MBUGUA v. State

312 S.W.3d 657, 2009 WL 2634596
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 17, 2010
Docket01-07-00690-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by74 cases

This text of 312 S.W.3d 657 (MBUGUA 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
MBUGUA v. State, 312 S.W.3d 657, 2009 WL 2634596 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

OPINION

TIM TAFT, Justice (Retired).

A jury convicted appellant, Michael Mbugua, of the offense of murder and assessed punishment at life in prison. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.02(b)(1) (Vernon 2003). We determine whether (1) the trial court abused its discretion in failing to suppress appellant’s statement; (2) this appeal should be abated and the trial court required to submit findings of fact and [660]*660conclusions of law regarding the denial of appellant’s motion to suppress; (3) the trial court erred in not submitting a jury instruction pursuant to article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure;1 and (4) the exclusion of portions of appellant’s medical records from evidence was reversible error. We affirm.

Facts

Kimberly Watkins and Blair Brown were driving westbound on West Bellfort in Houston, Texas, on the night of May 13, 2006, when they saw the complainant lying facedown in the road. They stopped at an Auto Zone store parking lot, and Watkins exited the car to help the complainant. When Watson approached him, she saw that he was covered in blood. She bent down to check on him and touched his neck. He was breathing and making a humming sound, but was not moving or speaking and did not respond to her. Watson stood up and waved her arms to deter cars from accidentally hitting him, turning around occasionally to check on the complainant. Brown was trying to call 9-1-1; she had borrowed a cell phone from a Pizza Hut delivery driver in the same parking lot, but the phone was not working properly. Within a minute or so, Watson saw a young man come across the street and approach the complainant, and she asked him if the complainant “was okay.” He did not answer her and, when she turned, she saw him stabbing the complainant with a knife — first in the back about five times, and then lifting the complainant’s head and slitting his throat twice. Brown also saw the attack. The man then stepped back calmly, dropped the knife, and slowly walked away. According to Brown and Watson, the complainant did not have a weapon. After the assault, other cars stopped, and Brown was able to borrow another person’s cell phone and place a call to 9-1-1.

After the ambulance arrived, Watson noticed a vehicle across the street in someone’s front lawn, as if an accident had occurred. The vehicle was on the opposite side of the street from the Auto Zone and on the same side of the street from whence the assailant had come.

The complainant, later identified as Bruce Caldwell Jr., died from his injuries. Brown and Watson were able to give a description of the assailant to the police, but neither was able to identify him from a police photographic spread.

Houston Police Department Sergeant Mark Newcomb investigated the murder scene and noticed that a car had driven up onto a nearby lawn, hitting some landscaping in the yard. The keys were still in the car, the passenger side door was open, and there was blood in the car and a trail of blood leading from the car to the spot on the street where the complainant was attacked. Two knives were recovered from the scene, and another was later found in the car.2 A piece of human finger was later recovered from the driver’s seat of the vehicle.

Newcomb determined that the wrecked vehicle was registered to appellant and went to appellant’s home around 2:30 a.m. on the same night of the incident, but did not find him. The next day, Newcomb spoke to appellant by telephone. At that time, appellant was at his parents’ home, being treated by emergency medical technicians for an injury to his hand. Appel[661]*661lant agreed to make a statement and was transported by the police to the Homicide Division, where appellant gave a videotaped oral statement regarding the incident.

In his statement, appellant explained that he and the complainant had been traveling to Wal-Mart in appellant’s car, which appellant was driving. He and the complainant were talking about business, but appellant felt that, “between the lines,” the complainant was talking about how he was going to kill appellant.

Appellant said that he and the complainant had been partners in the music business,3 but the complainant had broken the partnership by trying to kill him. According to appellant, the complainant had felt it necessary to put a price on appellant’s head, had “a lot of people ... coming to [appellant’s] house trying to kill” appellant, and had told appellant that he was going to kill him, his mother was going to kill him, his father, a police officer,4 was going to kill him, and other people were going to kill him. The complainant had threatened appellant periodically over the previous few weeks. Appellant carried two knives in his car for personal protection. Appellant never reported these threats to the police.

The night of the incident, appellant and the complainant “got into an altercation” and appellant “had to pull out [his] knife.” He did not know if the complainant had a weapon; he did not see one. Appellant stabbed the complainant twice in the arm or shoulder. During the scuffle, the complainant cut appellant, injuring him. The complainant grabbed the steering wheel, he turned the car into the yard, and they hit a curb. The complainant then jumped out of the car and ran. Appellant followed the complainant into the median to find out what was wrong with him, to see if he was all right, and to help him; he made it within a few feet of the complainant, but ran when he heard someone rack a shotgun. He kept running because he was afraid that someone was trying to kill him and he walked all night, finally arriving at his parents’ house. He expressed surprise in learning from the interviewing officer that the complainant was dead, said, “Damn,” repeatedly, and asked, “So, what am I looking at?” When the officer asked appellant why he stabbed the complainant in the median, he answered, “I don’t even remember,” and when the officer asked appellant if he did not remember stabbing the complainant after leaving the car, appellant answered, “Damn.”

After the interview, Newcomb went down to the second floor of the same building, signed a formal complaint charging appellant with murder, and then, once the complaint went to the clerk’s office, arrested appellant, who was booked in and charged with murder.

Appellant filed a motion to suppress the oral statement, which was denied after a hearing. The videotaped oral statement was played to the jury at appellant’s trial, over appellant’s objection.5 At trial, appel[662]*662lant asserted a claim of self-defense and called two witnesses. The first was his mother, who testified about appellant’s fear that the complainant was going to kill him, his arrival at home in the early hours on the morning after the incident, and police actions on the night of the incident and the following morning, as they searched for appellant at his home and ultimately took him to the police station to make a statement. His second witness was Dr. Vincent Di Maio, a forensic pathologist, who testified that the complainant was likely killed by the wound to the heart, not the wounds to the neck, and that appellant’s wounds were consistent with being defensive wounds.6 Appellant did not testify.

Denial of Appellant’s Motion to Suppress

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

Related

Taforrest Donta Chandler v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Andrew Castillo v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Andrew Collin Potter v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
The State of Texas v. Anthony Sibrian
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Brian James Lopez v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Alexander Scott Haley v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Marlin Maurice Nutall v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Terrance A. Bohanna v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
the State of Texas v. Juan Negrete
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
State v. Raymond Soto
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
State v. Gerard Dante Simmons
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Adrian Gomez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
James Russell Faglie v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
James Doyle Collins, Jr. v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Scott Paul Madlock v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Eric Dewayne Small v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Cervantez, Alcadio
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Alcadio Cervantez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Carl Lee Smith v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
312 S.W.3d 657, 2009 WL 2634596, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mbugua-v-state-texapp-2010.