Roy v. State

892 S.W.2d 96, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2923, 1994 WL 669796
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 2, 1994
DocketNo. 06-93-00116-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 892 S.W.2d 96 (Roy 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
Roy v. State, 892 S.W.2d 96, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2923, 1994 WL 669796 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

GRANT, Justice.

This is an appeal by John Dean Roy of a conviction for capital murder. He was tried by a jury and found guilty. He received the alternative to the death sentence, life with no eligibility for parole for thirty-five years.

Roy contends: (1) that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress Roy’s statements that were induced by custodial coercion; (2) that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress Roy’s statements that were induced by an illegal arrest; (3) that the trial court committed reversible error in failing to make timely findings of fact on the voluntariness of the confession; (4) that the evidence is insufficient to establish the corpus delicti of capital murder under the common law corpus delicti rule to independently corroborate his confession; (5) that the evidence is legally insufficient under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution to support his conviction of capital murder; and (6) that the evidence is factually insufficient under the factual conclusivity clause of the Texas Constitution to support his conviction of capital murder.

On October 29, 1991, a man discovered his son, Randy Dean Bass, dead in his apartment. Police found Bass’s normally orderly apartment in disarray. Furniture and other items were overturned, drawers had been thrown open, items were missing, the telephone line was cut, and blood was splattered on the walls. Sergeant Bill Stephens testified that he found a wallet in the apartment with blood stains on the contents as if someone with bloody hands had rifled through the contents. Bass had been stabbed and cut multiple times in the face, body, legs, penis, neck, buttock, arm, and hands. His death resulted from these wounds. An assistant medical examiner testified that at the time of death, Bass had a blood alcohol level of .481. He also stated that ninety percent of the population would be comatose at that level of intoxication.

Based on information provided by people at the scene, police detained and questioned John Dean Roy on October 29. During the discussion, Roy stated that he had never been arrested and that he had injured his ribs in a car wreck. A warrant check was attempted on Roy with no result, because the police computer was down, and he was released. Roy contends that on two separate occasions later that same day he was stopped by different officers who ran warrant checks on him. According to Roy, another officer gave him a ride out of a neighborhood where he was walking, saying it was a bad neighborhood to be walking in.

The next day police discovered that Bass’s roommate’s car, which was missing from the scene, had been impounded by police after being found wrecked and abandoned. Based on this information, police focused their investigation on Roy. Police then found that, contrary to their earlier check, Roy was wanted on a blue warrant on an unrelated matter.1 Using this warrant, police arrested Roy on October 30.

After talking with police, Roy made an inculpatory statement, which was recorded on videotape. He eagerly told police that Bass had attempted to sexually assault him and that he had taken two knives from Bass during a struggle in which he stabbed or cut Bass at least fourteen times in self-defense. Roy stated that when he left the apartment he thought Bass was alive; however, he took items to make it appear to police as if a robbery had taken place. He failed to explain how this would prevent police from determining that he was responsible for the crime, especially considering his statement that he thought Bass was alive when he left the apartment.

Under his first point of error, Roy contends that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress Roy’s statement that was induced by custodial coercion. In a pretrial hearing, [100]*100the trial court determined that the statement was not coerced and therefore admissible.

The State must prove the voluntariness of the confession by a preponderance of the evidence. Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 92 S.Ct. 619, 30 L.Ed.2d 618 (1972). On appeal, however, the appellate court generally does not engage in its own factual review but decides whether the trial judge’s fact findings are supported by the record. Romero v. State, 800 S.W.2d 539 (Tex.Crim.App.1990). At a suppression hearing, the trial judge is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and of the weight to be given to their testimony. The judge may believe or disbelieve all or any part of a witness’s testimony. His findings should not be disturbed absent a clear abuse of discretion. Meek v. State, 790 S.W.2d 618 (Tex.Crim.App.1990).

When the defendant’s testimony reflects that he was unlawfully caused to make a confession, and his testimony is uncontra-dicted, then the accused’s confession is inadmissible evidence as a matter of law. Robinson v. State, 855 S.W.2d 107, 109 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, no pet.), citing Moore v. State, 700 S.W.2d 193 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). The State must satisfactorily explain the accused’s allegations of coercion in order to satisfy its burden of proof. Farr v. State, 519 S.W.2d 876 (Tex.Crim.App.1975).

In the case at bar, Roy alleges that before his formal arrest numerous police officers had repeatedly “dogged” him, temporarily detained him, ran repeated warrant checks on him, and escorted him from a neighborhood that they called unsafe. He further alleged that Officer Shirley told him that if he did not cooperate “they would make more trouble” for him. Roy asserts that the simple fact that these allegations were unrefuted constitutes coercion as a matter of law under Robinson, 855 S.W.2d at 109. The unrefuted allegations, however, standing on their own, must initially show coercion. Looking to the first group of allegedly coercive acts, this Court fails to see how they constituted coercion. The acts allegedly occurred the day before Roy was taken to the homicide office to give his statement. These allegations appear to describe normal actions occurring in a police investigation. They are broad eonclusory statements, and we fail to find that Roy has even made an allegation of coercion based on these events.

Next, we must decide whether Shirley’s alleged comment was coercive and if so whether it was controverted. The statement that unless Roy cooperated with police “they would make more trouble for him,” could be construed as coercive. Though vague, it could be considered a threat of future action for failure to make a statement. This statement, however, was directly refuted by Shirley, who testified during the suppression hearing that he did not, at any time, coerce Roy into giving the statement. As the trial court was the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses, it was not an abuse of discretion to conclude that the statement was given voluntarily. We find no abuse of discretion with the trial court’s findings in the pre-trial hearing. This point of error is overruled.

By his second point of error, Roy contends that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress Roy’s statements induced by an illegal arrest. The standard of review governing a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress is whether the court clearly abused its discretion. Maddox v. State, 682 S.W.2d 563, 564 (Tex.Crim.App.1985).

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Bluebook (online)
892 S.W.2d 96, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 2923, 1994 WL 669796, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roy-v-state-texapp-1994.