Long v. State

245 S.W.3d 563, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 7896, 2007 WL 2874779
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided October 4, 2007·No. 01-05-01152-CR, 01-05-01178-CR·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ELSA ALCALA, Justice.

Appellant, Bobby Charles Long, appeals from state jail felony convictions for fraudulent use of identifying information 1 and credit card abuse. 2 See Tex. Pen.Code Ann. §§ 32.31, 32.51 (Vernon Supp.2006). Appellant pleaded not guilty to both counts and not true to the punishment enhancement paragraphs that asserted prior convictions for credit card abuse and tampering with a government record. The jury found appellant guilty of both offenses. The trial court found true both punishment *566 enhancement paragraphs and sentenced appellant to 14 years’ confinement in prison for each count, to run concurrently. In four issues, appellant contends that (1) the evidence does not sufficiently corroborate accomplice witness testimony, (2) the evidence is legally insufficient, (3) the evidence is factually insufficient, and (4) the trial court erred by “partially overruling [his] motion in limine” and overruling a challenge for cause. We conclude that the evidence is legally and factually sufficient, the trial court’s ruling on the motion in limine was not reversible error, and appellant failed to preserve error regarding the denial of his challenge for cause. We affirm.

Background

Complainant Lisa Creson, an attorney, previously worked in private practice with Barbara Hudson, whose legal assistant was Penny Cooper. The three developed a friendship. Around late summer 2001, Cooper, a single mother of three, confided to Creson that she was nervous about affording school clothing for her children. Creson offered the use of her Dillard’s credit card to Cooper, who had no credit. Cooper kept up with the payments for the purchases of the school clothes, but ran a balance on the Dillard’s card.

Creson also assisted Cooper when Cooper rented a car by giving the car rental company Creson’s MasterCard as security for the rental. Creson usually went with Cooper to give the MasterCard to the car rental company. Cooper did not keep the MasterCard and paid the rental charges in cash.

When a $100 charge showed up from Cooper’s use of the MasterCard in connection with a car rental, Cooper called MasterCard to ask about that charge. During the call, Cooper learned of an offer from MasterCard to transfer another credit card’s balance to the MasterCard for a lower interest rate. In order to complete the transfer, Cooper needed Creson’s social security number and her mother’s maiden name. Creson faxed Cooper a copy of her MasterCard with the card number written below the image of the card. Creson also gave Cooper her address, birth date, social security number, and her mother’s maiden name, over the telephone. Creson’s mother had not gone by her maiden name for approximately 51 years. Cooper wrote the information on the piece of paper with the faxed copy of Creson’s MasterCard.

During this same period of time, Cooper dated appellant, who was regularly at Cooper’s house. Cooper said that appellant had access to the piece of paper that had Creson’s MasterCard information and identification information, which he could have copied or faxed with Cooper’s copier or fax machine.

Appellant was in the midst of starting up an ambulance business, Odyssey EMS. Cooper gave Creson several of appellant’s business cards for Odyssey EMS to pass out to her mother and her mother’s elderly neighbors in case they might need an ambulance. Creson received a telephone call in September 2003 from Rudy Kircher regarding an office space lease for Odyssey EMS bearing the signature of a person named “Lisa” but with Creson’s mother’s maiden name as the last name. He asked Creson to “make the check good”; Creson, however, had no idea what Kircher meant. Creson realized from Kircher’s description that the person who had signed the lease was Penny Cooper. Cre-son cancelled both the MasterCard and Dillard’s card, and contacted the police. Creson’s MasterCard statement for September 2003 revealed approximately $10,000 in unauthorized charges, which *567 turned out to be related to the ambulance business.

Cooper denied that she filled out the lease application form about which Kircher called Creson. Kircher explained that he faxed the application to appellant, who first submitted a name that did not have sufficient credit for the lease. Kircher then faxed appellant a new form, which was returned with the name and signature of a fictitious name ending in Creson’s mother’s maiden name, along with Cre-son’s social security number. Kircher presumed appellant or someone at appellant’s office returned the new lease form with the fictitious name on it.

Cooper said that appellant called her to sign the lease in the place of someone who could not make the signing. When she arrived at the place to sign the lease, Cooper saw the fictitious name. She nonetheless signed that name on the documents, knowing she was “doing wrong.” Cooper said she was not sure at the time what the source of the name was, though it sounded familiar. She later admitted that she knew she was fraudulently using the name when she signed the lease.

Detective Mutchler of the Stafford Police Department testified that he became suspicious during his investigation that the $10,000 in unauthorized charges that Cre-son reported may have come from appellant. At appellant’s business, Mutchler found a piece of paper with Creson’s name, address, social security number, and mother’s maiden name.

According to Creson’s MasterCard statement, all the charges occurred between August 25 and September 4, 2003. Mike Wetzel, owner of Lone Star Emergency Vehicle Services, testified that appellant used Creson’s MasterCard information over the phone to pay for a series of repairs on a used ambulance purchased by Odyssey EMS. He said that appellant told him the card belonged to his girlfriend, identifying her by the fictitious name. Cooper and appellant were later arrested for fraudulent use of identifying information.

Appellant gave an oral statement to a police officer after his arrest. In his statement, appellant denied knowing the person whose name was signed to the lease. Appellant stated that Creson had faxed the piece of paper with her information knowing it would be used in his business, and that he was informed through Cooper that Creson had permitted this use of the credit card for the business. Appellant further contended that Cooper had free use of Creson’s credit cards, “some of which [Cooper] still has.”

At trial, appellant filed a motion for the court to allow him to testify free from impeachment, which the court granted in part and denied in part. At the hearing, appellant asserted that the State intended to impeach him with prior convictions. The State agreed not to mention appellant’s 1993 conviction for misrepresentation of certification as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). The trial court ruled that the State could not impeach appellant’s testimony with his convictions for burglary of a building in 1993 and carrying a weapon on school premises in 1986. However, the trial court ruled that it would allow the State to impeach appellant with a prior conviction for credit card abuse, and a prior conviction for tampering with a government record, for which appellant was still on parole at the time of this trial.

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Long v. State, 245 S.W.3d 563, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 7896, 2007 WL 2874779 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

245 S.W.3d 563 (Long v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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