Roy, Kelvin Lee

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 31, 2016
DocketPD-1455-15
StatusPublished

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Bluebook
Roy, Kelvin Lee, (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

PD-1455-15 COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS Transmitted 5/27/2016 1:54:16 PM MAY 31, 2016 Accepted 5/31/2016 8:29:26 AM ABEL ACOSTA NO. PD-1455-15 CLERK

********************

IN THE

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

AUSTIN, TEXAS

KELVIN LEE ROY, Petitioner

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

Petition in Cause No. B-140,221-R From the 163rd District Court of Orange County, Texas and Cause No. 09-14-00367-CR Court of Appeals, Ninth District of Texas ********************

State’s Brief

******************** John D. Kimbrough Orange County Attorney Orange County Courthouse Orange, Texas 77630 State Bar No. 11425300

Krispen Walker Assistant County Attorney Orange County Courthouse Orange, Texas 77630 State Bar No. 00791870 ORAL ARGUMENT REQUESTED IDENTITY OF PARTIES AND COUNSEL

Krispen Walker, Attorney for the State of Texas Orange County Attorney’s Office 801 Division Orange, Texas 77630

Christine R. Brown-Zeto, Attorney for the Appellant 1107 Green Avenue Orange, Texas 77630

KELVIN LEE ROY, Appellant Coffield Unit 2661 FM 2054 Tennessee Colony, Texas 75884

Malachi Daws, Attorney Representing Appellant at Trial P. O. Box 1806 Vidor, Texas 77670

Dustin Galmor Attorney for Petitioner on Petition for Discretionary Review 485 Milam Beaumont, Texas 77701

Trial Judge: Hon. Dennis R. Powell

i TABLE OF CONTENTS

Identity of Parties and Counsel...................................................................................i

Table of Contents......................................................................................................ii

List of Authorities....................................................................................................iii

Statement of the Case…...........................................................................................1

Statement of Facts.................................................................................................... 2

Summary of the State’s Argument...........................................................................6

State’s Reply to Appellant’s Issue Presented............................................................7

Argument and Authorities………………………………………………………….8

Prayer.......................................................................................................................18

Certificate of Compliance – Word Count………………………………………....19

Certificate of Service..............................................................................................19

ii LIST OF AUTHORITIES

CASES

Bignall v. State, 887 S.W.2d 21, 23 Tex.Crim.App. 1994)………………………...8

Hall v. State, 225 S.W.3d 524 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007, reh’g denied)……………....8

Ross v. State, 861 S.W.2d 870 (Tex.Crim.App. 1993, reh’g granted)………13, 14

Rousseau v. State, 855 S.W.2d 666, 672-73 (Tex.Crim.App. 1993)…………..…16

Roy v. State, No. 09-14-00367-CR (Tex.App. – Beaumont August 26, 2015, pet. granted)…………………………………………………………………………….6

Schroeder v. State, 123 S.W.3d 398 (Tex.Crim.App. 2003, en banc)……15, 16, 17

Williams v. State, 235 S.W.3d 742, 751 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007)……………10, 11

STATUTES

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 6.03(c)….…………………….………………………...10, 11

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 8.04…………………………………………………..…….12

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 12.32…………………………………………………….…17

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 12.33……………………………………………………….17

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 19.02(b)(1)……………………………………………..9, 17

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 19.02(b)(2)……………………………………...……..1, 6, 9

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 19.02(b)(3)………………………………………………….9

TEX.PEN.CODE Sec. 19.04……………………………………………….…10, 17

iii NO. PD-1455-15

TO THE HONORABLE JUDGES OF SAID COURT:

On August 28, 2014, the Appellant, KELVIN LEE ROY, was sentenced to a

term of confinement for seventy-five (75) years in the Texas Department of

Criminal Justice – Institutional Division following a jury trial and sentencing in the

163rd District Court, Orange County, Texas, Dennis Powell, Presiding Judge. It is

from this sentence that Appellant appeals.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The Appellant, KELVIN LEE ROY, was charged by indictment with the

murder of Alexandria Bertrand on April 23, 2014. (C.R., 8) The indictment

tracked the language of section 19.02(b)(2) TEX.PEN.CODE. Petitioner requested

that manslaughter be submitted to the jury as a lesser-included offense (R.R. 6, p.

113) The trial court denied the request, and the jury convicted Petitioner of

murder. He was sentenced to serve 75 years imprisonment. (R.R. 7, p. 71) The

1 Court then pronounced sentence. (R.R. 7, pp. 72-3) On appeal, Petitioner

challenged the trial court’s denial of his request for a jury instruction on the

offense of manslaughter. The Court of Appeals held that because Petitioner’s

testimony establishes that he was unaware of the result of his conduct, the trial

court properly denied Petitioner’s request for an instruction on the lesser-included

offense of manslaughter. (Court’s opinion page 10).

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The State agrees with the court of appeals statement of facts, quoted below.

Roy was charged with the death of Alexandria Bertrand, which resulted

from a vehicle collision. According to Taralynn Brown, Roy’s former girlfriend,

Roy was driving her vehicle on the night of the offense so that she could purchase

food. During the drive, Roy passed his exit, repeated words to himself, and lit a

dip cigarette.1 Brown testified that Roy was driving in two lanes and almost struck

the side of the freeway and other vehicles, but Roy refused to pull over. Roy told

Brown, “I’m going to kill both of us.”

Christopher Morgan, Joshua Bryan, and Brittany Monroe testified that they

saw Roy drive past them at a high rate of speed. Morgan and Bryan testified that

Roy overcorrected and nearly struck the curb. Bryan and Monroe heard the engine

revving as it sped past them. Bryan testified that “it was like whoever the driver of 1 Roy testified that a “dip cigarette” is a cigarette dipped in P.C.P.

2 the car was hit the gas, because you could see the rear end of the car actually sit

down[.]” Morgan, Bryan, and Monroe testified that they never saw the vehicle’s

brake lights. Morgan believed Roy had “[n]o intent to stop.” Monroe testified that

it did not appear that Roy was attempting to avoid other vehicles.

Brown testified that Roy continued driving “crazy” and that she begged Roy

to stop, but that Roy accelerated and Brown recalled “flying in the air and

crashing.” April Bertrand testified that she and her daughter, Alexandria, were in

their vehicle, stopped at a red light, when Roy struck Bertrand’s vehicle. Kevin

Huebel testified that he was approaching the red light when Roy flew past him and

collided with Bertrand’s vehicle. Bertrand testified that Alexandria was ejected

from the vehicle. Huebel compared the sound of the accident to an explosion or

bomb. Officer Rodney Johnson described the scene as looking like a war zone or a

bomb explosion.

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Related

Williams v. State
235 S.W.3d 742 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Schroeder v. State
123 S.W.3d 398 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Rousseau v. State
855 S.W.2d 666 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Ross v. State
861 S.W.2d 870 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Bignall v. State
887 S.W.2d 21 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1994)
Hall v. State
225 S.W.3d 524 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)

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