Reyes v. State

491 S.W.3d 36, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2655, 2016 WL 1043341
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 15, 2016
DocketNO. 14-14-01002-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 491 S.W.3d 36 (Reyes 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
Reyes v. State, 491 S.W.3d 36, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2655, 2016 WL 1043341 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Ken Wise, Justice

Appellant Jose Reyes was convicted of capital murder and sentenced "to automatic life in prison. On appeal, appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the murder in the course, of committing kidnapping or aggravated sexual assault. He also contends that the trial court erred by admitting gruesome crime scene and autopsy photographs and a crime-scene video. We affirm.

Factual BackgRound

On February 4, 2014, fifteen-year-old Corriann Cervantes skipped school. When Corriann’s father found out, he grounded her and told her to stay in her room for the rest of the day. Corriann became angry and left home after her father went to buy groceries. Corriann was wearing a “Rob Zombie” t-shirt the last time her father saw her. ■

Corriann went to meet her friend Randy Hurtado in a parking lot close to the apartment building where she lived. She and Randy then went to a nearby apartment complex so that Randy could buy a Xanax pill. Randy took the pill, and he and Corriann smoked marijuana together.

Corriann and Randy later met Victor Alas and his cousin Franklin Flores in the parking lot. The teens obtained more Xa-nax pills, but Randy refused to give Cor-riann any because he did not want her to get “all messed up.” Around 4:00 or 5:00 p.m., however, Randy eventually agreed to give Corriann half of a pill. Then, around 5:00 or 6:00.p.m., the teens smoked more marijuana. Because it had gotten cold, they decided to go to the apartment of a woman they knew as Candy.1

Candy was a middle-aged woman who lived in the nearby Bays Apartments complex. Candy sometimes allowed teenagers to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol in her apartment. When the teens arrived, they continued smoking marijuana, and Candy joined them. Candy also offered them hard liquor. Randy saw Victor drinking liquor, and although he did not see it, Corriann might have had some. Candy thought that everyone drank that night, and they were all drunk, but Cor-riann had the most to drink. Candy agreed to let Corriann spend the night at Candy’s apartment because Corriann claimed that her father would lock her out.

The teens remained at Candy’s until around 9:00 p.m., when appellant, an acquaintance of the teens, showed up looking angry and demanding to see Corriann. By that time, Corriann was asleep in a bedroom because she was “pretty messed up.” Randy had seen her “stumbling” an hour earlier. Appellant and Victor went to the bedroom to find Corriann. Not long after [39]*39that, Randy left Candy’s apartment because his mother had come to get him. Before Randy left, however, he told Victor to take Corriann home because she lived nearby.

Candy became upset, that the boys were in her bedroom, and she asked them to leave so that she and Corriann could go to sleep. But Corriann said that she wanted to go to her friend Jocelyn’s apartment, which was in Candy’s complex. Candy asked Corriann if she was sure, and Cor-riann said that she was. Candy did not want Corriann. to go alone because she was drunk, so Victor and the others offered to take Corriann. to Jocelyn’s apartment. Candy watched as appellant and Victor helped Corriann down the stairs; Franklin left with them.

Franklin later testified that he had known Corriann for about a year and considered her a friend. Franklin explained that on February 4, 2014, he, Corriann, Randy, and Victor went to the apartment of an older woman where they smoked marijuana and drank liquor for about an hour and a half. He knew Corriann drank the liquor and smoked marijuana with the others. Corriann looked “tired, [and] lost” and “had already had a few too many.” He saw Corriann lie down on the sofa when the woman “told her it was best for her to go to bed.”

After Corriann went to the bedroom, appellant .arrived and said that he was looking for her. Appellant went into the bedroom where Corriann and Victor were. Shortly after that, the three came out of the bedroom, and appellant and Victor were helping Corriann because she kept falling. Franklin thought they were going to take Corriann home, but they took her someplace else.

Appellant and Victor took Corriann to a vacant apartment in the same complex. The apartment had no electricity and was very dark. Victor and appellant had to help Corriann up- the stairs to the vacant apartment because she could not walk very well. The apartment was two stories inside, and on the second floor of the complex.

Once inside the apartment, Franklin, Corriann, Victor, and appellant went into the downstairs closet, and Franklin thought they were going to smoke marijuana. After about thirty seconds, he came back out because he realized that they were going to do something else. Franklin left the apartment, leaving appellant, Victor, and Corriann in the closet.

Franklin went home and went to sleep in the bedroom he shared with Victor. Later that night, .appellant and Victor came in through the bedroom window and the noise woke up Franklin. They spoke briefly, and Franklin said appellant had to leave. Appellant appeared angry, but he left, and Franklin stayed up to talk with Victor for a while.

Arturo Flores had known Corriann for several months and considered her a friend. He spent time with her weekly because her apartment complex was across the street from the Bays Apartments where he lived. Arturo had known appellant for a long time, and he had shown appellant the vacant apartment at the Bays where. Arturo sometimes smoked marijuana. Arturo also went'to Candy’s with' Corriann and appellant, but not in February, and never when Victor was present.

On February 9, around 2:00 a.m., Arturo found that he could not sleep. He rolled a joint, and he decided to go smoke it in the vacant apartment he had shown to appellant. Arturo usually smoked on the upper floor inside the apartment, When he arrived, he went in through the front door, which was closed and unlocked. ■

[40]*40Arturo turned around after he closed the door and he immediately saw a body on the floor in the living room. The body was so damaged that Arturo did not recognize it as his friend Corriann; he thought it was the body of an older woman. Her right eye was particularly damaged. Arturo thought that she was dead. He got scared and he ran to the apartment of two brothers he knew who lived in the complex.

The two men worked as IT engineers and their job kept them up late at night. Arturo knocked on their door around 4:00 a.m., appearing scared and distraught. Arturo repeatedly told them that he badly needed their assistance, and he kept saying “[s]he’s hurt bad” and “she needs help.” One of the men was ex-military and the other had some CPR training, so they went to help.

Arturo led them to the vacant apartment, and when they arrived, Arturo stayed outside, still visibly upset. The apartment had no electricity and no lights, and was very cold inside. One brother used a small flashlight to illuminate part of the living room. Inside, he saw a woman on the floor, but she did not move or respond to his verbal commands. He went into the apartment to see if she had a pulse.

When the man approached, he saw that “[s]he didn’t have a face[,]” there was “broken porcelain everywhere from the toilet tank lid[,] and “blood on the walls.” He started to check for a pulse, but she was ice cold, so he backed out of the apartment and called 9-1-1.

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

Related

Derris Lee Reynolds v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
David Malcom Strickland v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2020
Brittin Robinson v. State
568 S.W.3d 718 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019)
Victor Manuel Alas v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
491 S.W.3d 36, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2655, 2016 WL 1043341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reyes-v-state-texapp-2016.