Long v. State

739 S.W.2d 98
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 10, 1988
Docket09 85 287 CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 739 S.W.2d 98 (Long 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
Long v. State, 739 S.W.2d 98 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

OPINION

BURGESS, Justice.

A jury found Appellant guilty of murder and assessed his punishment at fifty-five years confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections. Appellant brings forth ten points of error. Since he complains, in part, of insufficiency of the evidence, the facts of the case will be discussed in some detail.

Appellant arrived at Doc Holidays, a nightclub, around 9:00 p.m. on Friday, November 11, 1983. Lisa Wilber, the deceased, along with two friends, arrived there at approximately 12:30 a.m. on November 12, 1983. Testimony concerning what time the events of the evening occurred was generally inexact. To confuse matters further, an employee testified that the club customarily turned its clocks ahead fifteen minutes.

Appellant testified that he danced several dances with Lisa Wilber and that they sat together at his table between dances. Appellant also testified that Lisa Wilber wore his cowboy hat during one dance. An employee stationed at the door stated that she saw Lisa Wilber and Appellant walk out of the club holding hands just before the lights came on, between approximately 1:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. The State produced no witness who saw Lisa Wilber get into Appellant’s car, leave with Appellant or even placed Appellant and Lisa Wilber together in the parking lot.

Appellant testified that he initially asked Lisa Wilber to go riding in his “hot rod car” (by his own description) because they had been discussing his recent attempts to sell the car and she had expressed an interest in fast cars. He stated that she declined because one of her friends would not give her permission to go; the friend’s testimony was in accord. Appellant testi[101]*101fied that, at the end of the evening, he told Lisa Wilber he would have to leave since he was going deer hunting the following day and asked her if she would at least like to see the car in the event she came to know of someone who might like to buy it. According to his account, they exited the club together. As she was walking around the car examining it, he opened his door and stood between the door and car. They kissed several times. He then got in the car and threw his hat in the back seat. They kissed again through the open driver’s window. He then drove away leaving her standing in the spot where the car had been parked and did not see her leave that spot.

Appellant testified that he arrived home at 3:00 Saturday morning. His next door neighbor testified she was up that morning feeding her infant daughter when she heard Appellant’s car drive up a few minutes past 3:00 a.m. She recognized the sound of Appellant’s car from its loud mufflers. She did not look to see if anyone was with Appellant but said she heard only one door shut.

Over Appellant’s objections, Mary Denise Hendricks Domingue testified that she met Appellant at Doc Holidays at 9:30 p.m. on the evening in question and that they talked and danced several dances together. According to Domingue, Appellant asked her to leave to go riding in his car and, when she declined, he got “offensive” and “pushy” and insisted:

“I turned to walk away and he even grabbed me. He told me that I couldn’t treat him like that, and that I didn’t have the right to walk away from him like that.... He told me he would find a way to get back at me somehow or someway, and if I didn’t leave with him that he would find someone that would.”

Although she had had similar confrontations in such clubs in the past and normally stayed until the last dance, on this occasion Domingue testified she left early to avoid further contact with Appellant. On cross-examination, Domingue acknowledged that she had failed to tell anyone of the encounter with Appellant although she had ample opportunity.

Appellant’s account of meeting Do-mingue varied significantly. Appellant testified that he danced with her only once and that they talked only about a jacket his ex-wife had left in her possession. Appellant directly denied attempting to get Do-mingue to leave with him and grabbing her arm and stated he simply walked away.

Appellant and his friend Richard Lock were avid deer hunters, had hunted together for many years, and had hunted opening days together on previous occasions. Saturday, November 12,1983, was the opening day of deer season. Lock testified he knocked softly at Appellant’s door at 5:30 that morning, and although Appellant’s car was in the drive, there was no response. Both men testified they hunted later that day.

The evidence showed that Appellant was a married man and that his wife was out of town on the evening in question. According to Appellant, he learned his wife would be returning from Oklahoma on Saturday evening and cancelled his plans to go out again that evening, took a bath and washed his clothes to remove the smell of cologne from them before his wife returned. After the police first questioned Appellant, Woodrow Wales, an acquaintance of Appellant, spoke with him and asked him why he had not given his clothes to the police. According to Wales, Appellant replied simply that it was because he had washed the clothes. He said that he did not know why Appellant washed his clothes. Appellant testified, however, that he also told Wales the reason he had washed his clothes: to get the smell of cologne off them before his wife came home. Wales also stated that later, Appellant and his attorney attempted to get him to change his story to conform to that of Appellant.

On November 15, 1983, three days after Lisa Wilber disappeared, two detectives from the Beaumont Police Department questioned Appellant and obtained his consent to search his car. Detective Coffin testified he removed hairs from the back floorboard of Appellant’s car at that time. [102]*102He further testified that the car appeared “trashy,” and appeared not to have been recently cleaned out. Those hairs were deposited with a local forensic laboratory. In February of 1984, Appellant sold the car.

On May 8, 1984, human skeletal remains were found in Honey Island, Hardin County, near Bracken Cemetary Road and positively identified from orthodontic records as those of Lisa Wilber. At trial it was established that Appellant belonged to a hunting club in 1980, 1981, and 1982. One of the club’s officers agreed that club property included land “up behind Bracken Cemetary” and that one access to the land is Bracken Cemetary Road. Appellant and his long-time hunting partner both testified they had hunted on club property and had a deer blind four to five miles west of Honey Island.

Phyllis Marshall, the State’s forensic expert, testified that she was called to the scene on May 8th and collected the virtually complete scalp hair from the remains. Marshall, an expert in the microscopic analysis of hair, compared the hairs taken from the remains with those taken from the back floorboard of Appellant’s car in November. She found two of those hairs to be “similar to and consistent with” hairs taken from the remains. Marshall later resisted the State’s attempt to incorrectly recapitulate her testimony thus:

“Q. I believe you already testified it was hair similar to and microscopically identical to the hair of Lisa Moye Wil-ber, is that correct?
“A. Microscopically similar to and consistent with, yes, sir.” (emphasis added)

On May 16, 1984, after examining the back floorboard hairs, Marshall herself conducted another search of Appellant’s car.

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Related

Meriwether v. State
840 S.W.2d 959 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Long v. State
820 S.W.2d 888 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Wiggins v. State
778 S.W.2d 877 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)
Babineaux v. State
777 S.W.2d 724 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)

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739 S.W.2d 98, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-state-texapp-1988.