Salazar v. State

716 S.W.2d 733, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8528
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 11, 1986·No. 13-85-359-CR·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

OPINION

DORSEY, Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for aggravated robbery. Punishment, enhanced by two prior felony convictions, is 55 years in the Texas Department of Corrections.

In his first ground of error, appellant contends that the court erred in failing to suppress the out-of-court identification of the appellant because the procedures used were unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to mistaken identification.

Convictions based on eyewitness testimony at trial, after pre-trial identification of the defendant, will only be set aside if the photographic identification procedure was so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Garcia v. State, 626 S.W.2d 46, 54 (Tex.Crim.App.1981); Aumada v. State, 657 S.W.2d 890 (Tex.App. — Corpus Christi 1983, pet. ref'd); Lacey v. State, 653 S.W.2d 528, 529 (Tex.App. — Corpus Christi 1983, pet. ref’d).

This conviction is for the robbery of a convenience store. Lydia Rodriguez was the only clerk on duty at the store at midnight when a man, identified by Ms. Rodriguez as the appellant, entered the store, walked around the counter, and put a sharp object in her back. At his insistance, she gave him the money from the cash register.

The patrolman who investigated the robbery immediately after it occurred received a description of the robber from Ms. Ro-drguez, which indicated that he was wearing a red T-shirt and baggy blue jeans. After the officer left, Ms. Rodriguez saw the robber pass by the store, and the police were called and returned to the scene. The officers drove through the neighborhood and brought back a man fitting the description that Ms. Rodriguez gave. When Ms. Rodriguez observed the suspect, she stated that he was not the one who robbed her, but she thought the robber was her ex-brother-in-law.

*735 Several days later detectives showed Ms. Rodriguez a ten photograph lineup that included her ex-brother-in-law, who she failed to identify as the robber. She did, however, positively identify another man, Troy Lozoya, who had been arrested by the police as a suspect in the robbery. As a result of her identification, Mr. Lozoya was charged with the robbery.

Later, Ms. Rodriguez began to have doubts about her identification of Lozoya and went to the police station to withdraw her identification of him. While at the police station, she identified the appellant through a photographic lineup and later in a live lineup that included Mr. Lozoya. At the hearing on the Motion to Suppress and at the trial, Ms. Rodriguez identified the appellant as the robber.

Appellant argues that the motion to suppress the identification should have been granted based on the witness’s tentative identification of others as her assailant. However, there is no evidence of any defect in the identification procedures that would taint the witness’s identification of the appellant. Absent such a defect that would make the procedures impermissibly suggestive, the trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress. The witness was subjected to vigorous and lengthy cross-examination as to her numerous mis-identifications of the robber. Appellant’s complaints of Ms. Rodriguez’ identification go to the weight of her testimony and not to its admissibility. Garcia v. State, 563 S.W.2d 925, 928 (Tex.Crim.App.1978).

Additionally, we have viewed the photographs and find nothing suggestive in them; they each portray men of appellant’s general description. Appellant’s first ground of error is overruled.

In his second ground of error, appellant contends that his conviction must be reversed because it is based on the perjured testimony of Lydia Rodriguez, the robbery victim. Appellant argues that inconsistencies in Ms. Rodriguez’ testimony show that she perjured herself.

Lydia Rodriguez testified that she had seen a tatoo on appellant’s arm, but acquiesced that it could have been a grease mark. She repeatedly stated that, “It could have been a grease mark, but to me it was a tatoo.”

Appellant also complains of Ms. Rodriguez’ description of the weapon used, contending that she had identified it both as a can opener and as a knife and later claimed it was a knife. Ms. Rodriguez’ testimony cleared up this inconsistency when she described the weapon as a pocketknife, “like those ones that they have all sorts of gadgets on them. This one had the — the hook that you open the bottle caps with and the knife on the other side and he had the knife pointed at me.”

“A charge of perjury is a serious accusation and must be clearly supported by the evidence.” Haywood v. State, 507 S.W.2d 756, 760 (Tex.Crim.App.1974). In order to be guilty of aggravated perjury, a person must make the false statement with the intent to deceive. TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 37.03 (Vernon 1974). The burden of showing that the testimony was, in fact, perjured, is on the appellant. Hawkins v. State, 660 S.W.2d 65 (Tex.Crim.App.1983). Even if the witness had given conflicting testimony, that fact alone would not indicate perjury. Brown v. State, 477 S.W.2d 617, 623 (Tex.Crim.App.1972). Appellant has failed to show perjury. Appellant’s second ground of error is overruled.

Appellant’s third ground of error alleges the court erred in admitting hearsay testimony that implicated him. Police Sergeant Paul Rivera testified that he received a tip from an informant which caused him to place appellant’s photograph in a lineup the day after Ms. Rodriguez had identified Lo-zoya as the robber.

Sergeant Rivera did not testify as to the contents of the informant’s tip, nor did he offer the informant’s tip for the truth of the matter asserted therein. Rivera testified about his motive for placing appellant’s photograph in a lineup and the reason for his subsequent attempt to locate *736 Ms. Rodriguez for further verification of her identification of the alleged robber.

We distinguish the case at bar from Rosales v. State, 399 S.W.2d 541 (Tex.Crim.App.1966), upon which appellant relies. In Rosales, the police officer repeated the contents of the informant’s statement, which was incriminating hearsay that the appellant could not subject to cross-examination. However, in the case at bar the witness did not testify as to what he was told, but rather that he acted as a result of receiving information.

Appellant’s third ground of error is overruled.

Appellant’s fourth ground of error alleges reversible error due to prosecutorial misconduct.

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Salazar v. State, 716 S.W.2d 733, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8528 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

716 S.W.2d 733 (Salazar v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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