Lawrence v. State

211 S.W.3d 883, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 11056, 2006 WL 3788417
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 27, 2006
Docket05-05-01391-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 211 S.W.3d 883 (Lawrence 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
Lawrence v. State, 211 S.W.3d 883, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 11056, 2006 WL 3788417 (Tex. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice WHITTINGTON.

Terence Chadwick Lawrence appeals his conviction for the capital murder of Ant-wonyia Smith. After finding appellant guilty and that he used or exhibited a deadly weapon during the commission of the offense, the jury assessed punishment at life confinement. In six issues, appellant claims the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction, the trial judge erred in denying his motion to quash the indictment, and the capital *885 murder statute is unconstitutional. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Legal and Factual Sufficiency of the Evidence

In his third, fourth, fifth, and sixth issues, appellant claims the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction. Appellant argues the State failed to present sufficient evidence to prove appellant shot Smith and that Smith’s fetus was alive at the time of Smith’s murder. We disagree.

When reviewing challenges to the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we apply well-established standards. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Garcia v. State, 57 S.W.3d 436, 441 (Tex.Crim.App. 2001). The standard is the same for both direct and circumstantial evidence cases. Kutzner v. State, 994 S.W.2d 180, 184 (Tex. Crim.App.1999). We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Vodochodsky v. State, 158 S.W.3d 502, 509 (Tex. Crim.App.2005); Escamilla v. State, 143 S.W.3d 814, 817 (Tex.Crim.App.2004), cert. denied, 544 U.S. 950, 125 S.Ct. 1697, 161 L.Ed.2d 528 (2005); Simmons v. State, 109 S.W.3d 469, 472 (Tex.Crim.App.2003). The jury, as sole judge of the witnesses’ credibility and the weight to be given their testimony, is free to accept or reject any or all of the evidence presented by either side. See Margraves v. State, 34 S.W.3d 912, 919 (Tex.Crim.App.2000); Wesbrook v. State, 29 S.W.3d 103, 111 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000). In circumstantial evidence cases such as this one, it is unnecessary for every fact to point directly and independently to appellant’s guilt; it is enough if the conclusion is warranted by the combined and cumulative force of all the incriminating circumstances. See Johnson v. State, 871 S.W.2d 183, 186 (Tex.Crim. App.1993) (citing Russell v. State, 665 S.W.2d 771, 776 (Tex.Crim.App.1983)). Circumstantial evidence, by itself, may be enough to support the jury’s verdict. See Smith v. State, 965 S.W.2d 509, 515-16 (Tex.Crim.App.1998).

In a factual sufficiency review, we view all of the evidence in a neutral light and ask whether a jury was rationally justified in finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. See Watson v. State, 204 S.W.3d 404, 415 (Tex.Crim.App.2006). To reverse a case on a factual sufficiency challenge, we must be able to say, with some objective basis in the record, that the great weight and preponderance of evidence contradicts the jury’s verdict. Watson, 204 S.W.3d at 417. We cannot conclude a conviction is “clearly wrong” or “manifestly unjust” simply because we would have voted to acquit. Watson, 204 S.W.3d at 417. In examining a factual sufficiency challenge, although the reviewing court is permitted “to substitute its judgment for the jury’s” when considering credibility and weight determinations, it may do so only ‘to a very limited degree.’ ” Marshall v. State, 2006 WL 3733198, *5 (Tex.Crim.App. Dec.20, 2006) (citing Watson, 204 S.W.3d at 417).

A person commits capital murder if he intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual and he murders more than one person during the same criminal transaction. Tex. Pen.Code Ann. §§ 19.02(b)(1), 19.03(a)(7)(A) (Vernon 2003 & Supp.2006). A “person” includes “an individual.” Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 1.07(a)(38) (Vernon Supp.2006). An “individual” is “a human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.” Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 1.07(a)(26) (Vernon Supp.2006).

*886 At trial, Detective John Davison testified that, around 7:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 9, 2004, he was called to the 3700 block of Boulder Street in Dallas to investigate a murder. The victim, identified as Smith, was lying in the Sprague Swimming Pool parking lot of Kimball High School. She had been shot three times with a shotgun. No weapon was discovered at the scene, but two spent shotgun shell casings were found as was Smith’s cell phone. The police received information that appellant was dating Smith and another woman named Courtney Anderson at the time of Smith’s death. Appellant also had a friend named Kenneth Moore who lived near the scene of the crime. Acting on this information, Detective Davison interviewed Anderson and Moore.

Detective Davison testified Anderson gave a written statement. Anderson confirmed that she and appellant were boyfriend and girlfriend and that appellant had been seeing Smith as well. According to Anderson, Smith called Anderson’s house, wanting to talk to appellant and to tell him she was pregnant. When Anderson told appellant Smith had called, he said “he was going to take care of the problem.” Anderson asked appellant what he meant by that, and he said if she did not know, she did not need to worry about it. Anderson told Detective Davison appellant was with her on the night of September 8th, the night before Smith’s body was discovered, until he left around midnight, and he called her about two hours after he left her house.

Detective Davison interviewed Moore who also gave a written statement. Moore stated appellant left his shotgun and a box of shells at Moore’s house and picked them up a few days before Smith’s death. In light of this information, the investigating officers obtained search warrants for appellant’s house and the car appellant drove. Under the rear seat of appellant’s vehicle, police found a spent shotgun shell casing. The officers interviewed appellant who told them he bought a “20 gauge pump shotgun” in late July 2004 but that it had been stolen from the car, along with a CD player. Appellant told Detective Davi-son he did not report the theft. He also stated that, on the night before Smith’s body was discovered, he left Anderson’s house and was home by midnight.

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211 S.W.3d 883, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 11056, 2006 WL 3788417, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawrence-v-state-texapp-2006.