Santos Salinas Jr. v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 5, 2016·No. 13-15-00310-CR·Published

Opinion

NUMBER 13-15-00310-CR

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG SANTOS SALINAS, JR., Appellant, v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

On appeal from the 424th District Court of Burnet County, Texas.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Benavides, Perkes, and Longoria Memorandum Opinion by Justice Longoria

Appellant Santos Salinas Jr. challenges his conviction for evading arrest, a state jail felony.1 See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.04(a), (b)(1) (West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.). We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Officer Jeremy Stewart testified that he and Officer Bilski2 were driving down Polk Street in Burnet in a marked police vehicle car on the night of December 12, 2013. 3 Shortly before midnight, Officer Stewart noticed a car parked in the front parking lot of a car wash flash its headlights as the officers passed by. Deciding to investigate, Officer Stewart turned into the parking lot and drove towards the parked car. Appellant exited the vehicle as the officers approached and started walking quickly towards their vehicle. Appellant, who appeared to Officer Stewart to be talking on a cell phone as he approached, was pointing animatedly in the direction behind the officers. Officer Stewart “advised [appellant] to go back to the vehicle.” Appellant complied and retraced his steps to stand beside the parked car.

Both officers exited their vehicle and approached appellant. Officer Stewart spoke with appellant beside the car for a few seconds until Officer Bilski went around to the other side of the vehicle to speak to the driver. At that time, Officer Stewart and appellant moved to the front of the vehicle. Officer Stewart asked appellant what he was doing

1This case is before the Court on transfer from the Third Court of Appeals in Austin pursuant to a docket-equalization order issued by the Supreme Court of Texas. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 73.001 (West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.).

2 Officer Bilski’s full name does not appear in the record. Her name is spelled differently in the briefs and in the record. We use the spelling of her surname that appears in the reporter’s record.

3We draw our summary of the background facts from the testimony of Officer Jeremy Stewart and from viewing the dashboard camera video from his police vehicle. The video, which has no audio component, was admitted into evidence without objection.

there that night and mentioned the flashed headlights. Appellant apologized for the flash and replied that he and the person in the driver’s seat were waiting for someone to pick them up. Officer Stewart next asked appellant if he had anything illegal on his person. Appellant replied that he had nothing illegal and agreed to Officer Stewart’s request to perform a pat down search. Approximately two minutes elapsed from the time Officer Stewart parked the patrol car to the time that he began the pat down frisk.

During the search, Officer Stewart testified that he felt a “bulge” in appellant’s left front pocket. Officer Stewart asked appellant about it, and appellant replied that it was “some pills that he had gotten from his residence.” Officer Stewart asked appellant’s permission to remove the bottle. Appellant agreed, and Officer Stewart recovered a prescription pill bottle with the label removed and full of medication. Officer Stewart attempted to place appellant under arrest, but appellant resisted and ran off after a brief struggle. Both officers pursued but were unable to arrest appellant that night.

Following his capture, appellant was indicted for evading arrest, a Class A misdemeanor enhanced to a state jail felony by a prior conviction for the same offense. See id. At trial, the State admitted into evidence the pill bottle and the pills, as well as the video recording from the dashboard camera in Officer Stewart’s vehicle.4 Officer Stewart testified regarding the interaction with appellant, but appellant and Officer Bilski did not.

The jury returned a verdict of guilty. Following the sentencing hearing, the jury found two additional enhancement allegations in the indictment to be true and assessed a sentence of five years’ imprisonment in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a $2,500 fine, and courts costs. See id. § 12.425(a)

4 There is no evidence in the record that appellant was charged for possession of the medication Officer Stewart found in the pill bottle.

(West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.) (providing that a state jail felony is punished as a third-degree felony if it is shown on trial of the offense that the defendant had been previously convicted of two state jail felonies). This appeal followed.

II. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE Appellant asserts in his first issue that the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction because the State did not prove that Officer Stewart was attempting to lawfully arrest appellant when he fled.

A. Standard of Review We review the sufficiency of the evidence by considering all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determining whether any rational trier of fact could have found all the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. McKay v. State, 474 S.W.3d 266, 269 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015) (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979)). In this review, the jury is the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given to their testimony. Id. Our role is to ensure that the State presented sufficient evidence supporting the jury’s verdict. Id. at 269–70. If the record supports conflicting inferences, we presume that the jury resolved the conflict in favor of its verdict and defer to that determination. Id. at 270; Whatley v. State, 445 S.W.3d 159, 166 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014).

We measure the sufficiency of the evidence against the essential elements of the offense as defined by a hypothetically correct jury charge for the case. Anderson v. State, 416 S.W.3d 884, 889 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). The hypothetically correct jury charge accurately sets out the law, is authorized by the indictment, does not unnecessarily increase the State’s burden of proof or unnecessarily restrict its theories of liability, and

adequately describes the particular offense for which the defendant was tried. Id. (citing Malik v. State, 953 S.W.2d 234, 240 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997)). In this case, the hypothetically correct charge required the State to prove that appellant: (1) intentionally; (2) fled from a person he knew was a peace officer; (3) who was attempting to lawfully arrest or detain him. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.04(a); see also Thompson v. State, 426 S.W.3d 206, 209 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2012, pet. ref’d). We review the jury’s determination that the attempted arrest was lawful for evidentiary sufficiency and not as a suppression issue. Woods v. State, 153 S.W.3d 413, 415 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005); see York v. State, 342 S.W.3d 528, 544 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (observing that under the evading arrest statute “litigating the validity of the seizure as a suppression issue is inappropriate”).

B. Applicable Law There are three distinct types of police-citizen interactions: a consensual encounter, an investigative detention, and an arrest. Wade v. State, 422 S.W.3d 661, 667 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). Consensual encounters are not seizures that require scrutiny under the Fourth Amendment because “[p]olice officers are as free as any other citizen to approach citizens and ask for information or cooperation.” Id. The encounter is consensual as long as the citizen remains free to refuse the officer’s requests or terminate the encounter. State v. Castleberry, 332 S.W.3d 460, 466 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011). However, an encounter becomes a seizure—and warrants Fourth Amendment scrutiny— if the officer restrains the citizen’s liberty through physical force or a showing of authority. Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Santos Salinas Jr. v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Santos Salinas Jr. v. State (Santos Salinas Jr. v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
United States v. Arvizu
534 U.S. 266 (Supreme Court, 2002)
Francis v. State
36 S.W.3d 121 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Woods v. State
153 S.W.3d 413 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Carmouche v. State
10 S.W.3d 323 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
State v. Ibarra
953 S.W.2d 242 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Malik v. State
953 S.W.2d 234 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Warner v. State
245 S.W.3d 458 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Balentine v. State
71 S.W.3d 763 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Rodriguez v. State
578 S.W.2d 419 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Kendrick v. State
93 S.W.3d 230 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003)
State v. Castleberry
332 S.W.3d 460 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Taylor v. State
332 S.W.3d 483 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Derichsweiler v. State
348 S.W.3d 906 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011)
York v. State
342 S.W.3d 528 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011)
Kennedy Dewayne Riley v. State
447 S.W.3d 918 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Andrew J. Serrano v. State
464 S.W.3d 1 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015)
Vasquez v. State
389 S.W.3d 361 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Crenshaw, Bradley Kelton
378 S.W.3d 460 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Anderson, Rodney Young
416 S.W.3d 884 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2013)