Payne v. State

502 S.W.3d 829, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 10019, 2016 WL 4710448
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 8, 2016
DocketNO. 14-15-00756-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 502 S.W.3d 829 (Payne 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
Payne v. State, 502 S.W.3d 829, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 10019, 2016 WL 4710448 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Ken Wise, Justice

A jury found appellant, Raymond Howard Payne, guilty of the offense of murder. See Tex. Penal Code § 19.02. In one issue, appellant challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting his murder conviction. We affirm.

Factual Background

At approximately 11:00 p.m. on May 27, 2014, appellant called 9-1-1, stating that his twenty-six-year-old son, Jarrod Payne, had shot himself inside appellant’s home. When first responders arrived, they discovered Jarrod’s body lying on the floor of his bedroom. Jarrod had a single gunshot wound in his chest. Appellant admitted that the gun lying next to Jarrod belonged to appellant.

In his recorded statement to police, appellant claimed that on the night of Jarrod’s death, appellant was sleeping when he heard two loud noises that he first believed to be thunder. Appellant stated that after he realized the sounds were gunshots, he quickly went to Jarrod’s room and found him lying on the floor. Appellant told the investigating officer that when he discovered Jarrod’s weak pulse, he called 9-1-1 immediately.

At trial, the State presented evidence that contradicted appellant’s version of events. Captain William Lummus of the Houston Fire Department testified that when he arrived at the scene, he felt that “[t]he whole scene wasn’t adding up.”. According to Lummus, although it took only five or six minutes from the time of appellant’s 9-1-1 call for the fire department to arrive, Jarrod’s body was “unusually cold.” Furthermore, contrary to appellant’s state[831]*831ment, Officer Mendez testified that appellant told Mendez more than once that it took him approximately thirty minutes to call 9-1-1. Moreover, Lummus stated that appellant was not “overly excited” or crying, and Mendez testified that appellant was outside smoking a cigarette and “acting normal” when Mendez arrived.

Lummus described the crime scene for the jury. He testified that Jarrod’s bedroom door had a fresh hole “about chest high” with splintered wood. He also observed a gun lying underneath Jarrod’s hand, which he believed was unusual and inconsistent with a typical suicide scene. While appellant stated that he had performed CPR on Jarrod before authorities arrived, Lummus testified that if CPR had been performed, appellant would have had blood on his hands and Jarrod’s hand would have bounced off the gun.

Officers testified that in addition to the fatal round recovered from Jarrod’s chest, they collected two rounds lodged in the wall directly opposite the bedroom door. A fourth round was discovered in the closet door of Jarrod’s room. The investigator testified that based on the position of Jarrod’s body and the location of the round near the ground, it appeared that this round “was fired through that closet door from around the position where Jarrod Payne’s body ended up.” He testified that Jarrod had an injury on his finger that “was consistent with a loosely held grip” of the weapon.

A Harris County firearms examiner testified that all four of the rounds collected had the same class characteristics as the gun recovered from the crime scene. Although four rounds were collected, the gun had only two empty casings, suggesting it had been reloaded. Next, a DPS firearms examiner testified regarding the results of a “muzzle-to-garment distance determination.” He opined that based on the absence of residue patterns on Jarrod’s shirt, it was possible that the fatal shot “was fired from a distance outside the range where repeatable gunshot residue patterns are formed ... [or] there was- an intervening object or masking agent that prevented the visualization of the residue patterns.”

' Medical examiner Mary Anzalone, who performed Jarrod’s autopsy, testified that she questioned the initial determination of suicide for several reasons. First, the location of the entrance wound was “atypical for an individual who self-inflicts a wound.” Second, Anzalone found the lack of visible residue on Jarrod’s shirt to be concerning, since such residue indicates a close range of fire. Third, she stated that the “short distance of travel within the body” was atypical, “given the type of weapon that was believed to have been used.” Anzalone testified that this led her to believe that “perhaps the bullet had struck something before' it struck [Jarrod], slowing down the velocity of the bullet, only enabling it to go about a half a foot within the body.” Anza-lone ultimately testified that she classified Jarrod’s death as a homicide.

Following trial, the jury found appellant guilty of murder and, in response to a special issue, found that appellant used or exhibited a deadly weapon in the commission of the offense. The jury sentenced appellant to life in prison and ordered that he pay a $10,000 fine.

Analysis op Appellant’s Issue

On appeal, appellant claims that the evidence is insufficient to support his murder conviction. Specifically, appellant argues that there is legally insufficient evidence establishing his intent to kill or cause serious bodily injury to Jarrod.

Standard of Review

In determining whether the evidence is legally sufficient to support a [832]*832conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine, based on that evidence and any reasonable inferences from it, whether any rational fact finder could have found the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Padilla v. State, 326 S.W.3d 195, 200 (Tex.Crim.App.2010); Gear v. State, 340 S.W.3d 743, 746 (Tex.Crim.App. 2011). The jury is the sole judge of the weight and credibility of the evidence. Adames v. State, 353 S.W.3d 854, 860 (Tex.Crim.App.2011); see Isassi v. State, 330 S.W.3d 633, 638 (Tex.Crim.App.2010) (appellate court may not substitute its judgment for that of the fact finder). Direct evidence and circumstantial evidence are equally probative, and circumstantial evidence alone may be sufficient to uphold a conviction so long as the cumulative force of all the incriminating circumstances is sufficient to support the conviction. Ramsey v. State, 473 S.W.3d 805, 809 (Tex.Crim.App.2015).

Sufficiency of the Evidence

A person commits the offense of murder if he (1) intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual or (2) intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act that is clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of the individual. Tex. Penal Code § 19.02(b)(l)-(2). A person acts intentionally with respect to the nature of his conduct or to a result of his conduct when it is his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or cause the result. Tex. Penal Code § 6.03(a); Schroeder v. State,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
502 S.W.3d 829, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 10019, 2016 WL 4710448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/payne-v-state-texapp-2016.