Samantha Nicole Wohlford v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 31, 2020
Docket06-19-00106-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Samantha Nicole Wohlford v. State (Samantha Nicole Wohlford 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
Samantha Nicole Wohlford v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-19-00106-CR

SAMANTHA NICOLE WOHLFORD, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 276th District Court Camp County, Texas Trial Court No. CF-15-1524

Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Burgess MEMORANDUM OPINION Ernest Lee Ibarra, Jr., was beaten, abducted from his home, and murdered by three men

during the early morning hours of February 20, 2015. Ibarra’s wife, Samantha Nicole Wohlford,

was subsequently charged with murder as a party to the offense, was convicted by a Camp County

jury, and was sentenced to ninety-nine years’ imprisonment. On appeal, Wohlford complains that

the trial court erred (1) in giving the jury a defective party-liability instruction; (2) in failing to

instruct the jury that Jonathan Sanford, one of the three men involved in Ibarra’s kidnapping and

murder, 1 was an accomplice witness as a matter of law; and (3) in failing to include a jailhouse-

witness instruction in its jury charge. Because we find that any defect in the party-liability

instruction was invited error, the trial court’s error in failing to give a proper accomplice-witness

instruction was harmless, and the trial court’s failure to sua sponte instruct the jury on jailhouse-

witness testimony was also harmless, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

I. Did the Trial Court Give A Defective Instruction Regarding Party Liability?

In her first point of error, Wohlford contends that the trial court committed reversible error

in giving a defective jury instruction regarding party liability by including the following sentence:

“Mere presence alone will not constitute one a party to an offense.” We disagree.

A. Standard of Review

We employ a two-step process in our review of alleged jury charge error. See Abdnor v.

State, 871 S.W.2d 726, 731 (Tex. Crim. App. 1994). “Initially, we determine whether error

occurred and then evaluate whether sufficient harm resulted from the error to require reversal.”

1 The three men were Sanford; Sanford’s brother-in-law, Jose Ponse; and Sanford’s friend, Octavious Rhymes. 2 Wilson v. State, 391 S.W.3d 131, 138 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2012, no pet.) (citing Abdnor, 871

S.W.2d at 731–32). In deciding a question of alleged charge error, we begin with the proposition

that “the jury is the exclusive judge of the facts, but it is bound to receive the law from the court

and be governed thereby.” TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 36.13. Accordingly, “[a] trial court

must submit a charge setting forth the ‘law applicable to the case.’” Lee v. State, 415 S.W.3d 915,

917 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2013, pet. ref’d) (quoting TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 36.14).

“The purpose of the jury charge . . . is to inform the jury of the applicable law and guide them in

its application. It is not the function of the charge merely to avoid misleading or confusing the

jury: it is the function of the charge to lead and prevent confusion.” Id. (quoting Delgado v. State,

235 S.W.3d 244, 249 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007)).

B. Analysis

A person is criminally responsible as a party to the offense, pursuant to Section 7.01 of the

Texas Penal Code, if she commits an offense “by [her] own conduct, by the conduct of another for

which [she] is criminally responsible, or by both.” TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 7.01(a). “Each party

to an offense may be charged with the commission of the offense.” TEX. PENAL CODE ANN.

§ 7.01(b). As applicable in this case, “A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed

by the conduct of another if[,] . . . acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the

offense, [she] solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the

offense.” TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 7.02(a)(2).

3 The trial court’s submitted instruction stated, in pertinent part,

A person is criminally responsible as a party to an offense if the offense is committed by his or her own conduct, by the conduct of another for which he or she is criminally responsible, or by both.

Each party to an offense may be charged with the commission of the offense.

A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if, acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he or she solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense.

Mere presence alone will not constitute one a party to an offense.

Wohlford contends that the trial court erred by including the last sentence because it “is simply

not applicable to the case at bar. The defendant was not present when her husband was shot and

the evidence is equivocal as to whether she knew that such activity would happen.”

Yet, Wohlford’s proposed jury charge also included the instruction that “[a] defendant’s

mere presence alone will not make him responsible for an offense.” “The law of invited error

provides that a party cannot take advantage of an error that it invited or caused, even if such error

is fundamental.” Woodall v. State, 336 S.W.3d 634, 644 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011). Because

Wohlford asked the trial court to include a sentence that was essentially the same one included in

the charge, she is estopped from complaining of its inclusion on appeal. See Prytash v. State,

3 S.W.3d 522, 531 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999). Therefore, we overrule this point of error.

4 II. Did the Trial Court Err in Failing to Give an Accomplice-Witness Instruction?

In her second point of error, Wohlford contends that the trial court erred in failing to give

a proper accomplice-witness instruction. 2 Wohlford argues that the trial court committed

reversible error in failing to instruct the jury that Sanford was an accomplice as a matter of law. 3

The State concedes that the trial court erred, but argues that such error was harmless. We agree

with the State.

We review an alleged error related to an accomplice-witness instruction under the

procedural framework of Almanza. 4 Zamora v. State, 411 S.W.3d 504, 512 (Tex. Crim. App.

2013) (citing Casanova v. State, 383 S.W.3d 530, 533 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012); Herron v. State,

86 S.W.3d 621, 631–32 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002); Medina v. State, 7 S.W.3d 633, 642 (Tex. Crim.

App. 1999)). Under this framework, we employ a two-step process in our review of the alleged

error. See Abdnor, 871 S.W.2d at 731. “Initially, we determine whether error occurred and then

evaluate whether sufficient harm resulted from the error to require reversal.” Wilson v. State, 391

S.W.3d 131, 138 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2012, no pet.) (citing Abdnor, 871 S.W.2d at 731–32).

In examining the charge for possible error, appellate courts “must examine the charge as a whole

instead of a series of isolated and unrelated statements.” Vasquez v. State, 389 S.W.3d 361, 366

2 Wohlford did not object or request additional instructions to the jury charge at trial.

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