Prisscilla Lorraine Mechell v. State

374 S.W.3d 454, 2011 WL 4089998, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 7529
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 14, 2011
Docket10-10-00416-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 374 S.W.3d 454 (Prisscilla Lorraine Mechell 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
Prisscilla Lorraine Mechell v. State, 374 S.W.3d 454, 2011 WL 4089998, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 7529 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

TOM GRAY, Chief Justice.

Prisscilla Lorraine Mechell was charged with aggravated kidnapping, injury to a child, and abandoning a child. Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 20.04(b); 22.04; 22.041(b) (West 2011). Two days prior to trial, the indictment was amended to change the aggravating element of the aggravated kidnapping charge to the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon, that being a dumpster. Mechell made no objection to this change and waived the ten day notice requirement. See Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 28.10(a) (West 2006). On the day of her trial, Mechell pled guilty to the offense of abandoning a child. The jury found her guilty of all three offenses and assessed her punishment at 28 years, 5 years, and 20 years in prison, respectively. Mechell has not appealed the conviction and sentence for injury to a child. This appeal relates only to the other two offenses. Because the evidence is sufficient to support the jury’s deadly weapon finding and because her convictions for aggravated kidnapping and abandoning a child do not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Background

At the same time her friend, Kourtney Able, was pregnant, Mechell informed her friends and family that she, too, was pregnant. She had a nursery prepared and had had a baby shower. Kourtney gave birth to a son, Ryder. Seven days later, on September 21, 2009, Mechell led everyone, including her family, to believe that she was being induced to have a baby that day. That morning, she stopped by Kourtney’s house, uninvited, to visit. Kourtney was napping and awoke to find Mechell standing over her. Mechell told Kourtney to go back to sleep and that she would watch Ryder. When Kourtney awoke, Mechell and Ryder were gone. Kourtney was frantic. She called the police and she called Mechell. Mechell said she was at the doctor’s office and would come back. Mechell was then contacted *456 by a 911 operator. She denied taking Ryder and when asked if she knew who took the baby, she suggested Kourtney’s boyfriend’s “baby mama.” She explained that Kourtney’s boyfriend had recently had a baby with another woman.

When Mechell arrived at Kourtney’s house, to Mechell’s surprise, the police were on the scene. She was taken to the police department where she was confronted with the news that the police had cheeked and confirmed that Mechell was not a patient of the doctor she claimed to be seeing and that no delivery procedures were scheduled. Forty-five minutes into the .interview with police, she confessed that she had taken Ryder and hid him in a dumpster when Kourtney called to tell Mechell of Ryder’s disappearance. She later confessed that she was not pregnant but believed she had had a miscarriage and kept up the fagade. She gave no reason for the fagade other than that she and her husband had tried so hard to have another baby. At trial, she said it was to save her marriage. Mechell also confessed that when she took Ryder, she went to her house 15 minutes away and shaved Ryder’s head to change his appearance.

Sufficiency of the Evidence

In her first issue, Mechell contends that the evidence is legally insufficient to support the jury’s deadly weapon finding. Specifically, Mechell argues that the evidence did not support a finding that the dumpster was a deadly weapon because first, there was insufficient evidence of serious bodily injury and second, there was insufficient evidence that the dumpster by its use was capable of causing serious bodily injury. A deadly weapon, as applied to this case, is defined as “anything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.” Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 1.07(a)(17)(B) (West 2011).

Standard of Review

The standard enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia is the only standard a reviewing court applies in determining whether evidence is sufficient to support each element of a criminal offense that the State is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 912 (Tex.Crim.App.2010); see Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Under the Jackson standard, a reviewing court should not “ask itself whether it believes that the evidence at the trial established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” Blackman v. State, 350 S.W.3d 588, 595 (Tex.Crim.App.2011) (quoting Jackson, 443 U.S. at 318-19, 99 S.Ct. 2781) (emphasis in original). Rather, “the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781 (emphasis in original).

Each fact need not point directly and independently to the guilt of a defendant, as long as the cumulative force of all the incriminating circumstances is sufficient to support the conviction. Hooper v. State, 214 S.W.3d 9, 13 (Tex.Crim.App.2007). Reconciliation of conflicts and contradictions in the evidence is within the province of the jury. Losada v. State, 721 S.W.2d 305, 309 (Tex.Crim.App.1986). The jury is entitled to judge the credibility of witnesses, and can choose to believe all, some, or none of the testimony presented by the parties. Chambers v. State, 805 S.W.2d 459, 461 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). Further, the prosecution has no affirmative duty to “rule out every hypothesis except that of guilt.” Blackman, 350 S.W.3d at 595 (quoting Wright v. West, 505 U.S. 277, 296, *457 112 S.Ct. 2482, 120 L.Ed.2d 225 (1992)). The issue in this case, then, is whether, after reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the dumpster was a deadly weapon.

Serious Bodily Injury

Mechell first argues that the evidence did not support a finding that the dumpster was a deadly weapon because there was insufficient evidence of serious bodily injury. In support of this argument, she asserts that “shock” does not constitute serious bodily injury. Serious bodily injury is defined as “bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.” Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 1.07(a)(46) (West 2011). The State, however, does not have to prove that an object alleged to be a deadly weapon caused death or serious bodily injury; only that the object, in the manner of its use or intended use, was capable of causing death or serious bodily injury. See McCain v. State, 22 S.W.3d 497

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Bluebook (online)
374 S.W.3d 454, 2011 WL 4089998, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 7529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prisscilla-lorraine-mechell-v-state-texapp-2011.