Ricky Moreno v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 5, 2020
Docket05-18-00271-CR
StatusPublished

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Bluebook
Ricky Moreno v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

Modify and Affirm; Opinion Filed October 5, 2020

In The Court of Appeals Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-18-00271-CR

RICKY MORENO, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 283rd Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. F17-00878-T

MEMORANDUM OPINION ON REMAND Before Chief Justice Burns, Justice Myers, and Justice Molberg Opinion by Justice Myers A jury convicted appellant Ricky Moreno of aggravated kidnapping and

assessed punishment at 45 years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Appellant

brought ten issues, arguing the evidence was (1) legally and (2) factually insufficient

to support the jury’s rejection of his affirmative defense of duress; (3) the evidence

was legally insufficient to support the jury’s rejection of his justification defense of

necessity; (4) the trial court improperly instructed the jury on the law of parties; (5)

the trial court erred in admitting video evidence; (6), (7), and (8) the trial court erred

in excluding from the guilt–innocence phase testimony from, respectively, Dr. Lisa

Clayton, Dr. Michael Pittman, and Detective Michael Yeric showing appellant suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD; (9) the trial court erred in

denying appellant’s pretrial motion to suppress; and (10) the sentence was

disproportionate to appellant’s conduct during the offense and punishments received

by other bystanders. The State also brought a cross-point seeking modification of

the judgment.

We reversed and remanded, concluding that evidence regarding PTSD was

relevant to showing duress. The Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed, reversing and

remanding the case for us to resolve issues—appellant’s issues (2), (4), (5), and

(10)—that were not addressed in our original opinion. See Moreno v. State, 586

S.W.3d 472 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2019), reversed, __ S.W.3d ___, No. PD-1044-19,

2020 WL 3265252, at *3 (Tex. Crim. App. June 17, 2020). Having now done so,

we affirm the trial court’s judgment as modified.

DISCUSSION

Issue 2: Factual Sufficiency

In his second issue, appellant contends the evidence is factually insufficient

to support the jury’s rejection of appellant’s affirmative defense of duress.1

Unlike criminal convictions that are only subject to legal sufficiency review,

we may review a finding rejecting an affirmative defense for both legal and factual

sufficiency. Butcher v. State, 454 S.W.3d 13, 20 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015); Matlock

1 Appellant also argued the evidence was legally insufficient to support the jury’s rejection of his affirmative defense of duress, a claim we addressed in our previous opinion. –2– v. State, 392 S.W.3d 662, 668–70 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). In a factual sufficiency

review of a finding rejecting an affirmative defense, we view the entirety of the

evidence in a neutral light, but do not usurp the function of the jury by substituting

our own judgment in place of the jury’s assessment of the weight and credibility of

the witnesses’ testimony. Matlock v. State, 392 S.W.3d 662, 671 (Tex. Crim. App.

2013). We may sustain a defendant’s factual sufficiency claim only if we determine

that the verdict is so against the great weight of the evidence as to be manifestly

unjust, conscience-shocking, or clearly biased. Id. When addressing a factual

sufficiency challenge, we defer to the jury’s determination of the credibility of the

witnesses and the weight to give the evidence. Smith v. State, 355 S.W.3d 138, 148

(Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2011, pet. ref’d); Cleveland v. State, 177 S.W.3d

374, 388–89 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2005, pet. ref’d).

To establish the affirmative defense of duress, a defendant must prove by a

preponderance of the evidence that he committed the offense because he was

compelled to do so by threat of imminent death or serious bodily injury to himself

or another. TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 8.05(a). Compulsion “exists only if the force

or threat of force would render a person of reasonable firmness incapable of resisting

the pressure.” Id. § 8.05(c); Edwards v. State, 106 S.W.3d 833, 843 (Tex. App.––

Dallas 2003, pet. ref’d). “‘Imminent’ means something that is immediate, something

that is going to happen now.” Murkledove v. State, 437 S.W.3d 17, 25 (Tex. App.—

Fort Worth 2014, pet. dism’d, untimely filed) (citing Dewalt v. State, 307 S.W.3d

–3– 437, 454 (Tex. App.—Austin 2010, pet. ref’d)). “Harm is imminent when there is

an emergency situation and it is ‘immediately necessary’ to avoid that harm, in other

words, when a ‘split-second decision’ is required without time to consider the law.”

Id. (quoting Pennington v. State, 54 S.W.3d 852, 857 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2001,

pet. ref’d)). Imminence “has two components: (1) the person making the threat

must intend and be prepared to carry out the threat immediately, and (2) the threat

must be predicated on the threatened person’s failure to commit the charged offense

immediately.” Cormier v. State, 540 S.W.3d 185, 190 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st

Dist.] 2017, pet. ref’d) (citing Devine v. State, 786 S.W.2d 268, 270–71 (Tex. Crim.

App. 1989) and Anguish v. State, 991 S.W.2d 883, 886 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st

Dist.] 1999, pet. ref’d)); see also Ramirez v. State, 336 S.W.3d 846, 851 (Tex.

App.—Amarillo 2011, pet. ref’d).

Imminent harm must be shown by affirmative evidence. Darty v. State, 994

S.W.2d 215, 218–19 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1999, pet. ref’d). A threat of harm

at some indefinite time in the future is insufficient to satisfy the requirement of

imminence. Ramirez, 336 S.W.3d at 851–52; Anguish, 991 S.W.2d at 886. The

defense of duress is not available “if the actor intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly

placed himself in a situation in which it was probable that he would be subjected to

compulsion.” TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 8.05(d). Also, evidence of a generalized

fear of harm is not sufficient to raise the issue of imminent harm. Brazelton v. State,

947 S.W.2d 644, 648 (Tex. App.––Fort Worth 1997, no pet.). If undisputed facts

–4– indicate a complete absence of immediate necessity or imminent harm, then a

defendant’s sincere belief that his conduct is immediately necessary to avoid

imminent harm is unreasonable as a matter of law. Dewalt, 307 S.W.3d at 454.

As we discussed in our previous opinion, 2 appellant attempted to show he

participated in the charged offense under duress by pointing to evidence that Martin

Armijo threatened him and pointed a gun at him. The record showed that Armijo

had two handguns and an assault rifle in the garage where he tortured and killed

Jonathan Gutierrez. In addition, the jury heard Avigail Villanueva testify that

appellant seemed nervous when he picked her up at a gas station and drove her to

the garage. Appellant’s brother, Alex Moreno, testified that appellant looked scared

when he arrived at his house on July 1, 2016. Dallas homicide Detective Pedro

Trujillano testified that appellant became emotional during their July 1, 2016

interview, and both Trujillano and Detective Casey Shelton acknowledged that

appellant repeatedly said he was frightened during the incident.

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