Logan v. State

840 S.W.2d 490, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 131, 1992 WL 6847
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 16, 1992
DocketNo. 12-89-00167-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 840 S.W.2d 490 (Logan 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
Logan v. State, 840 S.W.2d 490, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 131, 1992 WL 6847 (Tex. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinions

RAMEY, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal of a conviction for murder. Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 19.01(a) (Vernon 1974). Appellant Faye Logan was convicted with her daughter, Tommie Lea Davis, in a consolidated trial. A jury assessed punishment at fifty years in the Texas Department of Corrections. We will affirm.

[492]*492On December 18, 1986, a fire destroyed the residence of Tommie Lea and Kyle Davis. Kyle Davis died in the fire. The following day, Deputy Fire Marshall Donald Turk and Deputy Sheriff Bill Horton investigated the scene of the fire. From visual observations, Officer Turk believed that the fire was a result of arson; his view was bolstered by laboratory reports indicating the presence of a flammable liquid. Later, police officers interviewed Debbie Logan, Tommie Lea Davis’ sister-in-law and appellant’s daughter-in-law. Debbie Logan told the police that she had overheard appellant and Tommie Lea Davis discussing how to kill the decedent in a fire. The appellant was thereafter indicted for the murder of Kyle Davis.

Appellant asserts eight points of error.1 By her first point of error, appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to prove her guilt as alleged in the indictment. Appellant relies upon Baugh v. State, 776 S.W.2d 683 (Tex.Cr.App.1989) and O’Keefe v. State, 687 S.W.2d 345 (Tex.Cr.App.1985), emphasizing their similarity with the instant case in that they are arson cases, founded upon circumstantial evidence, and with conflicting expert testimony concerning the origins of the respective fires.

While Baugh and O’Keefe are factually similar, they are not controlling here. Appellant places emphasis upon the fact that the expert witnesses disagreed as to the origin of the fire here as well as in the cited cases. Disagreement between experts is not dispositive. The jury determines the appropriate weight to accord expert testimony. Coxson v. Atlanta Life Ins. Co., 142 Tex. 544, 179 S.W.2d 943 (Tex.Comm’n App.1944, opinion adopted). Jurors may reject expert testimony if such testimony fails to comport with the jurors’ concepts of sound logic. Maryland Casualty Co. v. Hearks, 144 Tex. 317, 190 S.W.2d 62, 64 (1945); Van Guilder v. State, 674 S.W.2d 915, 919 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1984), aff'd, 709 S.W.2d 178 (Tex.Cr.App.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1169, 106 S.Ct. 2891, 90 L.Ed.2d 978 (1986). In choosing to disregard expert testimony, the jury is constrained only by the requirement that any action taken must be pursued in a nonarbitrary manner. Van Guilder, 674 S.W.2d at 919.

The appellant’s expert investigated the scene of the fire some five months after the incident occurred. This expert testified that he believed that the fire started in the living room area of the home. He based his opinion upon the damage to a wood-frame couch. Only one of the arms of the couch was warped. Additionally, the expert noted that the fire had melted only one side of an air conditioning duct located directly under the couch. From these observations, the expert concluded that the fire was probably started by some accidental means, such as the dropping of a lit cigarette. The expert’s opinion was that the fire had no incendiary origin.

The State’s evidence was not controverted that a flammable liquid had been used to start the fire. The state contradicted appellant’s expert evidence by demonstrating that at the time of its original investigation, immediately after the fire had occurred, the wood-frame couch and air conditioning duct had none of the damage described by the appellant’s expert. The state also offered proof that the decedent’s body tested at levels of drugs and alcohol so high as to deprive decedent of all his motor functions including the smoking of cigarettes. The jury chose to believe the state’s proof that the fire was the result of arson. In light of the entire record, we find no arbitrary conduct in the jury’s verdict.

While appellant’s case has factual similarities to both O’Keefe and Baugh, it is distinguishable. In O’Keefe, the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned appellant’s conviction because the state had shown merely that the destroyed property belonged to appellant and that appellant was observed leaving the scene shortly before the discovery of the fire. O’Keefe, 687 [493]*493S.W.2d at 349. The Court of Criminal Appeals overturned appellant Baugh’s conviction because of a lack of incriminating evidence. Baugh, 776 S.W.2d at 585. The court emphasized the lack of direct evidence that the appellant had set the fire and the absence of any witnesses to the ignition of the fire. Id. The court also stressed that the circumstantial evidence was insufficient to connect appellant to the fire. Id. Regarding the circumstantial evidence, the court noted that there had been no verbal threats by appellant to set the fire, that there were no suspicious circumstances concerning insurance coverage, and that no suspicious paraphernalia was found at the scene of the fire. Id., at 585-86.

The circumstantial evidence in this case is much stronger than in Baugh and O’Keefe. The record reflects that the night before the fire occurred, a neighbor observed appellant and her daughter moving boxes from the Davis residence. Later testimony revealed that a number of objects that had been in the Davis home were subsequently seen in the appellant’s home. Even more damaging was the testimony of Debbie Logan. Witness Logan testified that she had overheard appellant on the telephone discussing the possible ways “to get rid of Kyle.” Witness Logan did not know to whom appellant was speaking.

Witness Debbie Logan related another conversation which involved appellant and her daughter and occurred in appellant’s home. She stated that approximately one week before the fire, she overheard appellant and her daughter discussing how “they could use lighter fluid and it wouldn’t be traced.” This was not the only time that witness Logan had overheard appellant discuss using lighter fluid to bum a home. Witness Logan told the jury that in 1984 appellant said that she had used lighter fluid and candles to help a relative recover insurance money. The relative’s home burned down on the night the alleged conversation occurred.

Deputy Bill Horton jailed appellant and her daughter in connection with the crime charged. While appellant was incarcerated, Deputy Horton overheard appellant and her daughter discussing ways to prevent Debbie Logan from testifying in this case. There was other evidence that witness Logan was detained in a motel room against her will to preclude her from appearing as a witness against appellant. While this case is based on circumstantial evidence like Baugh and O’Keefe, the circumstantial evidence herein was significantly more extensive than the evidence adduced in those two cases.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). When viewing the evidence in that light, we must determine whether “any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Buxton v.

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Bluebook (online)
840 S.W.2d 490, 1992 Tex. App. LEXIS 131, 1992 WL 6847, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/logan-v-state-texapp-1992.