Love v. State

861 S.W.2d 899, 1993 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 118, 1993 WL 191149
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 9, 1993
Docket200-92
StatusPublished
Cited by222 cases

This text of 861 S.W.2d 899 (Love v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Love v. State, 861 S.W.2d 899, 1993 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 118, 1993 WL 191149 (Tex. 1993).

Opinions

OPINION ON APPELLANT’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

MILLER, Judge.

Appellant was convicted by a jury of driving while intoxicated, and the trial judge assessed punishment at 180 days confinement, probated for a two year period, and a fine of $200.00. The court of appeals affirmed appellant’s conviction in an unpublished opinion. Love v. State, No. 11-90-059-CR (Tex.App.—Eastland, delivered December 12, 1991). We granted appellant’s petition on two grounds for review to determine whether the court of appeals erred in holding (1) the trial court did not err in precluding defense counsel from cross-examining one of the arresting officers on probable cause to arrest appellant because counsel failed to make an offer of proof as to what his cross-examination would have shown, and (2) the trial court did not err in refusing to permit appellant to call as a defense witness the breath alcohol testing supervisor who had earlier testified for the State and who was available to testify.

In his first ground for review, appellant claims the trial judge erred in refusing to permit him to fully cross-examine Officer G.W. Howard of the Humble Police Department. The record reflects that Howard was called by the State and testified that, in his opinion, appellant was intoxicated at the time of his arrest. On cross-examination, defense counsel attempted to question Howard about the existence of probable cause at the time of appellant’s arrest, but the trial court precluded the questioning. Appellant challenged the trial court’s ruling on direct appeal, and the court of appeals held appellant had not preserved the issue for appellate review because “[tjhere was no offer of proof nor bill of exceptions to show the ‘facts’ which appellant could have proved through cross-examination of this adverse witness.” Id., slip op. at 7.

The record reveals that at the time the trial court informed defense counsel he could not question Howard regarding the existence of probable cause the following transpired:

THE COURT: I’m instructing you not to go into matters of law with this witness. This is a fact witness.
[COUNSEL]: I’m well aware of that. THE COURT: He is only qualified to express an opinion on intoxication. Don’t go into opinion things with him because he is not qualified on those. He is only qualified on one thing. And do not go into matters of law with him.
[COUNSEL]: If I may explain to the Court briefly.
THE COURT: You can explain. COUNSEL: All right. There is a recent case out of the First Court of Appeals called, Fox v. State. And it is my intention of asking you later, after the evidence, for Article 3822 (sic) instruction on probable cause.
THE COURT: My instruction to you is the same. Do you understand it? And if you violate it you are in contempt of my ruling.

[901]*901We find defense counsel’s statement on the record is insufficient to preserve error for review. Tex.R.Crim.Evid. 103; Tex.R.App. Proc. 52.

An informal bill will suffice as an offer of proof when it includes a concise statement of counsel’s belief of what the testimony would show. Moosavi v. State, 711 S.W.2d 53 (Tex.Crim.App.1986). When counsel intends to rely upon an informal bill to preserve error, the bill must include a summary of the proposed testimony. In this case, however, counsel merely informed the trial judge that he intended to establish a basis for an instruction on the lack of probable cause and, hence, failed to provide the trial judge with a concise statement regarding the content of the testimony he proposed to elicit from the. witness. The court of appeals reached the correct conclusion, and therefore appellant’s first ground for review is overruled.

In his first point of error on direct appeal, germane to his second ground for review here, appellant argued before the court of appeals that the trial judge erred in refusing to allow him to call Jesse Blalock, a technical supervisor for the intoxilyzer instrument, as a defense witness when he had not been excused by defense counsel and was available to testify. At trial, Blalock was called as a witness during the State’s case-in-chief to testify regarding the internal functions of the intoxilyzer instrument used to measure appellant’s breath alcohol level. Based on a hypothetical question and the result of the intoxilyzer machine, Blalock estimated appellant’s breath alcohol level was .17 at the time of his arrest. The State concluded its direct examination with that question and passed the witness. Appellant’s counsel then cross-examined Blalock regarding his testimony as to, inter alia, “the inner workings and purported reliability of the In-toxilyzer, the breath testing program promulgated by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the necessity of strict compliance with its requirements to ensure a reliable test result.” Appellant’s br. at 19. At the conclusion of Blalock’s testimony, an off-the-record bench conference was held and then the trial judge stated to Blalock, “[y]ou are excused, sir.”1 Court then recessed for the evening.

In the proceedings the following morning, the State moved to quash appellant’s subpoena for Blalock2 as defense counsel “had adequate time to cross-examine Mr. Blalock yesterday, which he did at length.” Defense counsel responded:

Yesterday I don’t believe the record will reflect that I released Mr. Blalock. He was allowed to step down.
Number two, since we were breaking at 5:00 o’clock yesterday, I wanted to research a couple of things Mr. Blalock said during his cross-examination and during his direct testimony. I have done that now.
I checked with Mr. Blalock yesterday and he told me that he would be in Court 6. He is in Court 6 right now. He is about to step off the stand and he will be over here directly.

Upon inquiry from the trial judge, defense counsel also responded he was restricted in his cross-examination because, not knowing what Blalock’s testimony would be, he did not have the necessary materials for impeachment purposes. The prosecutor expressed her belief that Blalock had been [902]*902released by both parties and the court, and the trial judge concurred. The judge then expressed that defense counsel had “full leeway” in his cross-examination and explained that unless defense counsel could show “some undiscovered matter” he would grant the State’s motion. Appellant then moved to call Blalock as his own witness. Finding that motion untimely, the trial judge granted the State’s motion to quash. Appellant perfected his offer of proof.

As stated infra, appellant contended in the court of appeals that the trial court erred in precluding defense counsel from calling Blalock as a defense witness when he had not been excused by counsel and was available to testify. The court of appeals held:

Appellant has not shown that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to permit him to recall Blalock on the day after both sides had passed the witness. See Toler v. State, 546 S.W.2d 290 at 295 (Tex.Cr.App.1977); Davis v. State, 730 S.W.2d 171

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
861 S.W.2d 899, 1993 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 118, 1993 WL 191149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/love-v-state-texcrimapp-1993.