Priester v. State

478 S.W.3d 826, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 10165, 2015 WL 5734555
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 30, 2015
DocketNo. 08-13-00278-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 478 S.W.3d 826 (Priester 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
Priester v. State, 478 S.W.3d 826, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 10165, 2015 WL 5734555 (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

STEVEN L. HUGHES, Justice

Appellant Carlton Priester was found guilty of the murder of Gerald Banks and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Appellant raises three issues on appeal. He contends: (1) the trial court erred in refusing his attorney’s oral request for a continuance made on the morning of trial; (2) the trial court erred in allowing the State to read a witness’s grand jury testimony into the record at trial; and (3) the State made an improper jury argument that encouraged the jury to disregard the trial court’s instruction on the lesser-included offense of manslaughter. We affirm.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The victim, Gerald Banks, was assisting his friend, Eric Ezell, with a promotional music event at Shooters Billiards in El Paso, Texas. After the event ended around 3 a.m., witnesses heard several individuals arguing outside the bar. Ezell went outside to try to calm the situation, but seeing one of the individuals had a gun, Ezell retreated back inside the bar. Ezell identified Appellant as the individual with the gun.

As Ezell was going back inside the bar, he saw Banks leave the bar and heard Banks speaking to Appellant, encouraging him to calm down. A “scuffie” ensued, and Ezell heard Banks and Appellant arguing. Ezell momentarily turned his back to the scene, and immediately heard a gunshot ring out. Turning back, Ezell saw Banks lying on the ground bleeding from his head.1 Although Ezell did not actually see Appellant shoot Banks, he was certain he saw Appellant arguing with Banks immediately before the shooting, and that Appellant was holding a gun at that time.

Another witness, Ben Glinsey, who was working as “security” at the event, also recalled hearing a commotion outside the bar. He observed an individual pull a gun on two females. At trial, Glinsey identi[829]*829fied that individual as Appellant. Glinsey spoke to Appellant briefly, asking him to “walk it off.” Glinsey recalled that Appellant became upset and pushed him, and then showed him the “butt of the gun,” causing Glinsey to baek away. Glinsey subsequently observed Banks speaking with Appellant, and heard Appellant say: “You’re the guy I was looking for.” Glin-sey then began attempting to get others in the crowd back inside the bar, and he then went inside the bar himself, closing the doors behind him for security reasons. Shortly thereafter, Glinsey heard a gunshot, but like Ezell he did not actually witness the shooting.

At trial, another witness called by the State, Charles Bertram, recalled being at the scene of the shooting, but claimed he could not recall the events in question. Over Appellant’s objection, the trial court allowed the State to read Bertram’s grand jury testimony into the record, in which Bertram testified he had seen Appellant with a gun outside ,the bar, both before and after the shooting, and that he and Appellant had fled the scene in a car driven by Dantrell Posey:

The police were called to the scene, and interviewed several individuals that same morning, most of whom they described as being “very uncooperative.” However, several witnesses advised police that the shooter’s nickname was “CJ,” and that he was from the Chicago area. Upon learning that the shooter had left the scene in a car being driven by Posey, the police -ran a background search on Posey and discovered that an individual named “Charles Jones” from Illinois had been in a vehicle on a prior occasion when Posey had been pulled over by police during an unrelated routine traffic stop. ...

Based on that information, the police included a photograph of Charles Jones, as well as a photograph of Posey, in two separate photo lineups that were shown to both Ezell and Glinsey within days after the shooting. Both witnesses identified Posey as being involved in the-incident. Glinsey identified Jones as the shooter, while Ezell stated that Jones resembled the shooter. Although Jones was initially arrested, for Banks’ murder, he was subsequently released when police learned, he was in Chicago at the time of the shooting.

In, the interim, police began to suspect that Appellant, who was also from the Chicago area and also went by the- nickname “CJ,” was the shooter. They conducted two- new photo lineups in which Appellant’s photograph was included. During those - two lineups, both Ezell and Glinsey positively identified Appellant as the individual they had seen with a .gun on the morning of the'shooting.

The police also obtained palm prints and fingerprints from the outside of Posey’s vehicle that matched Appellant’s prints, and found blood samples inside Posey’s vehicle 'that matched Banks’ DNA. The police also found a receipt from Western Union in Posey’s car that indicated Appellant had wired money to a Shalice Brown in Dallas, Texas before the shooting. The police were eventually able to locate- and arrest Appellant at Brown’s apartment in Dallas.

During trial, the jury was shown a videotape of the events from the morning of the shooting that had been captured by a surveillance camera at a neighboring business. The videotape was played at various times during the trial, and at least one witness, El Paso Police Officer John Ar-mendariz, testified that he was able to identify Appellant as the individual “displaying” a gun during the incident outside the bar, based on his viewing of the videotape. Officer Armendariz also testified he observed Appellant on the videotape confronting Banks outside the bar shortly be[830]*830fore the shooting, and that he- observed Appellant run toward Posey’s car after the shooting, appearing to touch the outside of the car before getting inside, in the same location where Appellant’s prints were later found.

The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Banks’ body testified that Banks suffered a blunt force trauma to his head, causing a laceration, which was consistent with a “pistol whipping.” The medical examiner further testified that Banks had died from a contact gunshot wound through his chest that perforated his heart and liver. According to the medical examiner, the gun was in “close contact with the skin,” and pushed up against Banks’ body when it was fired, making it consistent with the theory that the firearm had discharged during a struggle.

The jury .found Appellant guilty of murder as charged in the indictment.- Prior to the hearing on punishment, Appellant agreed to waive the hearing and accept a 35-year prison term. After ensuring that Appellant knowingly waived his right to a formal punishment hearing, the trial court accepted the agreement and entered judgment sentencing Appellant to a 35-year prison term. .

DISCUSSION

Whether the Trial Court Improperly Denied the Oral. Request for a

Continuance

In his first issue, Appellant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his attorneys’ oral motion for a continuance made on the first morning of trial. Appellant asserts he was prejudiced by his attorneys’ inability to adequately prepare for trial.

Background

Appellant’s first attorney was appointed to represent him- on May 23, 2012, shortly after his arrest on May 18, 2012. Appellant’s second attorney was appointed as co-counsel in July 2012. Appellant was initially indicted in June 2012 for Banks’ murder, and was later re-indicted for the same murder in May 2013 under a new cause number. Appellant was represented by the same two attorneys throughout both proceedings.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
478 S.W.3d 826, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 10165, 2015 WL 5734555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/priester-v-state-texapp-2015.