Matthews v. State

803 S.W.2d 347, 1990 Tex. App. LEXIS 2942, 1990 WL 194040
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 6, 1990
DocketC14-89-01068-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 803 S.W.2d 347 (Matthews 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
Matthews v. State, 803 S.W.2d 347, 1990 Tex. App. LEXIS 2942, 1990 WL 194040 (Tex. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

ELLIS, Justice.

Appellant, William Matthews, appeals his judgment of conviction for the offense of aggravated sexual assault. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.021 (Vernon 1989). The jury rejected appellant’s not guilty plea and found him guilty as charged in the indictment. The court assessed appellant’s punishment at eighteen years confinement in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. We affirm.

The State’s first witness was J.M.B., the complainant, who was nineteen years of age. On August 19, 1987, the night of the sexual assault, she had played basketball and was sitting with her family. Later, in the early morning hours of August 20, 1987, she overheard a fight. She and her cousin, Terry, went to see the fight.

She testified that she saw appellant in the area where the fight had erupted. She later returned to her sister’s home. Around 12:30 a.m. she and Terry walked to a store. Before she reached the store, she observed appellant approach in a vehicle that had a flat tire. She testified that appellant pointed a gun at her and yelled to her to enter his car. She further testified that appellant drove off with her in the car, while Terry chased the vehicle. The com *349 plainant tried to get out of the car, but appellant grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her in. Appellant hit the complainant on the leg with the gun as he pulled her back into the car. Appellant told her, “Don’t try it again.” Appellant then locked the car’s door and told the complainant to lay the seat back. Appellant reclined the complainant’s seat back, ordering her to lay back and to take her clothes off. Appellant still had the gun. The complainant took her clothes off. Appellant then had vaginal intercourse with the complainant without her consent. Appellant still had the gun in his right hand.

Appellant then moved back over to his side of the front seat and pulled his pants back up. Appellant next started nodding off as if he was going to sleep. The complainant eventually got out of the car, running a short distance when she realized that she did not have any clothes on. The complainant ran back to the car, retrieved her clothes, and ran back to her sister’s apartment telling her sister that a man had pulled a gun on her and raped her.

The police were called and the complainant took Officers Rivera and Rizzo to the parking lot behind the YMCA. She told the officers that this parking lot was where appellant had raped her. Appellant’s car was still there, but he had left. Appellant was traced through the vehicle’s registration. The complainant positively identified appellant’s picture from a photospread. Appellant was arrested soon thereafter.

Appellant brings three points of error on appeal. In his first point of error, appellant claims the State impermissibly made reference to the victim from appellant’s previous conviction during cross-examination. During the trial prosecutor’s cross-examination of appellant, the following occurred:

Q: Okay. Now, let’s go back for minute. Have you ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude?
A: Yes, I be convicted of riding [sic]— theft by check and from what I understand, that it wasn’t a serious thing at all. And also, I was convicted of a false arrest here in Houston, Texas, and which Mr. Weldon Barret (Phonetic) defended me on after guy out of San Diego called him on a false arrest—
Q: So is this your second false arrest?
A: Certainly.
Q: So — okay. You’ve previously been convicted of theft. We understand that. Is that correct?
A: A check.
Q: You stole something, right?
A: I did not steal nothing. That’s what they charged me.
Q: Well, what did the victim think?
DEFENSE COUNSEL: Object to that.
THE COURT: Sustained.

Appellant’s trial attorney did not request an instruction to disregard and did not make a motion for mistrial. Appellant must obtain an adverse ruling in order to preserve a matter for review. Therefore, no error has been preserved for purposes of appeal. Appellant received the relief he requested. Nethery v. State, 692 S.W.2d 686, 701 (Tex.Crim.App.1985).

Furthermore, once a defendant in a criminal prosecution voluntarily takes the witness stand, as appellant did in this case, he is subject to the same rules as any other witness and may be impeached, contradicted, made to give evidence against himself, cross-examined as to new matters, and treated in every respect as any other witness testifying in his behalf, except when there are overriding constitutional or statutory provisions. Alexander v. State, 740 S.W.2d 749, 763 (Tex.Crim.App.1987). See Tex.R.Crim.Evid. 610(b). It is clear that the trial prosecutor was merely trying to establish that appellant had been convicted of theft.

We find that the trial prosecutor’s unanswered question resulted in no harm to the appellant under Tex.R.App.P. 81(b)(2). The mere asking of an allegedly improper question will not constitute reversible error unless the question results in obvious harm to the accused. Brown v. State, 692 S.W.2d 497, 501 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). Furthermore, the error allegedly caused by asking *350 such a question will generally be cured if the trial court instructs the jury to disregard. Brown, 692 S.W.2d at 501. Since no instruction to disregard was requested in this case, the appellant cannot complain on appeal. The appellant's first point of error is overruled.

In his second point of error, appellant asserts that his motion to strike the jury panel was erroneously overruled. Three days following the seating and swearing in of the jury in this case, it was brought to the attention of the trial court that one of the jurors was related to the process server for the 185th District Court. Appellant attempts to translate this fact into juror misconduct by noting that the juror apparently did not respond when, at the beginning of voir dire, the trial court asked the prospective jurors whether any of them knew any of the “support staff” for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. The process server for the 185th District Court is not an employee of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. This particular process server was a new employee of the 185th District Court. The jury was, in fact picked while another process server was employed by court. The process server and the juror testified that they did not discuss the case with each other. The juror also testified that his relationship with the trial court’s process server would not affect his decision in the case.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

John Luther Hawk v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2022
in Re David Jones, Jr.
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2007
Menard v. State
193 S.W.3d 55 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006)
John Charles Menard v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006
Alanda Suzanne Fewins v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2005
Steven William Hough v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004
Douglas Edward Hirsch v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002
James R. Locander v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 1996
Daniel Lee Boss v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995
Fugett v. State
855 S.W.2d 227 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Mock v. State
848 S.W.2d 215 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Fuentes v. State
832 S.W.2d 635 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
803 S.W.2d 347, 1990 Tex. App. LEXIS 2942, 1990 WL 194040, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matthews-v-state-texapp-1990.