Reno v. State

649 S.W.2d 322, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4045
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 24, 1983
DocketNo. 12-81-0105-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 649 S.W.2d 322 (Reno 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
Reno v. State, 649 S.W.2d 322, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4045 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

COLLEY, Justice.

Appellant was convicted by a jury of aggravated rape, and the jury assessed punishment at life.

Appellant argues four grounds of .error in his brief.

In grounds numbers 1 and 2 appellant claims reversible error was committed by the trial court: (1) in admitting evidence of pursuit by police vehicles of the vehicle which appellant was driving immediately prior to his arrest for the offense of which he was convicted herein; and (2) in admitting evidence of the wounding (shooting) of a pursuing police officer subsequent to the commission of the offense. The thrust of appellant’s argument under these grounds seems to be that the “chase” or pursuit by the officers of the appellant on the occasion was “... too remote in [sic] both time and distance from the scene.... ” and that no distinguishing characteristics of the chase and shooting and the rape are shown as to render evidence of such extraneous offenses admissible as to the identity of the appellant. Appellant relies on Carpenter v. State, 596 S.W.2d 115 (Tex.Cr.App.1980); Pirkle v. State, 592 S.W.2d 642 (Tex.Cr.App.1980) (unpublished opinion); Cameron v. State, 530 S.W.2d 841 (Tex.Cr.App.1975); and Ford v. State, 484 S.W.2d 727 (Tex.Cr.App.1972).

The State’s reply to the argument of appellant is that the appellant was in flight from the location in Houston where he and another white male, acting together, brutally raped and then shot and abandoned the prosecutrix, and therefore evidence showing police pursuit and capture of appellant, as well as all of the circumstances surrounding the same, were admissible. We agree.

The facts reflected by the record pertinent to our disposition of the first two grounds are these:

The prosecutrix, a sixteen-year-old his-panic female, was seized by appellant and another adult male at about 11:00 p.m. on the night of October 9, 1979, near her place of residence. She was raped and sexually abused by both assailants and finally shot with a 12-gauge shotgun in the left knee before she was abandoned nude and bleeding at a location on South Gessner Street in Houston, Texas. She was found by an off-duty police officer and immediately transported to Twelve Oaks Hospital by ambulance. Between 1:10 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. of the next day, October 10, 1979, police officers, who presumably had received radio calls to be on the lookout for a silver/gray Honda Civic automobile, spotted the appellant driving a similar vehicle and began pursuit when the appellant accelerated his vehicle after he observed the police cars. The police vehicle nearest to appellant attempted to curb appellant’s vehicle, at which time a shot was fired from the appellant’s automobile wounding the police offi[324]*324cer, Mathew Stanich, in the back. Stanich then abandoned the pursuit and police officers, T.S. Lindabury and his partner, B.L. Brooks, took up the chase which terminated when appellant wrecked his vehicle in a yard near the intersection of Plumb and Wakeforest Streets in Houston. Appellant ran from his wrecked vehicle but was captured by Officer Brooks in a flower bed in a yard of a home near the crash scene. A pistol was found in the flower bed, barrel down in the dirt. The officers had seen a shotgun being thrown from the vehicle at the time of its crash and recovered it in a yard near the crash scene.

Appellant was positively identified by the prosecutrix as one of the two men who abducted, raped and shot her. One of her shoes was found outside the wrecked Honda car and the other was found in the trunk of the Honda car following a search of the vehicle by the written consent of the appellant. All of her clothing had been removed by the appellant and the other male during the course of their assaultive conduct against her. The appellant testified at the punishment phase of the trial, admitting he recalled his acts on the night of the rape.

Under this record, appellant’s guilt is established beyond all doubt. The record also clearly demonstrates that he and his confederate were in full flight from the authorities when the police pursuit of his vehicle was initiated by Officer Stanich.

The authorities cited by appellant, i.e., Carpenter, Ford and Cameron are not in point. None of those cases involved facts showing flight of an accused or any attempt by an accused to escape arrest and capture by police officers. Pirkle cited by appellant has no precedential value since the opinion therein was not published. Rule 308, Rules of Post Trial and Appellate Procedure in Criminal Cases.

Flight by an accused is a circumstance from which guilt may be inferred. It tends to show guilty conscience, and evidence of flight is always admissible, as well as all other circumstances showing pursuit and efforts to capture. Thames v. State, 453 S.W.2d 495 (Tex.Cr.App.1970); Cawley v. State, 166 Tex.Cr.R. 37, 310 S.W.2d 340 (Tex.Cr.App.1957). Evidence showing flight may include a showing that the fugitive was armed. Churchill v. State, 167 Tex.Cr.R. 26, 317 S.W.2d 541 (Tex.Cr.App.1958). It is also clear that the fact that extraneous offenses are shown which are closely related to and committed by the fugitive during the course of the flight does not render such evidence inadmissible; that is, evidence of flight and of the extraneous offenses. Thames v. State, supra.

Time lapse between the date of the commission of the offense and the flight does not affect the admissibility of the evidence of flight. Martinez v. State, 140 Tex.Cr.R. 159, 140 S.W.2d 187 (Tex.Crim.App.1940); Thames v. State, supra.

Parenthetically, we note that the record shows that appellant’s objections to the police pursuit were not timely made, perhaps with the exception that timely objection was made by appellant regarding the shooting of the officer Stanich during the course of the flight. But in all events, we find that the trial court properly admitted the testimony of Officers Stanich, Lin-dabury and Brooks relating to the police pursuit of the appellant in flight; the wounding of Stanich and the ultimate capture and arrest of the appellant and the weapons in his possession during his flight, and all facts as hereinabove summarized in this opinion that are shown by the record in this case. We are of the opinion that the trial court did not abuse his discretion in admitting such facts into evidence. Arivette v. State, 513 S.W.2d 857 (Tex.Cr.App.1974). Appellant’s grounds 1 and 2 are overruled.

Appellant, in grounds 3 and 4, complains that the trial court improperly permitted Bernadette Fiala and her husband, Donald Fiala, to testify at the punishment phase that appellant’s reputation for being a peaceful and lawabiding citizen was bad. Because of the general nature of the ground, resort was necessarily had to the statements and arguments set forth in appellant’s brief under this ground so that the [325]

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Bluebook (online)
649 S.W.2d 322, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4045, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reno-v-state-texapp-1983.