990, between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m., Appellant robbed a Pizza Hut restaurant located in a suburban area of El *529 Paso’s east side. The restaurant was closed at the time, and Appellant gained access by claiming he had left his sunglasses in the store. Once the manager opened the door, Appellant pushed his way inside and held the manager at bay by brandishing a firearm. Appellant took money from the store safe. He then instructed the manager to kneel, pressed the muzzle of the gun to the base of the manager’s neck, and instructed him to turn over his wallet. He warned the manager not to identify him in the future because, having perused the wallet, he knew the manager’s address and could find him easily.

Appellant was indicted for this offense on May 21, 1991, in cause number 61331. On the same date, Appellant was indicted for another robbery offense in cause number 61330. On August 29, 1991, he was indicted for an unrelated capital murder offense that was originally assigned the cause number 62189, but was later dismissed and reindicted into cause number 62384. The capital murder case was first set for trial on March 16, 1992, and eventually proceeded to trial on its sixth setting on October 4,1993. Trial in the instant case began on February 7, 1994.

On September 2, 1993, Appellant filed a motion to dismiss cause numbers 61330 and 61331, claiming that he had been denied a speedy trial. A hearing on the motion was held on September 9, 1993, at which Appellant testified that his alibi witness had died while he was awaiting trial. He produced an Oklahoma death certificate that he claimed evinced his alibi’s death. He also introduced into evidence three letters he claimed to have mailed to the District Attorney’s office on three separate dates. The letters urge the office to proceed to trial and at least one warns of his alibi’s deteriorating health. Appellant conceded that he never contacted the court in an effort to obtain a speedy trial. The State produced various witnesses who testified that neither the District Attorney’s office nor the trial court ever received the letters.

The trial court denied the motion in a written order. The order recites that the trial court gives priority to capital cases when allocating trial settings. Although the order refused to find whether the disputed letters were actually sent to the District Attorney’s office, it found that the office was under no obligation to communicate directly with Appellant because he was represented by counsel at all relevant times. Appellant never filed a motion for speedy trial in any of the three causes.

II. DISCUSSION

Appellant attacks his conviction in five points of error. In his first point of error, Appellant claims he was denied a speedy trial in violation of the United States and Texas Constitutions. The framework for Sixth Amendment speedy trial analysis was set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101. Emery v. State, 881 S.W.2d 702, 708 (Tex.Crim.App.1994). No definite period of time has been held to be a per se violation of a defendant’s right to a speedy trial; alleged violations are considered on a case by ease basis. Emery v. State, 881 S.W.2d at 708 (citing Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. at 529-30, 92 S.Ct. at 2191). When conducting the Barker v. Wingo balancing test, the reviewing court must consider four factors:

(1) the length of the delay;
(2) the reason for the delay;
(3) whether the defendant asserted his speedy trial rights; and
(4) any resulting prejudice to the defendant.

Emery v. State, 881 S.W.2d at 708 (citing Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. at 530, 92 S.Ct. at 2191). None of the four factors alone is a necessary or sufficient condition to finding a deprivation of the right to a speedy trial. See Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. at 533, 92 S.Ct. at 2193.

The record in the instant case demonstrates that Appellant has waived any error with respect to his speedy trial claim. The parties engage in protracted debate about the requirements for asserting the speedy trial right and the extent to which Appellant’s alleged correspondence with the District Attorney’s office complied with them. The testimony of Appellant’s trial counsel at the hearing on the motion to dismiss, howev *530 er, reveals that Appellant’s letters were part of a larger scheme by which Appellant deliberately elected not to seek a speedy trial as a form of relief while attempting to preserve a speedy trial claim for the sole purpose of supporting a later motion to dismiss. 1

A criminal defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial is secure when he is provided a speedy trial. The most direct path by which to obtain a speedy trial is by filing a motion that prays for a speedy trial as relief. Appellant never filed a motion for speedy trial. By admitting that he voluntarily decided not to file such a motion because he simply had no interest in actually obtaining a speedy trial as a form of relief, Appellant effectively waived his speedy trial claim. Trial counsel’s statement that he “was not going to assert a speedy trial claim until ... [Appellant] had, in fact, been deprived of a speedy trial,” reflects an unambiguous intent to bring about the very deprivation of which he now complains. Such naked and affirmative disinterest in a constitutional right constitutes a waiver of that right. Cf. Capistran v. State, 759 S.W.2d 121 (Tex.Crim.App.1982) (defining waiver as intentional relinquishment of a known right); Linder v. State, 828 S.W.2d 290, 301 (Tex.App. — Houston [1st Dist.] 1992, pet. ref'd) (“An accused may not invite error and then complain thereof.”), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 1850, 123 L.Ed.2d 474 (1993).

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Johnson v. State, 901 S.W.2d 525, 1995 WL 112792 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

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