Richard Morgan v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 14, 2009·No. 02-07-00375-CR·Published

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS

SECOND DISTRICT OF TEXAS

FORT WORTH

NOS. 2-07-375-CR

2-07-376-CR

RICHARD MORGAN APPELLANT V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS STATE ------------

FROM CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT NO. 4 OF TARRANT COUNTY ------------

MEMORANDUM OPINION 1

------------

I. Introduction In four points, Appellant Richard Morgan makes a confrontation clause challenge under both the United States and Texas Constitutions to evidence excluded under Texas Rule of Evidence 412 (the “rape shield law”). He also challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of evidence to support his

1 … See Tex. R. App. P. 47.4.

conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than fourteen years of age. We affirm. II. Factual and procedural history A grand jury indicted Appellant for two counts of indecency with a child and five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. The complainant is K.W., who was thirteen years old at the time of the alleged offenses. Appellant pleaded not guilty, and the case was tried to a jury.

Arlington Police Officer Mary Almy, assigned to the juvenile unit, testified that she received initial information about K.W. on December 11, 2006, that K.W. was thirteen years old, and that she was to be interviewed the next day, December 12. A CPS investigator interviewed K.W. on December 12; Officer Almy observed the interview from a monitor hooked to a two-way closed circuit television. Police had a description of a suspect by that time, a picture of Appellant provided by K.W.’s grandmother, and Appellant’s last name. In the interview, K.W. denied any type of sexual contact with Appellant to the CPS investigator. K.W. also denied any sexual conduct with Appellant to Officer Almy and other police officers.

At a second interview with the same CPS investigator the following day, Officer Almy observed that K.W. admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with the suspect, who by then had been identified as Appellant. The officers

referred K.W. to Cook Children’s Medical Center for a CARE team examination. Crystal Utley, a former college-level pediatric nursing teacher and member of the Cook Children’s CARE team, performed the exam. She testified that K.W. provided a history of recent sexual activity involving vaginal, anal, and oral intercourse. Utley’s visual exam was consistent with the sexual activity described by K.W. She found a healed transection of the hymen, meaning it was a complete tear all the way to the base. But she stated that it was not possible to date the tear since healing occurs quickly, and the tear could have occurred up to a year before the exam. She found no evidence of trauma of the anus or vagina. But she explained that an anal exam may be normal even after penetration.

K.W. testified that she met Appellant in the fall of 2006 while living with her grandmother in an Arlington condominium. Appellant, a maintenance worker at the complex, had seen K.W. around the complex and initiated conversation with K.W. by asking for her name. K.W. stated that Appellant later left a note on the passenger door of her family’s truck, asking for her phone number; she wrote her number down and gave it to Appellant while he waited outside. K.W. testified that she talked to him that evening and revealed her age to Appellant and his nephew P.J. during the conversation. K.W.

testified that Appellant responded that “age didn’t matter and that he knew [she] was 13 and it was okay.”

K.W. testified that she and Appellant first arranged to see each other when K.W. was spending the night at a friend’s apartment. K.W. gave Appellant directions to her friend’s apartment, told the friend she was meeting her brother, and walked over to Appellant’s truck, which by then was parked inside the apartment complex. K.W. stated that the two kissed inside the truck and that Appellant touched her breasts with his hands and mouth. K.W. testified that he “might have touched [her] vagina” but it was “over [her] pants.” She testified this incident lasted about thirty minutes. She stated that “kissing and touching” occurred in Appellant’s maroon car multiple times in parking areas around the condominium complex.

K.W. testified that the next meeting between K.W. and Appellant occurred when Appellant picked K.W. up again in the maroon car and drove off the condominium complex to an apartment complex. K.W. testified that Appellant asked her if she “wanted to get in the back seat” and she said “yes.” K.W. stated that she took off her clothes, they had sex, i.e., vaginal intercourse, and Appellant performed oral sex on her.

K.W. related details of her next encounter with Appellant at a motel in Arlington with pink doors and palm trees on the signs. K.W. recalled that it

was Appellant’s idea to go there. The two had vaginal intercourse at the motel while pornography, paid for by Appellant, played on the television. For their next encounter, K.W. testified that Appellant picked her up at her junior high school at 9:00 a.m. and drove her to a yellow house in Fort Worth, where he said he lived with his girlfriend. K.W. described the dogs that were in the house. While there, Appellant and K.W. had vaginal intercourse, and each performed oral sex on the other. K.W. testified that Appellant had previously given her a pornographic videotape depicting fellatio in order to teach K.W. to perform it. K.W. also testified that anal intercourse occurred while they were at this house and that it was painful for her. K.W. stated that she had to crawl out the window when others arrived at the house and had to jump over a chainlink fence. Appellant allegedly helped her over the fence to get to the car. K.W. testified that Appellant told her to tell people that she was “his little sister” if she were ever questioned about why they were together.

The last encounter between K.W. and Appellant occurred in December 2006, when Appellant threw something at K.W.’s window late at night and told her that he would come back and pick her up. He picked her up at around 2:00 a.m. in a black truck and suggested she bring blankets. Appellant brought his nephew P.J., and the three went to an elementary school. Appellant told P.J. to park the car while he and K.W. went over to an area near the exterior of the

school and engaged in vaginal intercourse on the blankets under an awning over a sidewalk.

When they returned to the condominiums, K.W. saw her grandmother outside waiting for her; Appellant let K.W. out of the car away from her condominium. K.W. testified that her grandmother was upset and crying and that she had called the police. K.W. stated that she did not tell her grandmother or the police the “truth” about any sexual conduct at that time. She told her grandmother a story that she made up—that she had been with a guy named Eric.

K.W. testified that police officers took her to the Arlington Police Department where a CPS worker named Emily Jamada interviewed her. K.W. confirmed that she told Jamada “nothing happened.” K.W. did not know Appellant’s first name at that time; she assumed it was “Amber” because she had seen that name tattooed on one of Appellant’s arms and “Morgan” on the other. The police obtained a photograph of Appellant that her grandmother found hidden behind her dresser, as well as K.W.’s cell phone containing voicemail messages from Appellant.

K.W. stated that she later talked with her brother, who was twenty years old and “very understanding,” and that she told him what had really happened with Appellant. She then told her grandmother about the sexual nature of the

relationship before returning to the police department to again speak with Jamada. K.W. testified that she told Jamada details about instances of sexual conduct with Appellant at that time. With Officer Almy, she viewed a photo lineup and picked out Appellant’s photo.

The police had K.W. “text” Appellant, who returned her call the next day.

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