Richard Scott Teurman v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 25, 2002
Docket06-02-00043-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Richard Scott Teurman v. State (Richard Scott Teurman 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
Richard Scott Teurman v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion



In The

Court of Appeals

Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana



______________________________


No. 06-02-00043-CR
______________________________


RICHARD S. TEURMAN, Appellant


V.


THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee





On Appeal from the County Criminal Court No. 4
Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court No. MB00-25432-E





Before Morriss, C.J., Grant and Ross, JJ.
Opinion by Chief Justice Morriss


O P I N I O N


Richard S. Teurman appeals his conviction for driving while intoxicated. A jury found him guilty, and the trial court assessed punishment at 180 days in jail, probated for a period of two years. The trial court also imposed a fine of $1,250.00. In several points of error, Teurman contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress and in refusing his requested jury instructions. Teurman also contends he is entitled to a new trial because the reporter's record is incomplete. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Although the sufficiency of the evidence is not at issue, we provide the following summary of the proof as a context for our review. On the evening of August 2, 2000, tow-truck driver Michael P. Barnes called the Garland Police Department to report a suspected intoxicated driver. Earlier that evening, Teurman drove his large white 4x4 truck and ski boat in front of Barnes's place of employment. Teurman parked so that his truck and boat blocked both the entrance and the exit of the tow-truck business. Barnes testified he watched Teurman remove a beer from a cooler in the boat and walk back toward Teurman's truck. Shortly thereafter Teurman vomited beside his truck. Barnes also saw Teurman urinating in the parking lot.

Approximately forty-five minutes later, Barnes confronted Teurman, who smelled strongly of alcohol, about moving Teurman's truck out of the parking lot. Eventually, Teurman complied with Barnes's request. After moving his vehicle, Teurman threw an empty beer can from his truck to the ground and retrieved another beer from his cooler. Teurman eventually left the area - ski boat in tow - nearly colliding with another car as he did. According to Barnes, who then followed the truck, Teurman "couldn't hold a single lane and ran one car onto a side street."

As Barnes drove behind Teurman, Barnes saw Teurman run another car off the road into a yard. Barnes then called police. Barnes gave Teurman's location and direction of travel  to  the  9-1-1  dispatcher  and   also  gave  a  description  of  the  vehicle. Soon thereafter, J. L. Mohler of the Garland Police Department intercepted Teurman. Officer Mohler observed Teurman change from the left lane of traffic to the right lane of traffic, then back to the left lane of traffic, without signaling. Officer Mohler then stopped Teurman's vehicle.

A. Motion To Suppress.

1. Standard of Review.

In his first point of error, Teurman contends Officer Mohler lacked probable cause to stop Teurman's truck. A trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Oles v. State, 993 S.W.2d 103, 106 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999). In a suppression hearing, the trial court is the sole trier of fact, judge of witness credibility, and arbiter of the weight to be given to testimony. Green v. State, 934 S.W.2d 92, 98 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996). We examine the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court's ruling, State v. Ballard, 987 S.W.2d 889, 891 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999), and afford almost total deference to the trial court's determination of historical facts that the record supports, especially when the fact findings are based on an evaluation of the witnesses' credibility and demeanor. State v. Ross, 32 S.W.3d 853, 856 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000); Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 89 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997). We review de novo the court's application of the law of search and seizure to those facts. Ross, 32 S.W.3d at 856. As no findings of fact or conclusions of law were filed, we will assume that the trial court made implicit findings of fact that support its ruling as long as those findings are supported by the record. If the trial court's decision is correct on any theory of law applicable to the case, we will affirm the decision. Id. at 855-56.

2. The Terry Framework.

Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), provides the framework for our inquiry into this traffic stop. The question in Terry was whether it is always unreasonable for a peace officer to seize a person and subject him to a limited search unless there is probable cause for an arrest. Id. at 15. The Court held that even though a "stop" and "frisk" is a search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment, Id. at 16-17, such actions by peace officers could be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The Court adopted a two-part inquiry to determine the reasonableness of such an investigative detention: (1) whether the officer's action is justified at its inception and (2) whether it is reasonably related in scope to the circumstances that justify the initial interference. Id. at 19-20. In this case, Teurman does not contest the scope of the detention; we will therefore focus our review only on the initial justification for the traffic stop.

3. Initial Justification for Stop.

Under the test's first part, "the police officer must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion." Id. at 21. In assessing whether the intrusion was reasonable, an objective standard is used. The question is whether the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure or search would cause a person of reasonable caution to believe the action taken was appropriate. Id. at 21-22. "The officer must have a reasonable suspicion that some activity out of the ordinary is occurring or has occurred, some suggestion to connect the detained person with the unusual activity, and some indication the activity is related to a crime." State v. Sailo

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Related

Terry v. Ohio
392 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Alabama v. White
496 U.S. 325 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Smith v. State
65 S.W.3d 332 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2001)
State v. Ballard
987 S.W.2d 889 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1999)
State v. Sailo
910 S.W.2d 184 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1996)
Green v. State
934 S.W.2d 92 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1996)
Balentine v. State
71 S.W.3d 763 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Oles v. State
993 S.W.2d 103 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1999)
Holmes v. State
962 S.W.2d 663 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1998)
Johnson v. State
658 S.W.2d 623 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1983)
State v. Ross
32 S.W.3d 853 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Vrba v. State
69 S.W.3d 713 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Guzman v. State
955 S.W.2d 85 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)

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