Molina v. State

754 S.W.2d 468, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 2093, 1988 WL 85120
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 13, 1988
Docket4-87-00169-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 754 S.W.2d 468 (Molina 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
Molina v. State, 754 S.W.2d 468, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 2093, 1988 WL 85120 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

CANTU, Justice.

Appellant was convicted by a jury of resisting arrest, a misdemeanor. TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.03 (Vernon 1974). Punishment was assessed by the trial court at confinement for thirty days. The trial court’s overruling of appellant’s motion to suppress and the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction are challenged. Accordingly, we review the entire record and view it in the light most favorable to the verdict. We uphold that verdict only if we find that any rational trier of fact could have found the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

On January 31, 1987, a Saturday, San Antonio police officer Joe Correa was assigned to downtown foot patrol. That afternoon he observed a group of four people sitting beside the sidewalk next to a city bus stop in the 100 block of N. Alamo Street. He observed this group, which included appellant, for a period of time exceeding 15 minutes. The position the group took appeared to be obstructing the heavy flow of pedestrial traffic associated with tourism in that part of the downtown area. Officer Correa noted that numerous buses had arrived and departed the area and that the group was apparently not interested in bus transportation. Moreover, Officer Correa recognized some of the members of the group to be gang-related.

Officer Correa approached the group and asked each member to identify himself. Appellant provided several names, eventually supplying his true name by providing a social security card. Pursuant to departmental and customary practice, Officer Correa radioed in on an information channel for information on appellant’s name to determine if any outstanding warrants or citations existed. When Officer Correa received confirming information of an outstanding parole violator warrant, appellant, who was listening to the transmission, began to move away as if to flee. Officer Correa then advised appellant that he was under arrest and grabbed at appellant’s shirt as appellant moved away from the officer. As Officer Correa grabbed appellant, appellant grabbed the officer’s wrist stating, “No man. I ain’t going back.” Appellant’s shirt began to tear. At this point appellant, while holding on to the officer’s wrist, threw the officer’s hand away causing the officer to lose his hold on appellant’s shirt. Appellant then began to run. Officer Correa managed to grab appellant’s right hand and pulled him back toward him. Appellant responded by flaying his arms up and down in an effort to extricate himself. As Officer Correa struggled with appellant, several military men stepped in to assist the officer in subduing appellant. Appellant tried to strike the intervenors. Finally, an employee of a nearby restaurant, who had been watching the struggle, appeared to assist the officer in handcuffing appellant.

Appellant alleges in two separate points of error that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction because (1) the evidence is lacking to show that he used force directed at the officer and (2) because the evidence does not show that he resisted at the time of the arrest.

TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.03 provides in pertinent part:

(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally prevents or obstructs a person he knows is a peace officer or a person acting in a peace officer’s presence and at his direction from effecting an arrest or search of the actor or another by using force against the peace officer or another.

State law provides via TEX.CODE CRIM. PROC.ANN. art. 15.22 (Vernon 1977):

A person is arrested when he has been actually placed under restraint or taken into custody by an officer or persons *471 executing a warrant of arrest, or by an officer or person arresting without a warrant.

We examine the challenged detention in terms of the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution and its State counterpart, art. I, § 9 of the Texas Constitution.

The fourth amendment provides:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

U.S.CONST. Amend. IV.

Article I, § 9 provides:

The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions, from all unreasonable seizures or searches, and no warrant to search any place, or to seize any person or thing, shall issue without describing them as near as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation.

TEX.CONST. art. I, § 9.

The construction to be placed upon both prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures shall be the same since they are identical in all material aspects. Kann v. State, 694 S.W.2d 156, 159 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1985, pet. ref’d); Duncan v. State, 680 S.W.2d 555, 558 (Tex.App.—Tyler 1984, no pet.). We look, therefore, to those opinions of the United States Supreme Court in interpreting the fourth amendment.

“No right is held more sacred, or is more carefully guarded by the common law, than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law.” Union Pac. Ry. Co. v. Botsford, 141 U.S. 250, 251, 11 S.Ct. 1000, 1001, 35 L.Ed. 734, 737 (1891).

“This inestimable right of personal security belongs as much to the citizen on the streets of our cities as to the homeowner closeted in his study to dispose of his secret affairs.” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 8-9, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1873, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, 898 (1968). But the constitution forbids only unreasonable searches and seizures, not all searches and seizures. Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1446, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669, 1680 (1960).

In Terry v. Ohio, supra, the United States Supreme Court recognized three distinct contacts; the “neutral” on-the-street police-citizen contact, an investigative stop, and the traditional arrest. A neutral contact is characterized by less state interference than are stops and arrests. It is one where a citizen may decline to communicate and is free to leave the officer’s presence and is, therefore, outside the ambit of fourth amendment consideration. Terry v. Ohio, supra 392 U.S. at 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. at 1879 n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d at 905 n. 16; see also New Jersey v. Sheffield, 62 N.J. 441, 303 A.2d 68, cert. denied 414 U.S. 876, 94 S.Ct. 83, 38 L.Ed.2d 121 (1973) where the contact is termed “field interrogation.”

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Bluebook (online)
754 S.W.2d 468, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 2093, 1988 WL 85120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/molina-v-state-texapp-1988.