Raymond Joseph Fierro v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 22, 2007·No. 03-05-00266-CR·Published

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-05-00266-CR

Raymond Joseph Fierro, Appellant v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF COMAL COUNTY, 22ND JUDICIAL DISTRICT NO. CR2004-225, HONORABLE JACK H. ROBISON, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

A jury convicted appellant Raymond Joseph Fierro of two counts of injury to a child and one count of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.04(a)(1), (3) (West 2003). The jury assessed punishment at 10 years’ confinement for the first and second counts and 75 years’ confinement for the third. In five issues on appeal, Fierro contests the factual sufficiency of the evidence and alleges two evidentiary errors. We will affirm the district court’s judgment.

BACKGROUND

The jury heard evidence that on or around January 9 and January 12, 2004, Fierro injured eight-year-old C.M., the son of Fierro’s girlfriend, Michelle May. The jury also heard

evidence that the January 9 incident resulted in serious injury to C.M.’s genital area and that both Fierro and May participated in the January 12 incident.1 The State called several witnesses to testify, including the victim, C.M.;

Esmeralda Aleman, Vanessa Vargas, and Ricardo Garza, eyewitnesses to the alleged beating on January 12; and registered nurse Blanca Neaves and urologist Dr. James Mansel Harris, both of whom examined C.M.’s injuries.

Aleman testified that as she was driving past Fierro’s house on the evening of January 12, she observed what she first thought were a man and a woman “beating up a dog.” Upon closer examination, she realized that the people were beating a child. Aleman explained that the man was holding the child in a “headlock” and “had the child’s head in between his legs . . . while the lady was spanking the child” with a belt. Aleman further testified that the “spanking” looked “vicious” and more like a “whipping,” so she decided to call 911 from a convenience store.

Vargas was Fierro’s next-door neighbor and also witnessed the January 12 incident.

Vargas testified that she heard some sort of “slapping” sound while inside her house and decided to go outside to investigate. Once outside, she observed “[C.M.] getting whipped with a belt” by May while Fierro held C.M. between his legs. When the State asked Vargas if Fierro at any point stopped or prevented May from beating C.M., Vargas testified, “He didn’t. He just let it happen.” According to Vargas, at one point C.M. fell down, Fierro “picked him up,” and May continued hitting C.M. As a result of what she saw, Vargas called 911.

1 May was named as a co-defendant in Fierro’s indictment.

Vargas’s husband, Ricardo Garza, also testified to observing the January 12 incident.

Additionally, Garza also testified that on the night of January 9, he walked over to Fierro’s house to borrow some DVDs. Garza recounted that as he approached the house he saw C.M. standing naked on the porch. Garza testified that C.M. was crying and holding his genitals. C.M. told Garza that Fierro had hit him “because [he] told a lie.” When C.M. moved his hands away from his genital area, Garza noticed that C.M.’s genitals were bleeding and “tearing.” Garza testified that at this point Fierro came outside, handed C.M. some clothing, and told him to go inside. When Garza asked Fierro what was going on, Fierro replied, “Nothing,” and went back inside. Two days later, Garza confronted Fierro about the incident, told him that he had seen blood, and asked him what was wrong with C.M. Fierro responded, “It was from playing football.” Garza testified that Fierro said nothing else about the incident.

Officer David Schroeder was one of the police officers who responded to the 911 calls placed by Aleman and Vargas on January 12. Schroeder testified that when he entered Fierro’s house with another officer, he located C.M. in the back bedroom. Schroeder explained that when C.M. saw the officers, C.M. ran to the other officer and “grabbed him in a desperate hug.” Schroeder testified that C.M. appeared scared and nervous. When Schroeder asked C.M. to pull down his pants so that he could investigate the reported beating, Schroder noticed that C.M.’s backside was “bruised all over” and that C.M.’s penis was clearly “ripped or cut.” Schroeder testified that when he asked C.M. what had happened, C.M. told him that “Raymond pulled his foreskin.”

C.M. testified and identified Fierro as the man who hurt his “private area.” C.M.

testified that Fierro grabbed and pulled his “area” really hard with two fingers, and that this caused

his “area” to bleed. C.M. testified that this happened outside on Fierro’s front porch when C.M. was naked. C.M. also explained that after Fierro hurt him he was sent inside to take a bath and then was sent back outside to stay in a doghouse. C.M. explained that this was the only time his “area” had been hurt and that no one else had ever hurt him there. C.M. further testified that on some night prior to January 12, Fierro spanked him using a belt with metal studs on it.

C.M. also recounted a night after this incident in which Fierro tied his arms and legs to C.M.’s bed, approached C.M. with a “little steak knife,” and told him, “If you don’t go to sleep I’m going to cut your area off.”

Finally, C.M. testified that on the night the police arrived, he was taken to the hospital where he had to “get surgery on [his] private area.” He testified that he needed to have stitches and that there was still scarring in the area.

Registered nurse Blanca Neaves worked in the emergency room on the night that C.M. was brought to the hospital by the police. Neaves observed bruising on C.M.’s head, chest, and upper back, and she noticed that “his lower back and buttocks were just black and blue.” Neaves also testified that, based on the coloring of the bruises, some of the bruising looked new while some of it looked old: “There were red areas. There were purple areas. There were black areas. There were some that were fading, that were green, yellowish, which is the normal color process with skin that has been bruised and then is healing.” When Neaves asked C.M. how he had received those injuries on his back, C.M. told her that “his mother had hit him with a belt.”

When Neaves observed the injury to C.M.’s genitals, she asked him what had happened. According to Neaves, C.M. told her that “Ray tugged at [his] privates. Ray just yanked

it. He’s always yanking it.” When asked to describe the condition of C.M.’s genitals, Neaves explained, “He had a partial degloving of the penis, which indicates that there was a tear of the skin all the way around.” Neaves also explained that “degloving” means that “the skin has partially slid down the shaft of the penis.” Neaves testified that in her 27 years of nursing, she had never seen this type of injury.

Dr. James Mansel Harris, a urologist, was contacted by the emergency room physician on the night that C.M. was brought to the hospital. Harris was called in to consult on C.M.’s injury and arrived at the hospital on the morning of January 13. Harris examined C.M. at the hospital and testified that C.M. had a circumferential avulsion or tear around the shaft of his penis, bruises along the length of the penile skin, and bruising tracking down his scrotum. Pictures of the injury to C.M.’s genital area were admitted into evidence. Harris explained that based on the appearance of the wound, bruising, and scabbing present, the injury had probably occurred approximately four days earlier, on January 9. Harris testified that, based on the amount of force required to cause the injury, the injury could not have been accidental or the result of a fall. Harris also testified that the injury could not have been caused by someone swinging a belt at C.M. Harris explained, however, that “one really hard yank” could cause the injury. Harris further testified that the injury, if left untreated or improperly treated, could have caused gangrene or even death.

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