Moranza v. State

913 S.W.2d 718, 1995 WL 764332
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 10, 1996
Docket10-94-226-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 913 S.W.2d 718 (Moranza 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
Moranza v. State, 913 S.W.2d 718, 1995 WL 764332 (Tex. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

CUMMINGS, Justice.

Appellant Carl Moranza, Jr. appeals his conviction for escape. Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 38.06 (Vernon 1994). He raises twelve points of error; that the evidence conclusively established his insanity defense or, alternatively, that the jury’s failure to find him insane is manifestly unjust; that the court erred in charging the insanity defense sepa *721 rately on each of the three different counts for which he was indicted instead of charging them altogether; that the State failed to timely produce exculpatory evidence as had been properly requested by the defense; that the trial court erred in admitting hearsay statements into evidence; that the court erred in preventing the defense from rehabilitating its expert witness; that the court erred in permitting the State to impeach hearsay statements of Moranza because they related to a collateral matter; that the court erred in refusing to take judicial notice of the fact that insanity was not raised by the defense in an earlier prosecution; that the court erred in permitting the State to put on evidence of a prior conviction; that a tape recording of the events leading to Moranza’s being taken into emergency custody was improperly admitted into evidence; and that the court erroneously permitted the State to engage in impermissible jury argument. We affirm.

On June 17, 1993, the Bryan Police Department received a complaint from Lisa Burns that her brother, the appellant, was causing a disturbance at her home and was refusing to leave the premises. Officer Deanna Coleman, Lt. Freddie Komar, and Officer Jackie Maynard responded to the call. During the approximate one-half hour the officers spent at Burns’ home with Moranza, he was argumentative, appeared angry, uttered threats against the officers, and suggested that he might kill himself. Due to Moranza’s seemingly unbalanced mental state at the time and the apparent danger he posed to people around him, the officers decided to place him into emergency custody and take him to the Brazos Valley Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center so that he could receive help from a medical professional. Tex.Health & Safety Code Ann. § 573.001 (Vernon 1992).

When the officers and Moranza arrived at the MHMR, a psychiatrist, Dr. James Donald Hinkle, was summoned to examine him. After talking with Dr. Hinkle for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, Moranza became irate, and threatened to kill Dr. Hinkle and several nurses who were present. He also threatened to kill Officer Maynard, the only officer present at the time, and started moving toward him. Officer Maynard then informed Moranza that he was going to arrest him for the threats he had made, whereupon Moranza ran out of the room and outside the building. Officer Maynard, however, captured him almost immediately. The threats and the escape which led to Moranza’s arrest all occurred essentially instantaneously.

Moranza was indicted for escape, retaliation against a police officer, and aggravated assault against a police officer. Tex.Penal Code Ann. §§ 22.02(b)(2), 36.06 (Vernon 1994). At trial, Moranza raised the affirmative defense of insanity on all three counts. The jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity on the retaliation and aggravated assault counts, but convicted him on the escape count. The trial court sentenced him to a probated ten year sentence in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Corrections. The court also committed Mor-anza to the Rusk State Mental Hospital pursuant to Tex.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 46.03, § 4(d)(1) (Vernon Supp.1996). This appeal followed.

In his first two points of error Moranza asks us to review the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s implicit finding that he was not insane at the time of the escape. In his second point he contends the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law to support the jury’s failure to find him insane, and in his first point he argues that the evidence is factually insufficient, or, in other words, the finding was so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust.

Moranza’s sufficiency arguments, both legal and factual, rely upon a theory of law that has gone through tremendous change and scrutiny in recent history. To put his arguments in perspective, it will perhaps be best to briefly recount the history of legal and factual sufficiency review in both criminal and civil eases in Texas.

Between 1891, when the Court of Criminal Appeals was created, and 1981, the intermediate courts exercised jurisdiction solely over civil eases. During this time, the intermediate courts, due to the constitutional mandate of article V, section 6, which provided that *722 the intermediate courts “shall be conclusive on all questions of fact brought before them on appeal or error,” commonly engaged in the review of the factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court’s judgment. Tex. Const, art. Y, § 6; Stone v. State, 823 S.W.2d 875, 378 (Tex.App.—Austin 1992, pet. ref'd — untimely filed) (per curiam); Ellen B. Mitchell, Factual Sufficiency Review in Criminal Cases, 58 TexB.J. 434, 436 (1995). With the intermediate courts not deciding criminal cases, however, a review of the factual sufficiency of the evidence was never undertaken in criminal cases. Stone, 823 S.W.2d at 378; Mitchell, 58 Tex.B.J. at 436. The Court of Criminal Appeals, the only appellate court at the time deciding criminal eases, operated under the notion that, because the conelusivity clause stated that the intermediate courts had the final word on questions of fact, it was constitutionally prohibited from reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence. White v. State, 591 S.W.2d 851, 855 (Tex.Crim.App.1979), overruled by Bigby v. State, 892 S.W.2d 864 (Tex.Crim.App.1994). In 1981 the intermediate courts were given criminal jurisdiction, and the stage was set for a debate about factual sufficiency review in criminal cases. Stone, 823 S.W.2d at 378; Mitchell, 58 Tex. B.J. at 436.

The Texas Supreme Court, both prior to the addition of criminal jurisdiction to the intermediate courts and afterwards, had little difficulty in construing the conelusivity clause. The Supreme Court determined that the clause permitted the intermediate courts to conduct factual sufficiency review but precluded it from addressing a factual sufficiency issue. See Pool v. Ford Motor Co., 715 S.W.2d 629, 633-36 (Tex.1986); In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660, 661 (1951); Mitchell, 58 Tex.B.J. 434-36.

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913 S.W.2d 718, 1995 WL 764332, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moranza-v-state-texapp-1996.