Ryan Matthew Stairhime v. State

439 S.W.3d 499, 2014 WL 3605878, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 7905
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 22, 2014·No. 01-13-00493-CR·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinions

OPINION

LAURA CARTER HIGLEY, Justice.

Appellant, Ryan Matthew Stairhime, was charged by indictment with murder.1 Appellant pleaded not guilty. The jury found him guilty and assessed punishment at forty-three years’ confinement. In four issues on appeal, Appellant challenges the trial court’s (1) permitting the State to impeach the testimony of a witness to the incident, (2) excluding his impeaching evidence of the same witness, (3) failure to include in the application portion of the jury charge a definition present in the abstract portion of the jury charge, and (4) restriction of his voir dire examination.

We affirm.

Background

Appellant was out with his girlfriend, Kelsey Wright, on July 18, 2010. After seeing texts on Wright’s phone that Appellant considered flirtatious, the two got in an argument. The argument escalated and culminated in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart. Wright called her close friend and former boyfriend, Stephen Babb, to pick her up. She crossed the street and waited for Babb at a gas station.

[502]*502When Babb arrived, Wright got in his truck and explained to him what had happened. While the two were talking, Appellant walked up to the truck. Babb rolled down the window, and Appellant reached in, stabbing Babb in the side of the chest. Appellant then fled. Babb got out of the truck and rested on the ground beside the truck. Wright stayed next to him. Babb eventually lost consciousness. He died shortly after arriving at a hospital.

During voir dire at trial, Appellant’s counsel asked the jury some questions about Appellant’s right to not testify at trial. The State objected to the form of some of these questions. The trial court sustained the objections and instructed Appellant’s counsel to rephrase the questions. Once the jury was selected, the trial court asked the parties, “Does either side have an objection to the panel or as to the jury as selected?” Both Appellant and the State responded, “No, Your Honor.”

During the State’s examination of Wright, the prosecutor questioned her about a plan Appellant developed with her to falsify her statements about what happened prior to the stabbing. Under this plan, Wright agreed to tell the investigator for Appellant that Babb had assaulted her while she was in his truck and that Appellant’s actions were in response to this. Wright did tell this to Appellant’s investigator, but later reverted back to reporting that Appellant had assaulted her and that Babb never did.

During the State’s examination of Wright about her agreement with Appellant to change her account of events, Appellant objected. Appellant argued that the testimony did not meet the requirements for introducing evidence of a prior inconsistent statement and that the testimony was more prejudicial than probative. The State argued that the conversations between Wright and Appellant about changing her account of the events leading up to the stabbing were admissible as an admission of a party opponent. It argued that any other testimony about her prior inconsistent statement met the requirements for admission. The trial court overruled Appellant’s objections.

During Appellant’s cross-examination of Wright, he attempted to question her about three Facebook posts alleged to have been posted by Wright. The State objected to the relevance of the posts, and the trial court sustained the objection. Later, Appellant called Ashley O’Brien as a witness. O’Brien had been friends with Wright on Facebook and had obtained the images of Wright’s alleged Facebook posts. When Appellant offered the exhibits containing the images of the posts, the State objected on hearsay grounds. The trial court sustained these objections. Appellant later made an offer of proof for the exhibit and O’Brien’s testimony concerning how she obtained the image on the exhibit.

The first image is an alleged post from Wright announcing her intention to be completely sober from “[ajlcohol, cigarettes, and any other bad habits I have gotten myself into” for thirty days. The post was dated June 17, 2012. The testimony that Appellant claims the post could have impeached was Wrights’ testimony that she had taken drugs the night of the incident (July 17, 2010) but that, as of the time of her testimony at trial (May 29, 2013), she was no longer taking drugs.

The next image contains two posts. One post is a picture of Wright and Babb together. The post also contains the following text: “I’m doing this for you today. I will do my best to speak for you and let shit head get what he deserves. I hope I don’t let you down. I love you and I hope you continue to watch over me.” The other post is an image of a tattoo of a pair of boots. Any text associated with the post is [503]*503not included in the image. Text to the right of the image, however, states that the tattoo is in memory of Babb.

During the charge conference, the State sought an instruction on the offense of deadly conduct. Appellant’s theory of the case at trial was self-defense and defense of a third person. The State argued that the evidence showed that Appellant was committing the offense of deadly conduct immediately before he attacked Babb. Because he was committing a legal offense, the State argued, he would have had the duty to retreat before he could claim self-defense or defense of a third person.

Appellant objected to the inclusion of an instruction on deadly conduct. The trial court overruled the objection and granted the State’s request. The jury charge includes a definition of deadly conduct in the abstract portion of the charge for the offense of murder. The charge does not, however, apply the offense of deadly conduct to any of the application portions of the charge.

Impeachment

In his first issue, Appellant argues the trial court abused its discretion by overruling his objection to the State’s examination of a witness about a prior inconsistent statement. In his second issue, Appellant argues the trial court abused its discretion by excluding his proffered impeachment evidence.

A. Standard of Review

We review the trial court’s evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion. Oprean v. State, 201 S.W.3d 724, 726 (Tex.Crim.App.2006); Walker v. State, 321 S.W.3d 18, 22 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2009, pet. dism’d). Unless the trial judge’s decision was outside the “zone of reasonable disagreement,” we will uphold the ruling. Oprean, 201 S.W.3d at 726; Walker, 321 S.W.3d at 22.

B. State’s Examination

During the State’s examination of Wright, the prosecutor questioned her about a plan Appellant developed with her to falsify her statements about what happened prior to the stabbing. Under this plan, Wright agreed to tell Appellant’s investigator that Babb had assaulted her while she was in his truck and that Appellant’s actions were in response to this. Wright did tell this to Appellant’s investigator, but later reverted back to reporting that Appellant had assaulted her and that Babb never did.

During the State’s examination of Wright about her agreement with Appellant to change her account of events, Appellant objected.

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Ryan Matthew Stairhime v. State, 439 S.W.3d 499, 2014 WL 3605878, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 7905 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

439 S.W.3d 499 (Ryan Matthew Stairhime v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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