SDJ v. State

879 S.W.2d 370, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1515, 1994 WL 278020
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 23, 1994
Docket11-93-317-CV
StatusPublished

This text of 879 S.W.2d 370 (SDJ 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
SDJ v. State, 879 S.W.2d 370, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1515, 1994 WL 278020 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

879 S.W.2d 370 (1994)

S.D.J., a Child, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 11-93-317-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Eastland.

June 23, 1994.
Rehearing Denied July 21, 1994.

*371 James J. Elliott, Stephenville, for appellant.

John Terrill, Dist. Atty., Stephenville, for appellee.

Opinion

DICKENSON, Justice.

The jury found that S.D.J., a child, engaged in delinquent conduct by intentionally causing the death of his stepmother. After hearing additional testimony, the jury found that the child was in need of rehabilitation or the protection of the public required that a disposition be made; that the child used a deadly weapon during his commission of the delinquent conduct; and that the child should be sentenced to the Texas Youth Commission for 40 years. The child appeals. We affirm.

Points of Error

Appellant argues in three points of error that the trial court erred: (1) by denying the motion suggesting that the child is mentally ill (and requesting hospitalization for observation and treatment); (2) by refusing the requested charge on the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter; and (3) by allowing testimony as to "inadmissible oral statements" made by the child while he was in custody.

Background Facts

The child testified during the adjudication phase of these juvenile court proceedings (he was 14 years old at the time of the delinquent conduct). He admitted that he shot his stepmother three times with a single-shot.410 shotgun on Thursday afternoon, May 6, 1993, at their home in Erath County. He said that they got out of school early that day, that his father picked him up at school and took him home, and that his father said: "Today's the day to kill your stepmother."[1]

Relevant portions of the child's testimony read as shown:

Q: Now, had your father talked to you before about killing your stepmother?
A: Yes, sir. About two months before that, two or three months before that.
Q: What did he say to you at that time?
A: He said that he was tired of my stepmother because he couldn't do what he wanted to without getting griped at, and he had said that he—he was going to divorce her, but he didn't want to go through another divorce because he'd divorced my mom and she'd got everything, or he said she had.
* * * * * *
And then that Thursday, he come to school and he said, "Today's the day." And I go, "For what?" And he told me it was the day to kill my stepmother. And he said, "If you don't do it, then somebody's going to shoot you."
Q: Who was going to shoot you?
A: I don't know.
Q: Pardon?
A: I don't know. He said he had a kill team or something.
* * * * * *
Q: Now, when you walked off [from your aunt's house], what all did you have with you?
A: I had the stuff that I had stolen out of the house.
Q: Three guns?
*372 A: Three guns, a case of beer, and a bottle of whiskey.
Q: And you had that all in the pillow case or part of it in a pillow case?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: And where did you go?
A: I went—There's a field between my aunt's house and my house, and I went out there and I put the stuff down, and I was shooting. And, I guess, I stayed out there an hour drinking. And I drank the whole case of beer, and I drank some of the whiskey.... I had to cross a barbed wire fence. I crossed it; walked across a little field in front of our house; crossed another barbed wire fence; walked in the door; she was on the phone, so I went to my room.... So I went and opened my door and walked down the hall with the gun, and ... she got up and turned around, and I shot her, then reloaded, shot again, reloaded, shot again, because I was scared, if I didn't do it, my dad told me three to five times in the head—"If you don't do it three to five times, then you're going to die anyway."

Appellant said that he went riding with two of his friends, Josh Stenseth and Amadeo Gonzales, and that he told them that he had shot his stepmother because his dad had told him that "if I didn't shoot my stepmom that I was going to die." Appellant also said that he told his friend, Gina Rush, that his dad told him to kill his stepmom and "I'd done it, because if I didn't then somebody was going to kill me."

Stenseth and Gonzales testified that appellant told them about shooting his stepmother, but neither of them implicated appellant's father. Rush did not testify. Appellant admitted that he did not tell the psychiatrist or the psychologist anything about his father asking him to shoot his stepmother.

Denial of Motion for Hospitalization

Appellant's court-appointed lawyer filed a motion under TEX.FAM. CODE ANN. § 55.01 (Vernon 1986). This section reads in pertinent part as shown:

(a) At any stage of the proceedings under this title, the juvenile court may cause the child to be examined by a physician, psychiatrist, or psychologist.

On May 12, 1993, the juvenile court judge signed orders appointing Thomas M. Murphy, M.D., and Marsha Gabriel, Ph.D., to examine appellant for the purposes of determining:

(1) whether the respondent is fit to proceed in the above entitled and numbered cause; and
(2) whether the respondent lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfulness of the alleged conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law.

The trial court also ordered each of them to file a separate report on their findings as to:

Whether the respondent is mentally ill and requires observation and/or treatment or hospitalization in a mental hospital for the respondent's own welfare and protection or for the protection of others.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Murphy, and the psychologist, Dr. Gabriel, made their respective examinations and filed reports with the court. Both of them testified at the "fitness to proceed" hearing,[2] which was held on July 12, 1993, and expressed their opinions that appellant was fit to proceed; that he did not lack the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct; and that he did not lack the capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of law.[3] Neither of them found any mental illness which would require hospitalization for observation and treatment.

Prior to the hearing on July 12, appellant filed a motion under TEX.FAM. CODE ANN. § 55.02 (Vernon 1986 & Supp. 1994), seeking: (1) temporary hospitalization for observation and treatment and (2) a stay of proceedings in juvenile court. Section 55.02 provides in relevant part:

*373 (a) If it appears to the juvenile court, on suggestion of a party or on the court's own notice, that a child alleged by petition or found to have engaged in delinquent conduct or conduct indicating a need for supervision may be mentally ill, the court shall initiate proceedings to order temporary hospitalization of the child for observation and treatment.
* * * * * *

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Gunter v. State
858 S.W.2d 430 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
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791 S.W.2d 103 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1990)
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S.D.J. v. State
879 S.W.2d 370 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)

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Bluebook (online)
879 S.W.2d 370, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1515, 1994 WL 278020, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sdj-v-state-texapp-1994.