Lavarry v. State

936 S.W.2d 690, 1996 WL 681346
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 26, 1997
Docket05-94-01595-CR, 05-94-01596-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 936 S.W.2d 690 (Lavarry 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
Lavarry v. State, 936 S.W.2d 690, 1996 WL 681346 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

LAGARDE, Justice.

Roger Lee Lavarry, Sr. appeals his convictions for aggravated kidnapping. After a jury found appellant guilty, the trial court assessed appellant’s punishment at fifty years’ imprisonment and a $1000 fine in each ease. Appellant brings three points of error contending that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support the trial court’s implied finding that appellant did not release the victims voluntarily and in a safe place; (2) the trial court erred in denying appellant’s request to charge the jury on the lesser included offense of kidnapping; and (3) the trial court erred in overruling appellant’s objection to a prior unadjudicated offense. We overrule appellant’s second and third points of error. We sustain appellant’s first point of error and remand the causes to the trial court for further proceedings. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 44.29(b) (Vernon Supp.1996).

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Appellant and Sandra Roberts had been lovers, and appellant is the father of Roberts’ child, Quinton. The couple later ceased to live together. Appellant was convicted of assaulting Roberts on July 24, 1990. On June 1, 1993, after appellant hit Roberts in the face blackening her eye, Roberts obtained a protective order against appellant. In spite of the protective order, appellant “busted [Roberts] in the face” on July 22, 1993. Roberts testified that appellant would telephone her at home and at work threatening her. When her supervisor would not let appellant speak to her, appellant threatened to hurt him. After appellant broke the windows of Roberts’ car, her boss, David Williams, kept the car and would pick up Roberts at her apartment to go into work. On July 23, 1993, appellant came to Roberts’ *693 apartment and asked to see Quinton. Roberts told him he could not see Quinton and told him to leave. Appellant then broke a ■window in Roberts’ apartment.

The next morning, Williams arrived to drive Roberts to work. Roberts’ children were going to spend the day with Williams’ wife. The children came out of the apartment and got in the car. As Roberts was leaving the apartment, appellant pointed a gun at Williams’ chest and told Roberts and Williams to go back into the apartment or someone would get hurt. The three of them went inside the apartment leaving the children in the car. After a few minutes, Roberts reminded appellant that the children were still in the car. Appellant went to the door and told the children to come into the house. Roberts’ daughter saw the gun and was afraid that appellant would shoot Roberts. Roberts told her that she would be all right and told her and Quinton to watch television.

Appellant held Roberts and Williams at gunpoint for three hours and forty-five minutes. During that time, appellant threatened to kill both of them. He accused them of having a sexual relationship. He then sat next to Roberts, rubbed her leg, and told her, “By the way, just thinking about all this I want some.” He threatened to kill Williams for “messing with” his wife. He called Roberts a “dirty bitch” and said he should shoot her for leaving him for Williams. Both Roberts and Williams testified they were afraid that appellant might shoot them.

At some point, appellant told Roberts and Williams that he wanted to go somewhere to kill himself. He told Williams that he was taking Roberts with him. He told Williams not to call the police or he would kill Roberts. He then told Williams that he would not harm Roberts but would send her back to her children after she dropped him off somewhere. Appellant and Roberts left the apartment, got into her ear, and drove away.

While Roberts drove, appellant pointed the gun at her side. Appellant told her to take him to his best friend’s aunt’s house. Appellant kept asking why they could not get back together. Appellant told Roberts that he ought to let her hold the gun so that her fingerprints would be on it. He then took the bullets out of the gun and placed it in her lap. When they arrived at the house, appellant said, “I told your friend not to call the police, but I know they are already over there. But you haven’t heard the last of this. If the police are involved, I’ll be back.” He told her that “if the police was [sic] involved, we will see him [appellant] again, somebody is going to get hurt.” Appellant took back the gun and said, “Hum. Well, I better take this with me because I’m going to need it.” He then got out of the car and walked away. Roberts drove home.

Appellant testified that on July 23, 1993, he used the last of his money for a cab ride to Roberts’ apartment to ask her to give him some money. When he got there, he unlocked the door with his key, but a chain on the door kept it from opening all the way. Looking through the door, he saw Williams naked in Roberts’ apartment. The door was slammed closed in his face. Appellant went to a window. While appellant peered through the window, Williams punched him in the face through the window, breaking it in appellant’s face. Appellant then went around the corner and spent the night in a doorway. The next morning, as Williams and Roberts left the apartment, appellant approached them and asked them to take him home. After some conversation involving appellant threatening to tell Williams’ wife that Williams was sleeping with Roberts, Roberts agreed to take appellant to his best friend’s aunt’s house. Appellant denied having a gun with him or kidnapping Roberts or Williams.

JURY CHARGE

In his second point of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying appellant’s requested jury charge on the lesser included offense of kidnapping.

A trial court must submit a charge on a lesser included offense if: (1) the lesser included offense is within the proof necessary to establish the offense charged; and (2) some evidence exists in the record that would permit a jury rationally to find that if the *694 defendant is guilty, he is guilty only of the lesser included offense. Robertson v. State, 871 S.W.2d 701, 706 (Tex.Crim.App.1993), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 115 S.Ct. 155, 130 L.Ed.2d 94 (1994). In determining whether the record contains evidence that if the defendant is guilty he is guilty only of the lesser offense, we must examine the entire record. See Rousseau v. State, 855 S.W.2d 666, 673 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 919, 114 S.Ct. 313, 126 L.Ed.2d 260 (1993); Lugo v. State, 667 S.W.2d 144, 147 (Tex.Crim.App.1984).

If there is evidence from any source raising the issue that the defendant committed a lesser included offense and the defendant requests the issue, the trial court must submit it to the jury. Robertson, 871 S.W.2d at 706. If there is some evidence that negates the aggravating element of the greater offense or if the evidence of the aggravating element is so weak that a rational jury might interpret it in such a way to give it no probative value, then the trial court must submit a lesser included charge to the jury. Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
936 S.W.2d 690, 1996 WL 681346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lavarry-v-state-texapp-1997.