Martinez v. State

951 S.W.2d 55, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 2856, 1997 WL 282919
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 29, 1997
DocketNo. 13-95-290-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 951 S.W.2d 55 (Martinez 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
Martinez v. State, 951 S.W.2d 55, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 2856, 1997 WL 282919 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

YANEZ, Justice.

Appellant, Jesse Torres Martinez, was convicted by a jury of attempted capital murder. TexPenal Code Ann. §§ 19.03(a)(1) & 15.01(a) (Vernon 1994). The jury sentenced appellant to ninety-nine years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division. By six points of error, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, the charge of the court, and the prosecution’s argument to the jury. We affirm.

On the evening of February 13, 1995, appellant, Jesus Torres Martinez, escaped from the city jail in Harlingen, Texas. Upon being notified of the escape, Harlingen police officer Shawn Ray Foist began searching for appellant, looking first in the vicinity of appellant’s home, which was only a few blocks from the jail. Foist located appellant and then confronted him. Appellant fled on foot. After a chase, Foist attempted to subdue appellant, and a struggle between Foist and appellant ensued. During the struggle, Foist sustained three bullet wounds, one of which was to his back. Appellant sustained a bullet wound to his hand.

By his first and sixth points of error, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence for two aspects of the verdict — -that he intended to kill Foist and that he knew Foist was a peace officer.1

Appellant first argues that there was no or insufficient evidence of the requisite “use” of a deadly weapon because Foist’s testimony that the semi-automatic firearm in appellant’s grasp “starts going off’ during the struggle was not evidence that appellant intended to shoot at Foist. Appellant argues that his observations that Foist was armed and appellant was not, that Foist tackled appellant, and that appellant also was shot, “went unanswered” at trial. Appellant also suggests that Foist may have shot first at an unarmed appellant, which also would explain appellant’s wound.

Sufficiency of the evidence is measured against the indictment as incorporated into the jury charge. Fisher v. State, 887 S.W.2d 49, 55 (Tex.Crim.App.1994) (citing Benson v. State, 661 S.W.2d 708, 715 (Tex.Crim.App.1982) (opinion on State’s second motion for reh’g), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1219, 104 S.Ct. 2667, 81 L.Ed.2d 372 (1984)); Meador v. State, 941 S.W.2d 156, 158 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1996, pet. ref'd). The indictment against appellant charged that, with the specific intent to commit the offense of capital murder of Shawn Ray Foist, appellant committed an act that “amounted to more than mere preparation that tended but failed [57]*57to effect the commission of said offense,” and that appellant knew Foist was a peace officer at the time acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty. The jury charge tracked the elements of the offense set forth in the indictment and added that the jury must find beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant intended to cause the death of Foist by intentionally or knowingly shooting him with a firearm.

The standard of review for challenges to the legal sufficiency of the evidence in criminal cases is that set forth in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 132-33 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). The Jackson standard inquires whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. at 2789. A verdict may be set aside pursuant to a factual sufficiency challenge only if, after viewing all the evidence without the prism of “in the light most favorable to the prosecution,” it is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. Clewis, 922 S.W.2d at 129; Garza v. State, 937 S.W.2d 569, 570 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1996, pet. ref'd.). The jury, nevertheless, is the sole trier of fact and may judge the credibility of witnesses, reconcile conflicts in testimony, and accept or reject any evidence presented by either side to the case. Chambers v. State, 805 S.W.2d 459, 461 (Tex.Crim.App.1991); Garza, 937 S.W.2d at 570. The reviewing court may not substitute its own judgment for that of the jury’s. Clewis, 922 S.W.2d at 133.

In relation to evidentiary sufficiency, a specific intent to kill may be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon, unless in the manner of the weapon’s use it is reasonably apparent that death or serious bodily injury could not result. Staley v. State, 887 S.W.2d 885, 889 (Tex.Crim.App.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 120, 115 S.Ct. 1366, 131 L.Ed.2d 222 (1995); Flanagan v. State, 675 S.W.2d 734, 744 (Tex.Crim.App.1982); see also Garcia v. State, 887 S.W.2d 862, 869 (Tex.Crim.App.1994) (noting simply that the intent to kill may be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1021, 115 S.Ct. 1368, 131 L.Ed.2d 223 (1995). The presumption of a specific intent to kill also may be rebutted by evidence of accident. E.g., Foster v. State, 639 S.W.2d 691, 695 (Tex.Crim.App.1982).

Foist testified that in the course of chasing and attempting to subdue appellant, he never drew his weapon, which had been secured in his holster. Until he jumped a fence in pursuit of appellant, Foist noted, his hands were busy with a flashlight and a microphone. Foist testified that during the struggle, he saw in front of him a gun with the words “City of Harlingen” on it and realized he had been disarmed. He then tried to grab the gun and “blade it away” to avoid getting shot. He remembered the sparks of two shots fired about a foot and a half in front of him. He testified that no persons other than appellant and he were around when the struggle and shooting occurred. Of his three bullet wounds, Foist thought one was caused by ricochet. The wound to his back, he testified, was sustained after a pause in the gunfire.

Harlingen police officer James Johnson, who participated in the search for appellant that evening, testified that he was in the vicinity of appellant’s home when he heard a total of ten shots fired — one followed by a brief pause, four shots followed by a longer pause, and then five ‘Very fast rounds being fired as fast as you could pull the trigger.” He rushed to the address where Foist had broadcasted that he was in foot-pursuit of appellant. He found Foist there, with other police officers already having reached him.

According to the testimony of Jesus Vera Mejia, who was the boyfriend of appellant’s mother, Juanita Torres, appellant showed up at his mother’s house that same evening, just as Mejia and Torres drove up to the house after searching for him.2

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951 S.W.2d 55, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 2856, 1997 WL 282919, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martinez-v-state-texapp-1997.