Oliva Rodolfo v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 10, 2011
Docket01-09-00978-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Oliva Rodolfo v. State (Oliva Rodolfo 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
Oliva Rodolfo v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Opinion issued November 10, 2011.

In The

Court of Appeals

For The

First District of Texas

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NO. 01-09-00978-CR

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Rodolfo Oliva, Appellant

V.

The State of Texas, Appellee

On Appeal from the 185th District Court

Harris County, Texas

Trial Court Case No. 1200359

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Rodolfo Oliva was convicted of arson and sentenced to eight years’ confinement.  In three points of error, appellant complains the trial court made incorrect evidentiary rulings and requests that we reverse and remand for a new trial.  We affirm the trial court’s judgment. 

BACKGROUND

Appellant was convicted of arson for setting fire to a car owned by Amy Gallegos, a friend and co-worker of appellant’s ex-girlfriend, Candice Gonzales.  Four eyewitnesses and one police officer testified at trial about the events leading up to the arson and the arson itself.  Another officer testified about the evidence at the scene and his investigation of the incident. 

A.   The Early Morning Encounter

Gallegos testified that when she left work with Gonzales around 2:30 a.m. on January 22, 2009, a truck followed them most of the way home.  She managed to lose the truck by speeding up and taking some back roads to her apartment.  Gallegos could not identify who was driving the truck, but Gonzales testified that she recognized the driver as appellant.  Gallegos called the police when the truck tried to run her off the road, and again periodically to let the police know her location as she made her way to her apartment.

When Gallegos and Gonzales reached Gallegos’s apartment, two other friendsJuan Reyes and Bianca Lopezwere already at the apartment.  Shortly after Gallegos and Gonzales arrived, appellant and another person named Daniel pulled up outside.  Through the window, Gallegos saw the appellant in the parked truck, and Gonzales testified to seeing Daniel get out of the truck with what looked like a gun and attempt to break into both the door and a window of the apartment.  Reyes testified that when he looked out the window, he saw appellant try to kick the door in.  Gallegos called the police again, and the occupants of the apartment hid in the kitchen until Officer Hensley arrived.  Appellant and Daniel left shortly before the officer got there.

Officer Hensley testified that when he got to the apartment, Gallegos and Gonzales “were scared,” “excited,” exhibiting “anxiety, crying” and that “it was almost like they were paranoid, like somebody was watching them.”  Over appellant’s hearsay objection, the trial court allowed Hensley to testify about what Gallegos and Gonzales said under the “excited utterance” exception to the hearsay rule.  Gonzales told Hensley that appellant was an ex-boyfriend with whom “she’s had multiple disturbances” and that he followed Gallegos and her home from work.    Hensley also testified that Gallegos and Gonzales told him that they locked themselves in the apartment when they got home, and that they saw appellant and Daniel banging on the door of the apartment and walking around outside trying to gain access through the door or a window.  Daniel had a gun in his hand and Gallegos and Gonzales expressed to Hensley their fear that appellant and Daniel “would break inside [the apartment] and shoot them both.”  Hensley stayed at the apartment for 3045 minutes because Gallegos and Gonzales were so scared.  Henlsey examined the window that the witnesses said appellant and Daniel were trying to break into, and there were cuts in the window screen.  Finally, Hensley testified that, as part of the witnesses’ description of appellant, they described a tattoo on his stomach that says “Tango Blast,” which is “a street gang in the city of Houston.” 

B.   The Fire

Reyes testified he was talking to a friend at Gallegos’s apartment around 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. later that same morning when he looked out the door and saw appellant throw a brick through a window of Gallegos’s car and then set fire to a rag sticking out of a water bottle with fluid in it and throw it into the car.  Reyes ran outside and saw appellant and someone else who Reyes could not identify running away.  After unsuccessfully trying to put out the fire in the car with a blanket, Reyes called out to wake up Gallegos and Gonzales and retrieved some water from the apartment to extinguish the fire.  Gonzales ran outside in time to see two men running from the scene.  She testified to believing one of the men was appellant, based on the clothing he was wearing. 

Dwayne Johnson, a neighbor, testified to seeing two Hispanic males pull up in a car, walk over to Gallegos’s car, throw something inside the car that ignited it, and take off running.  He then saw two different males run out of Gallegos’s apartment, fire a gun at the two people running away, and then turn their efforts to putting out the car fire.  Johnson was able to see the occupants of the fleeing car and gave an in-court identification of appellant as one of the people he saw start the fire and then drive away.   

Finally, Officer Gregory Gordon, an arson investigator, testified about the physical evidence at the scene, about interviewing the various witnesses, and about Reyes and Gallegos positively identifying appellant in a photo lineup.

C.  

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