Mary Grigsby v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 12, 2012
Docket13-10-00650-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Mary Grigsby v. State (Mary Grigsby 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
Mary Grigsby v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

NUMBER 13-10-00650-CR

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG

MARY GRIGSBY, Appellant,

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

On appeal from the 130th District Court of Matagorda County, Texas.

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Chief Justice Valdez and Justices Garza and Vela Memorandum Opinion by Justice Garza Appellant, Mary Grigsby, was convicted of capital murder. See TEX. PENAL CODE

ANN. § 19.03(a)(3) (West Supp. 2011). Because the State did not seek the death

penalty, Grigsby was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. See id. §

12.31(a)(2) (West 2011). By three issues on appeal, Grigsby argues that the trial court erred by: (1) admitting “overview” testimony; (2) admitting evidence of extraneous

offenses; and (3) failing to submit a jury instruction on the accomplice-witness rule. We

affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellant met Jack Grigsby in 1992 and married him in 1996. In 2003, appellant

filed a divorce petition, but the petition was dismissed after the couple reconciled. Also

in 2003, appellant met Daniel Harrison, who at the time was living with appellant’s friend

Susanne Matz. According to Harrison, appellant called him the day after they met and

asked to talk to him alone “about a personal matter”; Harrison agreed. When they met,

appellant informed Harrison that she wanted to have Jack killed, and she asked if

Harrison knew anyone who could do the job.1 Harrison told appellant that he knew

“quite a few people” who could do so and estimated that it would cost appellant

$10,000. According to Harrison, appellant said she could get the money. Harrison then

took appellant’s telephone number but did not call her back because he had decided

that he “[d]idn’t want to get involved.”

Matz, a pharmacist, became close friends with appellant when the two worked at

a Wal-Mart mail order center from around 1999 to 2002. According to Matz, appellant

once asked her if she knew anyone that could kill her husband, but Matz did not believe

appellant was serious. Appellant also asked Matz whether an increased dose of

Klonopin—a muscle relaxant that Jack was taking at the time—could be fatal. Again,

Matz did not take appellant seriously.

1 Harrison agreed that, at the time, he “appear[ed] to be somebody that might know someone who could [commit murder for hire]” because he had “real long hair, a beard, cut-off sleeves,” and was “hanging with a biker association.”

2 Appellant filed a second divorce petition in 2008, claiming that Jack had abused

her verbally, physically, and emotionally. The divorce court rendered temporary orders

which, in part, prohibited Jack from removing appellant as a beneficiary on his $200,000

life insurance policy. Subsequently, appellant moved out of Jack’s house and became

mired in financial difficulties.

In 2009, Harrison became reconnected to appellant when he sought help on his

income taxes. Matz, knowing that appellant was experienced in keeping books and

preparing tax returns, suggested that Harrison contact appellant. Harrison did so.

According to Harrison, about twenty minutes into a telephone conversation about his

taxes, appellant asked “whether he knew anyone who could take care of what we talked

about before.” Appellant explained that divorce proceedings were ongoing but that she

would pay the $10,000 out of her share of Jack’s life insurance proceeds. This time,

Harrison accepted the job himself. Harrison and appellant agreed to meet at a later

date to work out the details.

Harrison later traveled to Brazoria County to meet appellant at her Lake Jackson

apartment. Harrison drove Matz’s green Ford Taurus and, at one point, used Matz’s

Lone Star public assistance card. Harrison then drove with appellant to Sargent, where

Jack resided, to familiarize himself with the area. On the way to Sargent, appellant

described previous failed attempts she had made on her husband’s life. They

eventually agreed that the murder would take place sometime between May 13 and 16,

when appellant was to be in Dallas for a convention.

Matz, Harrison, and appellant met on May 13 at the hotel in Dallas where

appellant was staying. Harrison informed appellant that he did not own a gun, and so

3 appellant offered to let Harrison use an unregistered nine-millimeter Ruger semi-

automatic pistol that she kept at her apartment. Appellant then had a duplicate of her

apartment key made and instructed Harrison to pick it up at the front desk of her hotel.

Harrison did so.

On May 17, Harrison drove to Lake Jackson using Matz’s car. He went to

appellant’s apartment, retrieved appellant’s pistol, then set out for Sargent. Upon

arriving at Jack’s residence, Harrison noticed that Jack was not home. To pass the time

until Jack returned, Harrison visited a local convenience store and made a purchase

with Matz’s Lone Star card; he then waited near a set of boat slips and talked to a

fisherman. Upon observing that Jack had returned home, Harrison approached the

residence. He deceived Jack into letting him enter the house. He then struck Jack in

the head with the pistol, and fired one shot into Jack’s head, killing him instantly. 2

Harrison then returned to his Dallas-area home, disposed of the key to appellant’s

apartment, disassembled the pistol and threw the component parts into Lake Texoma.

Several days later, appellant drove to Jack’s residence in Sargent, ostensibly to

pick up a dog that she had left with Jack. She arrived to find Jack dead and lying in a

pool of blood. She called 911. Patrol Sergeant Robert Pierce of the Matagorda County

Sheriff’s Office came to the scene, as did Fire Chief Jason Boyd and Sergeant Tommy

Risinger of the Sargent Volunteer Fire Department. The first responders found

2 Harrison recounted these events in chilling detail. He testified that, when he struck Jack in the head with the pistol, “[i]t split his skull. Blood went pretty much everywhere.” Despite the force of the blow, Jack “took it, and he stood up and turned around and looked at me pretty surprised.” Jack held up his hands in defense and asked: “What have I done to you?” Harrison testified: “I told him it wasn’t for me, it was for his wife.” After firing the pistol, Harrison saw “two full streams of blood squirt” from Jack’s head. After leaving Jack’s house, he called appellant to inform her that “it was a done deal.” Appellant called back to confirm what Harrison had said; she then asked Harrison: “How’s my dog?”

4 appellant in the front yard of Jack’s house, crying and screaming that Jack had shot

himself. She was later overheard telling other people that someone had “shot Jack.”

Risinger found appellant’s behavior suspicious because there were “no tears, just

hollering.” Pierce observed that appellant “was not remorseful” and “had no tears in her

eyes” at that time. Boyd stated that appellant’s expression of grief seemed insincere

and rehearsed. Further, Boyd found it suspicious that appellant would assume that

Jack shot himself, considering that “[t]here was no indication that he had been shot

when we got there” and there was no weapon found at the scene. Police were,

however, able to recover a spent bullet casing and unused ammunition.

In a statement to police, appellant initially denied that she owned any firearms,

then admitted that she owned a nine-millimeter pistol and that it was in her apartment as

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