Laura Sanders v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 23, 2014·No. 05-12-01186-CR·Published

Opinion

AFFIRM as Modified; and Opinion Filed April 23, 2014.

S In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-12-01186-CR

LAURA SANDERS, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Criminal Court No. 1 Dallas County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. MB10-52665

OPINION

Before Justices O'Neill, Myers, and Brown Opinion by Justice Brown

Laura Sanders appeals her conviction for the offense of driving while intoxicated. A jury

found appellant guilty, and the trial court assessed her punishment at 180 days’ confinement, probated for twenty-four months, and a $750 fine. As a condition of probation, the trial court originally ordered appellant to pay restitution in the amount of $7,000 to a woman whose car appellant hit while driving intoxicated. In six points of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in allowing expert witnesses and certain evidence when the State did not comply with the court’s discovery orders, in admitting appellant’s medical records into evidence, and in ordering restitution. In an opinion issued February 4, 2014, we agreed with appellant that the original restitution amount did not have a factual basis within the loss of the victim. We abated the appeal and remanded the case for a new restitution hearing. The trial court held a hearing and

issued a new restitution order in the amount of $7,075.28. We reinstated the appeal on March 20, 2014 and now consider appellant’s remaining points of error. We modify the trial court’s judgment to 1) reflect that appellant is ordered to pay restitution of $7,075.28 and 2) accurately reflect the fine orally assessed. As modified, we affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

On the night of February 8, 2010, Samantha Lewis was driving on the Dallas North Tollway and observed appellant driving erratically. Appellant continuously swerved across all lanes of the tollway for a period of ten to fifteen minutes and almost hit another car. Lewis called 911 to report appellant and exited the tollway. As Lewis was slowing down to stop for a red light, she looked in her rear view mirror and saw appellant “barreling down the exit.” Appellant’s car struck Lewis’s car twice and flipped over. Lewis got out of her car and looked for appellant. Lewis could smell alcohol coming out of appellant’s car. Paramedics arrived and removed appellant from her car and took her to Parkland Hospital.

The Dallas Police Department accident investigator called to the scene dispatched Officer Bobby Watkins with the DWI squad to Parkland to investigate appellant for possible DWI. Watkins observed that appellant had bloodshot eyes, her breath had a strong smell of alcoholic beverage, and her speech was slurred. Watkins performed the horizontal gaze nystagmus test on appellant. Appellant’s performance on the test indicated to Watkins that appellant did not have normal use of her mental and physical faculties due to alcohol. When Watkins asked appellant to take a blood test, appellant refused. Watkins arrested appellant for DWI and told her to turn herself in to the police when she was released from the hospital, which she did.

While appellant was hospitalized, a nurse drew her blood and it was tested for blood-

alcohol level, among other things. Shannon Jeter, a nurse manager at Parkland, testified that she was very familiar with the hospital’s standard procedures. She described the procedures for

taking a patient’s blood, sending it to the lab for tests, and getting back the lab results. Jeter saw appellant before she was discharged from the hospital, but was not the nurse who took appellant’s blood. Angeline Coyoca, a medical technologist at Parkland, testified that she was the person who verified and released the results of appellant’s blood-alcohol test. The value of the ethanol in appellant’s blood was 370. Then Aria McCall, a forensic toxicologist at Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences, testified that she had experience reading blood results from medical records. If whole blood was tested, a 370 ethanol value translates to .37 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters. If plasma was tested instead of whole blood, a 370 ethanol value translates to .31 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters. McCall stated she would find it highly unlikely that one could safely operate a motor vehicle one hour prior to having a blood- alcohol content of .37.

At the conclusion of the evidence, the jury found appellant guilty. At the punishment phase, Lewis and appellant testified. The trial court then assessed appellant’s punishment at 180 days’ confinement, probated for twenty-four months, and a $750 fine. The court ordered appellant to pay Lewis $7,000 restitution as a condition of probation. This appeal followed.

DISCOVERY ISSUES

In her first and second points of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in allowing the State’s expert witnesses to testify when they were not disclosed prior to trial and also in allowing evidence of the blood-alcohol test performed during appellant’s hospital stay because documents the defense needed to prepare for trial were not produced. Appellant contends the trial court allowed such evidence in violation of article 39.14 of the code of criminal procedure and also that she was denied a fair trial as a result. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 39.14 (b) (West Supp. 2013).

Several months prior to trial, in October 2011, appellant filed a motion asking the trial court to order the State to disclose its expert witnesses at least twenty days before trial and also to disclose copies of any reports, documents, or notes the experts had prepared for their testimony. Appellant also filed a “Motion for Discovery and Inspection of Records Related to the Blood Testing in this Case.” Appellant specifically asked the trial court to order, within ten days, the State’s attorney and agents to provide various information regarding the laboratory’s policies and protocols for testing blood samples. The trial court granted both motions.1 At trial in April 2012, after voir dire and outside the presence of the jury, defense counsel asked the court to exclude all expert testimony, including that related to accident reconstruction, sobriety tests, blood test results, and medical records. Counsel stated that he had received no notice of any experts. He also complained that he received nothing regarding his motion to discover any blood test results or procedures. Defense counsel had only received the medical records that day. The problem seemed to have arisen because the prosecutor who took the case to trial was not the prosecutor assigned to the case when the discovery orders were signed. The court recessed the proceedings to allow the current prosecutor to talk to the previous prosecutor. There was no ruling at this time, and the trial proceeded after approximately forty-five minutes.

After Officer Watkins completed his testimony, another hearing was held outside the presence of the jury. The State produced for the first time a notice of its expert witnesses. Defense counsel reasserted his claim that the State had violated the court’s order requiring the State to give twenty days’ notice of its experts in accordance with article 39.14(b) of the code of criminal procedure. The parties also discussed appellant’s medical records which were filed-

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