Kenny v. State

292 S.W.3d 89, 2007 WL 2790373
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 30, 2008·No. 14-06-00764-CR·Published·Cited by 32 cases

Opinions

MAJORITY OPINION

LESLIE B. YATES, Justice.

A jury convicted appellant Christopher Lee Kenny of kidnapping, and the trial court assessed punishment at two years’ confinement. In five issues, he challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s finding on the element of abduction and complains the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on various defenses. We affirm.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Appellant and the complainant dated and lived together at a residence in Katy, Texas. On the evening of June 21, 2005, he and the complainant went to dinner at a local restaurant where he drank one-and-a-half bottles of sake and she drank two to three glasses of wine. During dinner, a dispute arose over the couple’s finances, and appellant stopped talking to the complainant. After they finished, appellant and the complainant drove home without speaking to one another in the car.

At trial, the complainant and appellant offered differing versions of the events occurring thereafter. The complainant testified that she tried to speak to appellant when they returned home, but he would not respond. After twenty or thirty minutes, without telling appellant, she left and drove to a pub “up the road.” The complainant stated that she stayed at the pub for about two or three hours, having approximately three or four glasses of wine and talking to other patrons. At some point, the complainant observed appellant enter the pub, smile and wave at her — which “scared” her — and then sit directly across from her position at the bar. Later, as appellant approached the complainant to access a cigarette machine located behind her, she asked him why he would not sit by her, and he did not respond. Appellant then returned to his seat, had a drink, talked to other patrons, and smiled at the complainant. She stated that appellant’s behavior made her a “little nervous.” Appellant left after having a “couple of drinks” and without speaking to the complainant.

Thereafter, a man who the complainant had talked to at the pub offered to give her a ride home. She accepted because she was “tipsy” and felt that she probably should not drive. Around midnight, the man drove her to a rental house he owned, rather than her house, because she explained to him she was nervous about going home because of appellant’s behavior. She stayed at the house and drank water with the man for about twenty or twenty-five minutes. After the man made an unsolicited sexual advance at her, which she rejected, he drove her back to her car in the pub’s parking lot after midnight.

According to the complainant, when she exited the man’s car, she observed appellant standing by her car holding a rope. As she attempted to enter her car, appellant yelled at her, grabbed her arm, pulled her to his pickup truck, opened the truck’s passenger door, and forced her inside. The complainant stated that by this point, the man who dropped her off had left the premises, and no one else in the parking lot witnessed these events. She further explained that at this point she could have, but did not remember, trying to get out of the truck. Appellant then walked to the driver’s side of his truck, got inside, and began tying the complainant’s wrists “extremely tightly” together with the rope. [92] The complainant reacted by biting appellant on his left forearm. She claimed that appellant then threw her against the seat, pinning her there with his hands, and placed some excess rope from her wrists around her neck for about four or five seconds, which caused her pain and prevented her from breathing. At this point, the complainant, fearing for her life, decided to cooperate with appellant and “[j]ust sit there and let him do what he was going to do to [her].” When appellant released the rope from the complainant’s neck, he used it to tie her ankles together in such a way that her ankles and wrists were now connected and he could control the tightness of this connection using the end of the rope.1 This caused the complainant excruciating pain, which she described as feeling like her “knees [were] coming out of the socket,” and she screamed to appellant, “Please stop.” According to the complainant, appellant responded, “Wait till I get you home. I’m going to torture you more.” Appellant then drove home, using one hand to drive and the other to hold the end of the rope. When they arrived home, the complainant stated that appellant pulled her out of the truck’s driver’s side and forced her to hop inside as he continued to manipulate the tightness of the rope.

When inside the home, appellant told the complainant to sit down in the kitchen while he made coffee, which he forced her to drink, and he then verbally abused her. She explained that the ropes had loosened now, which allowed her to hold the cup of coffee. Thereafter, according to the complainant, as she began walking up the stairs, she said something to anger appellant, and he “came after” her. In the bedroom, appellant pinned the complainant down on the bed and spanked her. She claimed that appellant then said, “Let’s see what stuff he’s been doing,” and forced his fingers into her vagina. Eventually, appellant and the complainant went to sleep. In the morning, when appellant had left for work, the complainant called her sister to inform her of the previous night’s events. Upon her sister’s advice, the complainant contacted the police. The complainant also contacted one of her employees, Betty Dudley, who came to her house. Dudley helped the complainant write a statement for the police when they arrived because her wrists were too swollen to write.

On cross-examination, the complainant admitted that after the man had dropped her off in the pub’s parking lot, appellant told her, “Why would you go off with a stranger because you could have been hurt like the idiot girl in Aruba?” The complainant further conceded that, when appellant put her inside his truck, she hoped he would just take her home and not harm her, but she explained that she also wanted to drive herself home because she was scared of appellant. With the exception of some details,2 Dudley, the complainant’s sister, two of the police officers who responded to the complainant’s call the morning after the incident, and a forensic nurse examiner who examined the complainant’s injuries, largely corroborated the complainant’s version of the events [93] with their testimony at trial, including injuries to her wrists, ankles, and neck.

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Kenny v. State, 292 S.W.3d 89, 2007 WL 2790373 (Tex. Ct. App. 2008).

292 S.W.3d 89 (Kenny v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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