RUIZ-ANGELES v. State

351 S.W.3d 489, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 10273, 2011 WL 5223130
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 9, 2011
Docket14-10-00301-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 351 S.W.3d 489 (RUIZ-ANGELES 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
RUIZ-ANGELES v. State, 351 S.W.3d 489, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 10273, 2011 WL 5223130 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

[491]*491OPINION

TRACY CHRISTOPHER, Justice.

Appellant Israel Ruiz-Angeles was convicted in a Harris County municipal court for failure to control his speed, and the county criminal court at law affirmed his conviction. In this further appeal, appellant makes the same arguments he originally raised in the municipal court in his motion for new trial and repeated in the county criminal court at law.1 Like the lower courts, we are called upon to decide whether a Harris County municipal court may include individuals in one venire who were removed from another venire earlier the same day in a different case. The appellant argues that the trial court erred both in overruling his challenge for cause to members who served in successive veni-res and in refusing to allow his defense counsel to move for additional peremptory strikes. In addition, he contends reversal is required because, in the jury’s presence, the trial court accused appellant’s defense counsel of using delaying tactics and threatened the attorney with contempt. Appellant also contends that the trial court erred in overruling his objection to the prosecutor’s questions to two witnesses as to whether other drivers used due care and whether their vehicles were in compliance with the law. Finally, he challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence that (a) his failure to control speed was voluntary, and (b) the complainant’s vehicle “was on the highway in compliance with law and the duty to use due care.” For each of these reasons, appellant contends that the county court at law erred in affirming the municipal court’s judgment.

We conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support the verdict and that the Harris County municipal courts are not prohibited from including in a later venire those individuals who were removed from an earlier venire. Although we agree that the trial court erred in denying appellant the opportunity to move for additional peremptory strikes, we conclude that the error was harmless. We further hold that the trial court’s expressions of impatience with appellant’s trial counsel did not create reversible error, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in overruling appellant’s evidentiary objections. We accordingly affirm the county criminal court at law’s judgment.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Appellant was cited for failure to control his speed and colliding with another vehicle on January 30, 2006. He was tried by a jury in Houston Municipal Court No. 8 on March 21, 2006. At a bench conference out of the jurors’ hearing, appellant’s counsel asked the trial court before the start of voir dire whether any members of the panel “were used” in any cases with the same prosecutor. When the trial court answered, “Some of them have been,” appellant’s counsel stated that the defendant had a right to know which jurors these were, and objected to the entire panel. The trial court overruled the objection, and at defense counsel’s request, shuffled the jury panel.

Both sides were allowed ten minutes for voir dire. In a second bench conference after the prosecutor’s voir dire, appellant’s counsel moved for additional time to question jurors about the prosecutor’s voir dire in other cases. The trial court denied the [492]*492motion. Appellant’s counsel then questioned the panel and determined that several members had served on a jury panel earlier that day in cases in which the same prosecutor appeared. Each of these individuals affirmed that he or she could “totally disregard everything that happened in the other cases,” specifically including any impressions of the prosecutor.

After using the allotted time for voir dire, appellant’s counsel pointed out at a third bench conference that thirteen of the fourteen members of the panel had served on other venire panels that day. The attorney again asked for more time to question panel members about what was said in the prosecutor’s voir dire in other cases, and the trial court again denied the motion. The attorney then challenged the same thirteen jurors on the grounds that (a) jurors who are removed from one panel must not be included on another panel until they are again summoned for jury service; and (b) because the prosecutor conducted voir dire in other cases with some of the same venire members, appellant’s due-process rights were violated in that, relative to appellant’s counsel, the prosecutor had more time for voir dire and more information about the jurors. The trial court denied these challenges.

The following exchange then occurred between the trial court and defense attorney Alexander Wathen:

THE COURT: Do we have everybody’s strikes?
MR. WATHEN: No.
THE COURT: You will not approach again. Surrender your strikes to the Bailiff, and we will get this trial forward. Mr. Wathen, this is a Class C Misdemeanor. Turn in your strikes now.
MR. WATHEN: I object.
THE COURT: Get it down.
MR. WATHEN: Will the Court not allow me to make the required Motion?
THE COURT: The Court will not put up with anymore delaying strikes.
MR. WATHEN: Object and move for a Mistrial.
THE COURT: Give your strikes to the Bailiff now.
MR. WATHEN: I need two moments to write them down.
THE COURT: You were given a list of their names, so that would not be necessary.
MR. WATHEN: Move for the Court to instruct the jurors to disregard all the Court’s remarks.
THE COURT: Turn over your strikes now.
(Jurors chosen)
MR. WATHEN: Renew my Motion for a Mistrial. Can I get a ruling on my Motion for a Mistrial?
THE COURT: Motion is denied. Mr. Wathen, if you continue your dilatory tactics, I will hold you in Contempt. I will declare a Mistrial, but you will be held in Contempt.
MR. WATHEN: May I renew my objection, Your Honor?
THE COURT: Have a seat. Any objections to the panel?
MR. WATHEN: Yes, Your Honor. May I approach?
THE COURT: You can make your objection where you stand.
MR. WATHEN: Defense objects that Defense is not allowed to make his legally required Motion for preempto-ry challenges.
THE COURT: Denied.

The trial then proceeded.

Christian Moore testified that on the morning of January 30, 2006, he was driving north in the center lane on Hillcroft toward its intersection with Unity. The traffic light at the intersection was red, and a woman in a vehicle in the right lane [493]*493already had stopped at the light. As Moore was slowing to stop, appellant passed him in the right lane and drove into the back of the woman’s vehicle. Moore said Laura Dahlkemper, the woman whose vehicle was struck by appellant, was operating her vehicle properly in that “[s]he was stopped at a stop line just sitting there.” According to Moore, appellant was going too fast to stop and it was a loud, hard collision.

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RUIZ-ANGELES v. State
351 S.W.3d 489 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
351 S.W.3d 489, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 10273, 2011 WL 5223130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ruiz-angeles-v-state-texapp-2011.