Quintana v. State

777 S.W.2d 474, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 2270, 1989 WL 99871
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 31, 1989
Docket13-88-414-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by168 cases

This text of 777 S.W.2d 474 (Quintana 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
Quintana v. State, 777 S.W.2d 474, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 2270, 1989 WL 99871 (Tex. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

A jury found that appellant, Manuel Quintana, “knowingly and intentionally cause[d] the death of an individual, Manuel Viqueria Roman, by striking him with a metal dustpan.” See Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 19.02(a)(1) (Vernon 1989). One prior felony offense was alleged in the indictment for enhancement purposes. After finding appellant guilty, the jury assessed punishment at ninety-nine years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections, plus a $10,000.00 fine. We modify and affirm.

Riley Bennett, a Texas Department of Corrections (TDC) guard, testified that on June 28, 1986, he heard a noise that sounded like somebody had inserted a rod into one of the fans. He saw inmates gathering around fifteen row and seventeen row. The noise stopped, and Bennett proceeded to investigate. As he went up some stairs, he saw appellant, a TDC inmate, coming down the stairs. Appellant wore a white, bloodstained uniform. Appellant remarked to Bennett, “He was ripping me off for my commissary.” Bennett took him outside the tank and left him with other guards. Bennett resumed his investigation, and inside cell sixteen, he discovered Roman’s body lying face down with a dustpan on his back.

Luther Andrew Masters, a general physician, testified that on June 28,1986, he was summoned to Roman’s cell. He entered the cell and found Roman lying face down. Copious amounts of blood covered the cell’s bars, ceiling and walls. Dr. Masters looked into Roman’s pupils, felt for his carotid and radial pulse, and listened to his chest with a stethoscope. He discovered no evidence of life.

Dr. Masters explained, in effect, that in a case like the one here, where blood is found on the ceiling and walls, this usually indicates that someone struck the victim by swinging an object in any arc like fashion. He agreed that the blood locations in this case are consistent with someone swinging the dustpan found at the scene.

Harris County’s chief medical examiner, Joseph Alexander Jachimczyk, performed Roman’s autopsy. He stated that Roman received approximately thirty wounds. Dr. Jachimczyk indicated that he found extension fractures at the base of Roman’s skull. He explained that an extension fracture is one that results from a severe blow. Dr. Jachimczyk testified that Roman died due to a fractured skull. He said that the wounds Roman suffered are consistent with the type of wounds that could have been inflicted by the dustpan found at the scene.

Appellant explained that prior to the confrontation between himself and Roman, Roman had threatened his life on at least two occasions. On one occasion, appellant happened to be in the prison yard, and Roman threatened to kill him. On the second occasion, appellant was in the shower room, and Roman pulled down appellant’s pants. When appellant asked him why he did this, Roman laughed and said he was going to kill appellant. Appellant stated that Roman had also stolen some property from him. Appellant said that he did not complain about these alleged problems to corrections officials because he did not expect that Roman was going to kill him.

Appellant testified that moments before the confrontation, he was standing at the cleaning room, cleaning a mop. When he turned around, he saw Roman running towards him, gripping a screwdriver. Not far away, some people were watching television. He yelled at them for help but no one responded. Appellant said that if he would have stood there, Roman would have killed him. He took a swing at Roman and ran away. He said that he first hit Roman *477 with the dustpan when Roman leaned back towards the bars by the television. Both men then began fighting outside Roman’s cell. Roman dropped the screwdriver and pushed appellant, causing his head to strike the cell bars. Roman entered his cell, and appellant followed. Appellant testified that he did not remember whether he continued to hit Roman inside his cell. He also said that he did not remember saying anything when he came down the steps. However, he admitted saying that he killed Roman because Roman was stealing his commissary.

Appellant, in his first two points of error, complains that because the trial court refused to instruct the jury that he had a right to arm himself, it erred by sentencing him to ninety-nine years’ confinement with an affirmative finding that the dustpan was a “deadly weapon,” stacked upon his present sixty-year sentence. The Court of Criminal Appeals has consistently held that unless the trial court’s charge places some limitation upon the accused’s right of self-defense, such as by a charge on provoking the difficulty or otherwise, a charge on the right to carry arms is not necessary. On the other hand, if the trial court’s instruction limits the accused’s right of self-defense by a charge on provoking the difficulty, then the jury should be advised in a proper instruction under the facts that the accused’s right of self-defense would not necessarily be abridged by the fact that he carried arms to the scene of the difficulty if such instruction is supported by the evidence. Young v. State, 530 S.W.2d 120, 121-22 (Tex.Crim.App.1975).

In the instant case, the trial court did not charge on provoking the difficulty, but it did give the following instruction:

You are further instructed as part of the law of this case, and as a qualification of the law on self-defense, that the use of force by a defendant against another is not justified if in response to verbal provocation alone.

Appellant contends that because the charge contains this particular instruction, the charge was a limiting one, and that the instruction on the right to arm should have been given. We disagree. The trial court’s self-defense charge was not limited in its general language. The self-defense charge was as full and broad a charge as is permitted by the present law on self-defense. Moreover, the self-defense charge was not limited in its application of the law to the specific facts. Appellant’s theory of self-defense, so far as it was raised by the evidence, was presented without limitation in the charge.

Furthermore, we note that the complained of instruction is a copy, in part, of Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 9.31(b)(1) (Vernon 1974), which provides that the use of force against another is not justified in response to verbal provocation alone. In Barkley v. State, 214 S.W.2d 287, 291 (Tex.Crim.App.1948), the defendant complained that the trial court erred by declining to submit his special requested charge to the effect that if the deceased had threatened to take defendant’s life, he would have a right under the law to arm himself for the purpose of protecting his life. The Court of Criminal Appeals stated in Barkley that the trial court gave a charge on the law of self-defense without any limitations whatever; therefore, the trial court did not have to submit defendant’s special requested charge on the subject.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Willie Hernandez v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Matthew Hinojosa v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Russell Scott Rogers v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Jesus Guerrero v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
James O. Brown v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Aaron Chandler Gaston v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Johnny Lee Evans, Sr. v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2022
Orlando Amaro v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Kaylon Doby v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Allen Byrd v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
David Nino v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Justin Jones v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Amado Roberto Sanchez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Johnny Joe Plazola v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Brian Evans v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
William Kennihan v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
Leslie Howard Barnhart v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Donovan Farr v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Rashad Rudolph v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
777 S.W.2d 474, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 2270, 1989 WL 99871, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/quintana-v-state-texapp-1989.