LaSalle v. State

923 S.W.2d 819, 1996 Tex. App. LEXIS 2037, 1996 WL 266563
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 21, 1996
Docket07-95-0283-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 923 S.W.2d 819 (LaSalle v. State) 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
LaSalle v. State, 923 S.W.2d 819, 1996 Tex. App. LEXIS 2037, 1996 WL 266563 (Tex. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinions

BOYD, Justice.

In three points of error, appellant Lorenzo Keith LaSalle challenges his conviction of aggravated sexual assault and the jury-assessed punishment of 75 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. In those points, he contends the trial court erred in not granting his motion 1) to suppress his written confession because of failure to comply with the requirements of article 38.22 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 2) to suppress evidence derived from a warrantless search, and 3) to disqualify the 47th District Attorney’s Office.

K.C.B, the victim in this case, testified that on April 13, 1994, she was asleep in her bedroom when she heard something break. At that time, someone came into her room and began to choke her. As she struggled to break free, the assailant struck her, causing her to “black out.” When she awakened, she was being dragged into the living room of her home. After being dropped there, she was dragged into the hallway where the assailant took off her clothes, but left her shirt covering her face. The assailant then licked her private areas, attempted penile penetration, and inserted his fingers into her vagina.

Sergeant Greg Soltis of the Amarillo Police Department was called and collected evidence at the scene of the assault. He obtained, among other things, photographs and a cast of footprints found outside the home. The shoes appeared to be “tennis shoes” with an unusual tread. After examining the footprints, Officer Perry Gilmore asked a juvenile detective if he “knew of any young juveniles or young offenders who might live in the area that he might consider a good suspect in this crime.” As a result of that inquiry, appellant’s name was suggested.

After Sergeant Soltis briefed them about the footprint and other evidence at the crime scene, Officer Gilmore and Detective Susan Smith walked down the alley from the crime scene to appellant’s residence and as they did so, they could see and followed similar shoe print impressions in the alley dirt. As a result of their journey, the officers knocked on appellant’s door around 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.

Because they were not in uniform at the time appellant came to the door, the officers identified themselves as police officers and requested permission to enter the house, which was granted. Officer Gilmore then requested permission to search the house and, in response to appellant’s query why the request was made, the officer told him “that there had been some thefts in the neighborhoods, been some prowlers in the neighborhood and that I was looking for evidence in connection with incidents like that.”

Appellant gave his consent to a search and, after receiving permission to do so, Officer Gilmore looked in drawers, under couches and beds, and discovered several items, including a pair of tennis shoes with the same pattern as the footprints at the crime scene, clothing similar to what the victim described the assailant as wearing, a knife, and drug paraphernalia. As a result of the search, the officers took appellant to the Amarillo Police Department where Detective Smith escorted him to an interview room.

Upon their arrival at the interview room around 11:13 a.m., Detective Smith testified that she gave appellant a copy of the “rights form” from which she read the statutory warnings required by article 38.22 of the [822]*822Code of Criminal Procedure.1 The warnings are listed at the top of appellant’s statement which was later admitted into evidence. Detective Smith testified that at the end of each of the warnings, she asked appellant whether he understood and agreed to waive each one of his rights therein protected. She averred that:

I explained the fifth right, about terminating the interview at any time and I asked him if he understood what the word terminated meant and he indicated that he did, and I asked him what that was and he said that he had the — he could stop at any point and he didn’t have to talk to me if he didn’t want to.

Detective Smith began the interrogation of appellant but, after talking with appellant for some time, felt she was “getting part of the story, but not all of the story,” so she left the interview room and asked two other detectives, Hugg and Porter, to “visit with” appellant. Only five or ten minutes elapsed from the time Detective Smith left the room and the time the other two officers entered the room. After the continuation of the interrogation by the officers, appellant decided to give a statement, which he dictated at 2:07 p.m. to Detective Hugg. Hugg testified that when he began questioning appellant, he did not repeat the statutory warnings as he knew they had already been given to appellant. At no time did appellant ask for food, drink or medical attention, and he never asked to terminate the interview.

In his first point of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in not suppressing his confession because “the tendered statement did not comply with the requirements of Article 38.22, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.” Section two of article 38.22 provides:

No written statement made by an accused as a result of custodial interrogation is admissible as evidence against him in any criminal proceeding unless it is shown on the face of the statement that:
(a) the accused, prior to making the statement, either received from a magistrate the warning provided in Article 15.17 of this code or received from the person to whom the statement is made a warning that:
(1) he has the right to remain silent and not make any statement at all and that any statement he makes may be used against him at his trial;
(2) any statement he makes may be used as evidence against him in court;
(3) he has the right to have a lawyer present to advise him prior to and during any questioning;
(4) if he is unable to employ a lawyer, he has the right to have a lawyer appointed to advise him prior to and during any questioning; and
(5) he has the right to terminate the interview at any time; and
(b) the accused, prior to and during the making of the statement, knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived the rights set out in the warning prescribed by Subsection (a) of this section.

Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 38.22, § 2 (Vernon 1979).

The essence of appellant’s argument under his first point is that because Detective Smith did not complete the interrogation and was not the person who actually reduced the result of that interrogation to writing, the statutory warnings given by her were not sufficient and the warnings must have been specifically given again by the officers who actually reduced the confession to writing.

Article 38.22 precludes the use of statements which result from custodial interrogation without compliance with its procedural safeguards. Morris v. State, 897 S.W.2d 528, 530 (Tex.App.—El Paso 1995, no pet.). The State may not use statements stemming from custodial interrogation unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against incrimination. Id. Inasmuch as there was obviously an interrogation in this case, the question actually presented here is [823]

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Bluebook (online)
923 S.W.2d 819, 1996 Tex. App. LEXIS 2037, 1996 WL 266563, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lasalle-v-state-texapp-1996.