Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided January 16, 2018·No. 05-16-00817-CR·Published

Opinion

AFFIRM; and Opinion Filed January 16, 2018.

In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-16-00817-CR

RAYNALDO RIVERA ORTIZ, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 4 Collin County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. 004-85328-2015

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Lang-Miers, Brown, and Boatright Opinion by Justice Brown

After his neighbor’s dog was shot, Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz was charged with the

misdemeanor offense of cruelty to a nonlivestock animal. A jury found appellant guilty. The trial court assessed appellant’s punishment at confinement for one year and a $4,000 fine, suspended the sentence, and placed appellant on community supervision for two years. In five issues, appellant contends (1) the evidence is legally insufficient to prove he committed the offense; (2) he was not given an opportunity to examine and object to the proposed jury charge; (3) the trial court erred in giving the jury an Allen charge; (4) the information was not correctly read to the jury; and (5) trial proceedings were void because the information was presented without a valid supporting affidavit. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE In his first issue, appellant contends the evidence is legally insufficient to prove he committed cruelty to a nonlivestock animal. The information alleged appellant “intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly caused bodily injury to an animal, to-wit: a dog by shooting the dog with a pellet gun, without the effective consent of Roxanne Bogdan, the owner.” See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 42.092(b)(6) (West Supp. 2017). Appellant maintains the evidence is insufficient to prove he was the person who shot Bogdan’s dog.

When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we consider all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether, based on that evidence and the reasonable inferences therefrom, a factfinder was rationally justified in finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Temple v. State, 390 S.W.3d 341, 360 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013); see Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318–19 (1979). Direct evidence and circumstantial evidence are equally probative. Tate v. State, 500 S.W.3d 410, 413 (Tex. Crim. App. 2016). The factfinder is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony. Temple, 390 S.W.3d at 360.

At trial, Bogdan testified that in April 2015, she lived in Murphy, Texas, and had lived there for about ten years. Appellant lived in the house next door, and he lived there when Bogdan moved in. Their backyards were separated by a wrought iron fence. For years Bogdan’s relationship with appellant was neighborly, but that changed at the end of 2014. On December 29, 2014, appellant and his then girlfriend, Sandy Abel, got in an argument. Bogdan was at appellant’s house at the time. The police were eventually called and appellant was arrested. Bogdan helped Abel move out of appellant’s house that night. In January 2015, Bogdan testified about that argument in a court proceeding for a protective order. In March 2015, appellant told Bogdan that

he blamed her for his split with Abel. The day prior to the shooting, Bogdan visited Abel at her home. While Bogdan was there, appellant called Abel to ask if he could have their son on appellant’s birthday the following day, and Abel put the call on speakerphone. Bogdan advised Abel to check her custody papers. After checking the papers, Abel told appellant he could not have their son. Bogdan heard appellant on the speaker, and he sounded angry.

The next afternoon, April 29, 2015, someone shot one of Bogdan’s three dogs. Bogdan heard the shot while she was in her bedroom and heard her dog scream. Right before she heard the shot, Bogdan heard appellant drive into his driveway. Bogdan testified she knew it was appellant because he usually comes home around that time, and the car she heard was a “very loud sports car.” Appellant has three or more Corvettes, and according to Bogdan, “it’s a very loud, distinctive roar when [appellant] comes home.” Appellant’s home had a circle driveway and more parking in the back on the other side of a porte-cochere that he could pull through. Bogdan testified that her bed “backs up” to appellant’s property. An overhead photograph of the neighborhood was admitted into evidence showing the proximity of appellant’s driveway to Bogdan’s house. Bogdan testified that she heard the shot less than fifteen minutes after she heard appellant’s car come into the driveway. She estimated she heard the shot at about 2:30 p.m. She then ran into her backyard and saw her dog’s chest covered in blood. Bogdan called a friend who came to take her and her dog to the animal hospital. The dog survived.

Bogdan immediately believed appellant shot her dog. She called 911 on the way to the animal hospital and reported that belief. Bogdan testified appellant shot rabbits in his own yard. The rabbits ran into Bogdan’s yard and died. Over the years, appellant had shot rabbits “a lot.” Bogdan did not know much about guns. She testified that the guns appellant used looked more like rifles than pellet guns. After Bogdan testified against appellant in January 2015, appellant was not allowed to have guns. The week before her dog was shot, Bogdan found a dead rabbit in

her yard. The rabbit looked like it had been shot with some kind of gun. When asked what side of her yard the rabbit was on, she indicated the rabbit was near appellant’s fence. Two photographs of guns were admitted into evidence. Bogdan identified one of the guns as appellant’s pellet gun. She also identified a picture of appellant with the gun. Bogdan did not have any arguments or disputes with other neighbors who lived near her. To her knowledge, none of the other families around her owned pellet guns.

On cross-examination, Bogdan testified that Abel took the guns with her when she left appellant’s house and Bogdan did not know if Abel still had them. Bogdan admitted she did not see appellant shoot her dog and did not see him with a pellet gun on April 29.

The veterinarian who treated Bogdan’s dog after the incident testified about the dog’s injuries. He identified pictures and X-rays that showed the pellet hole and the pellet in the dog’s chest.

Julie Stephens testified that appellant was her neighbor. She was familiar with the location of his house and the type of cars he drives. She testified that she saw one of appellant’s cars, a white Corvette, on the afternoon of April 29, 2015, when she was out walking her dog. Stephens estimated that she left her house at 2:14 p.m. and returned at about 2:33 p.m. The “roar of the car as it turned” first caught her attention. Stephens indicated the direction from which appellant’s car approached on an overhead image of the neighborhood. She saw the car pull into appellant’s driveway. She thought nothing of it at the time, but a detective contacted her later to ask for footage from her surveillance camera. A video taken by a camera above Stephens’s garage was admitted into evidence and showed to the jury. Stephens testified the video showed her walking and showed a white car driving past her. Based on numbers on the video, Stephens estimated that the car passed her at about 2:26 p.m. Stephens did not look inside the Corvette to see who was driving.

Jordan Abel, the daughter of appellant’s ex-girlfriend, had lived with appellant next to Bogdan for eight years. Jordan testified appellant mentioned wanting to shoot Bogdan’s dogs every time she was in the car with him and they drove up the driveway. Appellant would either say, “I’m going to shoot her dogs,” or “I want to shoot her dogs.” She estimated he said it “hundreds” of times. Jordan testified appellant made these comments because the dogs barked and it seemed he was annoyed with their barking. When appellant spoke of shooting the dogs, however, Jordan did not think he was going to shoot the dogs right then.

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