Robuck v. State

40 S.W.3d 650, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 951, 2001 WL 120003
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 14, 2001
Docket04-97-00239-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 40 S.W.3d 650 (Robuck 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
Robuck v. State, 40 S.W.3d 650, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 951, 2001 WL 120003 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

PRESTON H. DIAL, Justice (Assigned).

This case is on remand from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Michael Ro-buck (“Robuck”) appeals the trial court’s order, deferring his adjudication for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and placing him on community supervision. Ro-buck raises five points of error directed at the trial court’s ruling on his pre-trial motion to suppress. Robuck sought to suppress the marijuana seized from a drawer in the bedroom of his home.2 We reverse the trial court’s judgment and render judgment acquitting Robuck of the charges pending against him.

Procedural History of Appeal

On original submission, this court reversed the trial court’s judgment based on the application of the Helms3 rule and its corollary. Robuck v. State, 974 S.W.2d 287 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1998), vacated, 21 S.W.3d 300 (Tex.Crim.App.2000). We held, “Because Robuck entered his plea based on his understanding that he could appeal the trial court’s ruling on his motion to suppress, a misunderstanding shared by his attorney and the trial court, his plea was not entered voluntarily.” Id. at 289. Accordingly, we reversed the trial court’s judgment and remanded'the cause to permit Robuck to replead. See id.

On June 28, 2000, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated our judgment and remanded the cause for reconsideration in light of the Court’s opinion in Young v. State, 8 S.W.3d 656 (Tex.Crim.App.2000), noting that the Court had reexamined the Helms rule in Young. The [652]*652parties were given an opportunity rebrief. Both parties elected to proceed based on the briefs originally filed.

Application of Young v. State

In Young v. State, the Court of Criminal appeals reconsidered the “Helms Rule” which provided that, <cWhere a plea of guilty is voluntarily and understanding^ made, all non-jurisdietional defects including claimed deprivation of federal due process are waived.” 8 S.W.3d at 656 (quoting Helms v. State, 484 S.W.2d 925, 927 (Tex.Crim.App.1972)). After discussing the historical development of the Helms rule, the Court asserted:

The Helms Rule, therefore imposes on a guilty plea the procedural consequence that was established in a line of federal cases from which it is descended — a knowing and voluntary plea of guilty waives claims of errors that preceded the plea. But it omits the rationale of the federal decisions, which is that a valid plea of guilty has this consequence because it is independent of such errors, and is sufficient to support the judgment of conviction. When the Helms Rule is applied to foreclose appellate review of a judgment that was not independent of an antecedent error, or a judgment that was based in part on inadmissible evidence to which proper objection was made, the consequence is not justified by the rationale of the rule. To be justified by its premises and consistent with its precedents, a rule of waiver would be imposed on pleas of guilty (or nolo contendere) only to the extent that the resulting judgment of conviction was independent of the error being raised on appeal.

Young, 8 S.W.3d at 661-62 (citations omitted). The Court concluded that the Helms Rule would no longer be enforced in the terms in which it was stated in 1972, stating:

Whether entered with or without an agreed recommendation of punishment by the State, a valid plea of guilty or nolo contendere “waives” or forfeits the right to appeal a claim of error only when the judgment of guilt was rendered independent of, and is not supported by, the error.

Id. at 666-667. In the instant case, Ro-buck’s judgment of guilt “is not independent of the trial court’s ruling on his motion to suppress the evidence of the offense, and the judgment would not be supported without that evidence.” Id. Therefore, we have jurisdiction to address the merits of Robuck’s challenge to the trial court’s ruling on the motion to suppress.

Motion to Suppress

In his motion to suppress, Robuck contended that his property was searched without a valid warrant. Robuck claimed, “Any warrant allegedly secured was done so without a substantial factual basis alleged in a supporting affidavit upon which a neutral and detached magistrate could make an impartial decision that probable cause did exist for the issuance of said warrant.” The motion further provided that the evidence should be suppressed for the following reasons:

(A) Any arrest and/or detention of Defendant was without probable cause and any search resulting therefrom is therefore per se illegal.
(B) Any search conducted of Defendant’s property or person was without a valid warrant and is therefore per se illegal, there being no exception to the necessity for obtaining a valid warrant.
(C) Any search conducted of Defendant’s property, person, or vehicle [653]*653was made without probable cause is therefore per se illegal.
(D) Any search conducted of Defendant’s property, person, or vehicle was made without his consent. Any consent which is or may be alleged to have been given was not freely and voluntarily given, the same having been given under duress and coercion, or induced by fraud, from State agents, and is therefore per se illegal.
(E) Any search warrant that was procured was done so without a valid affidavit in support thereof and is therefore invalid.

At the hearing on the motion, Robuck’s attorney summarized the issue presented to the trial court as an objection to the probable cause for the issuance of the warrant to search the residence. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court denied the motion. The trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law, stating, “That said search warrant was secured upon facts alleged in a supporting affidavit. That said supporting affidavit was presented to a neutral and detached magistrate who made an impartial decision that probable cause did exist for the issuance of said warrant.”

The State initially contends that Robuck failed to preserve the complaints made in his third, fourth, and fifth points of error. We agree' that Robuck failed to preserve his third and fifth points of error. At the commencement of the hearing, Ro-buck’s attorney advised the court that the objection being raised in the motion was to the probable cause for the issuance of the warrant to search the residence. Robuck never asserted that the affidavit contained perjured statements or that the warrant to search the residence was an anticipatory search. Because Robuck failed to assert these complaints at the suppression hearing for the trial court’s consideration, the complaints are not preserved for this court’s review. See, e.g., Davis v. State, 22 S.W.3d 8, 11 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2000, no pet.); Taylor v. State, 20 S.W.3d 51, 56 (Tex.App.—Texarkana 2000, pet. ref'd); State v. Fecci, 9 S.W.3d 212, 222 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1999, no pet.); see also Franks v. Delaware,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 S.W.3d 650, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 951, 2001 WL 120003, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robuck-v-state-texapp-2001.