Marcos Gallegosmartinez v. the State of Texas

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 28, 2021·No. 05-19-00944-CR·Published

Opinion

Affirmed and Opinion Filed June 28, 2021

In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-19-00942-CR

No. 05-19-00943-CR

No. 05-19-00944-CR

MARCOS GALLEGOS-MARTINEZ, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 204th Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas

Trial Court Cause Nos. Nos. F18-57057-Q; F18-57058-Q; F18-57059-Q

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Myers, Partida-Kipness, and Garcia Opinion by Justice Myers

A jury convicted appellant Marcos Gallegos-Martinez of two aggravated

robberies1 and evading arrest or detention with a vehicle.2 The jury found the enhancement allegations true and assessed punishment in all three cases at life imprisonment. In two issues, appellant argues the trial court erred in admitting inadequately authenticated evidence and that he received ineffective assistance of

1 Cause numbers 05-19-00942-CR and 00943-CR.

2 Cause number 05-19-00944-CR.

counsel. The State brings a cross-point asking that the judgment be reformed to correct clerical errors. As modified, we affirm.

DISCUSSION

1. Authentication

In his first point of error, appellant argues the trial court erred in admitting State’s exhibits 17 and 18, video briefly showing appellant approaching an F-150 pickup truck belonging to Uvaldo Salinas—the complainant in 05-20-00943-CR, the second aggravated robbery case—prior to taking it. Appellant argues the trial court erred in overruling his objections that the State did not lay the proper foundation or predicate for the exhibits.

Texas rule of evidence 901 governs the authentication requirement for the admissibility of evidence:

(a) In General. To satisfy the requirement of authenticating or identifying an item of evidence, the proponent must produce evidence sufficient to support a finding that the item is what the proponent claims it is.

TEX. R. EVID. 901(a). Authenticity may be established with evidence of “[t]estimony of a witness with knowledge,” which includes “[t]estimony that an item is what it is claimed to be.” Id. at (b)(1). “Conclusive proof of authenticity before allowing admission of disputed evidence is not required.” Fowler v. State, 544 S.W.3d 844, 848 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018). “Rule 901 ‘merely requires some evidence sufficient to support a finding that evidence in question is what the proponent claims.’” Id. (quoting Reed v. State, 811 S.W.2d 582, 587 (Tex. Crim.

App. 1991)). “‘[T]he trial court need only make the preliminary determination that the proponent of the item has supplied facts sufficient to support a reasonable jury determination that the proffered evidence is authentic.’” Id. at 849 (quoting Butler v. State, 459 S.W.3d 595, 600 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015)). Once this prima facie showing has been made, the exhibit is admissible. Tienda v. State, 358 S.W.3d 633, 639–40 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012). Courts have referred to this initial determination “as a ‘liberal standard of admissibility.’” Fowler, 544 S.W.3d at 849 (quoting Butler, 459 S.W.3d at 600).

“Video recordings without audio are treated as photographs and are properly authenticated when it can be proved that the images accurately represent the scene in question and are relevant to a disputed issue.” Id.; Rice v. State, No. 05-15-01427– 28-CR, 2017 WL 359755, at *3 (Tex. App.—Dallas Jan. 19, 2017, pet. ref’d) (mem. op., not designated for publication). “The most common way to authenticate a photograph or video is through testimony from a witness who observed the scene that it is an accurate representation of the scene.” Rice, 2017 WL 359755, at *3. But even when a sponsoring witness’s testimony fails to properly authenticate an exhibit, “‘[e]vidence prematurely admitted in error may become admissible or be rendered harmless by subsequent evidence.’” Id. (quoting James v. State, 102 S.W.3d 162, 175 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth, pet. ref’d)).

We review a trial court’s ruling on authentication issues under an abuse of discretion standard. Fowler, 544 S.W.3d at 848. “If the trial court’s ruling that a

jury could reasonably find proffered evidence authentic is at least ‘within the zone of reasonable disagreement,’ a reviewing court should not interfere.’” Id. at 849 (quoting Tienda, 358 S.W.3d at 638).

In these cases, appellant was indicted for two aggravated robberies (05-20-

00942-CR and 05-20-00943-CR) and for evading arrest and detention with a vehicle (05-20-00944-CR). Evidence showed that on August 23, 2018, at approximately 4:40 p.m., Dallas Police officer Caleb Morkert responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle. Upon arrival, Officer Morkert saw a white Chevy Avalanche that had been reported stolen and had a punched-out lock, parked in front of a house in the 3400 block of Borger Street. He called a tow truck driven by the complainant in the first aggravated robbery case (05-20-00942-CR), Jaime Camacho, and remained at the scene until Camacho towed away the Avalanche. As Camacho approached the Dallas city auto pound, a maroon Jeep cut him off from entering. Two men got out of the Jeep with multiple firearms and demanded Camacho “drop” the Avalanche. After Camacho unhitched the Avalanche, the two men left separately in the Jeep and the Avalanche. A couple of minutes after he called 911, Camacho heard a crash, followed by two or three gunshots. Camacho identified appellant at trial as one of the two men who robbed him that day.

Uvaldo Salinas, meanwhile, the complainant in the second aggravated robbery case (05-20-00943-CR), was in his 2003 Harley Davidson Edition F-150 truck near the scene of an accident that, according to other witnesses, involved a maroon Jeep.

Salinas could not ascertain why people were not going around the accident until he saw a Hispanic male in a white muscle shirt holding an assault rifle. After firing his weapon towards the wreck, this individual, later identified as appellant, first approached a white Dodge Ram, and then approached Salinas’s truck and tried to open the doors. Appellant asked Salinas to let him in, and Salinas refused. He told Salinas he wanted his address so he could bring his truck back to him later, and he also offered to take Salinas hostage—offers Salinas refused. Fearing he would be shot, Salinas eventually surrendered his truck to appellant, and appellant fled the scene in Salinas’s F-150.

The exhibits in question, State’s exhibits 17 and 18, are video recordings taken just before the theft of Salinas’s truck. State’s exhibit 17, less than a minute in length, briefly shows, from an across-the-street vantage point, appellant approaching Salinas’s F-150 truck while wearing a white muscle shirt and carrying a long rifle. He then walks around to the passenger side door. State’s exhibit 18 is a slowed- down, close-up version of the same video.

Prior to the admission of State’s exhibits 17 and 18, Salinas testified that he had met with the prosecutor before the trial. Although his recollection that appellant was wearing cargo pants was incorrect, Salinas correctly recalled that appellant was wearing a white muscle shirt. When, at trial, the State showed Salinas photos of his truck, he agreed the photos accurately depicted his truck. Salinas also acknowledged he had viewed both videos prior to trial and initialed each exhibit. He testified that

he believed that the videos fairly and accurately depicted appellant approaching his vehicle on August 23, 2018. John Brow, the Dallas Police Department detective that investigated the robbery, later testified that he obtained the video from two other officers, “Detective Lacy” and “Sergeant Zavala,” neither of whom testified at trial.

The record includes fingerprint evidence heard during guilt-innocence and punishment. Dallas Police Department crime scene analyst Nicole Mejia testified at guilt-innocence that she collected latent prints from the maroon Jeep. The State offered into evidence State’s exhibits 52 to 57, latent print cards with the prints Mejia obtained from the Jeep. These were admitted into evidence without objection from the defense.

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