Shawn Marie McKenzie-Polk v. the State of Texas

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 2, 2021·No. 11-18-00342-CR·Published

Opinion

Opinion filed September 2, 2021

In The

Eleventh Court of Appeals

No. 11-18-00342-CR

SHAWN MARIE MCKENZIE-POLK, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 161st District Court Ector County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. B-17-0424-CR

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In a three count reindictment, Appellant, Shawn Marie McKenzie-Polk, was charged with the first-degree felony offense of burglary of a habitation with the intent to commit the felony offense of arson (Count One), TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 30.02(a)(1), (d) (West 2019), the first-degree felony offense of arson (Count Two), id. § 28.02(a)(2)(A), (d)(2), and the third-degree felony offense of

cruelty to nonlivestock animals (Count Three), id. § 42.092(b)(1), (c-1). The reindictment further alleged that all of the indicted offenses occurred within the same criminal episode. The jury convicted Appellant of each indicted offense and assessed her punishment at (1) ten years’ imprisonment in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (IDTDCJ) for Count One, (2) ten years’ imprisonment in the IDTDCJ for Count Two, and (3) six years’ imprisonment in the IDTDCJ and a $500 fine for Count Three. The trial court sentenced Appellant accordingly and ordered the sentences to run concurrently.

Appellant’s first appointed appellate counsel submitted an Anders brief and filed a motion to withdraw.1 After an independent review of the record, we found that this appeal, which stems from a contested trial based largely on circumstantial evidence, was not particularly amenable to a disposition under Anders. We granted appellate counsel’s motion to withdraw, abated the appeal, and remanded this cause to the trial court for appointment of other appellate counsel. On appeal, Appellant now challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support her convictions. We affirm.

I. Factual Background

Appellant’s convictions arise from a single event: a fire that caused substantial damage to the home of Sean Thomason and his then-fiancée (now wife), Angela Arnason. At the time of the fire, Sean had been engaged to Angela for approximately five years, and the couple had lived in the home together in Odessa with their son, A.C.; daughter, C.T.; their two cats, Whiskers and Peaches; and their three dogs, Carmel, Rocky, and Daisey. Sean and Angela knew Appellant because Sean worked with Appellant’s husband, Dan, and the two couples frequently spent time together

1 See Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967).

at each other’s homes. Angela had also invited Appellant to participate in her and Sean’s upcoming wedding.

Over time, Appellant and Sean became intimate and engaged in a short-lived extramarital affair. Approximately two weeks before the fire, Sean ended the affair with Appellant. According to Sean, Appellant was enraged; she told him that he was “throw[ing] her away like a piece of trash.” Appellant also threatened that she would “get” him. When Sean asked what “get” him meant, Appellant declared that he “would find out.”

Two weeks after this exchange, and on the day of the fire, Sean left their home at around 6:00 a.m. to go to work. Angela left for work around 6:30 a.m. While at work, Sean received a call from Omar Galindo of the City of Odessa fire marshal’s office and was told that his house was on fire. Sean testified that he attempted to call Angela but could not reach her; he then called Appellant, because she was the person who was nearest to Angela at the time, and asked Appellant to alert Angela that their house was on fire. When Sean arrived at the scene of the fire, Appellant was already there.

The entire interior of the house sustained extensive smoke damage. Captain Rex Scown of the Odessa Fire Department testified that, when he entered the house through the front door, he observed “heavy smoke and heat” inside. Captain Scown suspected that the fire had been caused by arson because there appeared to be multiple points of origin.

Galindo began investigating the source of the fire immediately after it was extinguished. He found several deceased animals in the house. He testified that he believed the origin of the fire was arson and that the arsonist was a person who knew the homeowners and was familiar with the house and the animals that lived there. It was determined that the fire had two points of origin: (1) the den next to the kitchen

and (2) the master bedroom. He further testified that, in his experience, it was uncommon for people to burn down their own house.

After the fire was extinguished, Sean and Angela walked through the house and observed that various drawers and cabinets were open and appeared as if they had been “rummaged through.” In the bedroom, several of Sean and Angela’s undergarments were strewn around the room, and others had been burned and were in a pile on the floor. In the bedroom and the kitchen, paper and plastic wedding decorations that Sean and Angela had kept stored in their house for their upcoming wedding were burned. Angela also testified that two jewelry boxes that had been in their house that morning were missing.

Sean and Angela’s thirteen-year-old son, A.C., testified that he was the last person to leave their house on the morning of the fire. When he departed, three pets—Carmel, Whiskers, and Peaches—were inside the house. The remains of these three pets were found inside the house after the fire.

Galindo interviewed Sean and Angela after the fire. Because arson appeared to be the likely cause of the fire, Galindo asked Sean and Angela if either of them had engaged in an illicit extramarital affair. At the time, Angela was unaware of Sean and Appellant’s previous affair; therefore, Sean did not disclose the affair to Galindo because he was afraid he would lose his family. Sean did not suspect Appellant to be the arsonist at the time of the interview. However, he testified that he later began to suspect that Appellant was involved based on her subsequent behavior. Five or six days later, Sean told Angela about his affair with Appellant. Sean and Angela thereafter contacted Galindo and informed him of the affair and their suspicions of Appellant.

Sometime after this, Detective Josh Aguilar of the Odessa Police Department called Angela and asked her to come to the police station to look at some jewelry

items that had recently been turned in to the police. The jewelry had been delivered to the police by Kelsey Mote, Appellant’s daughter. Angela did so and recognized that every piece of jewelry that was shown to her was her property; however, she did not recognize the purse in which they were contained.

At the time of the fire, Kelsey, her husband (Ryan Mote), and their three-yearold daughter lived in Appellant’s house. Kelsey and Ryan testified that on the morning of the fire, Appellant awakened them to tell them that Sean’s house was on fire. Ryan then drove Appellant to Sean’s house. When Appellant returned to her house, Ryan and Kelsey thought that Appellant appeared nervous and anxious. Appellant repeatedly searched the contents of her cell phone and asked them numerous questions about whether anyone could find out where she had been that day. Kelsey and Ryan testified that Appellant constantly talked about concealing and deleting entries and other information from her cell phone; Appellant also said that she had removed “everything” from her phone, wanted to reset it, and wanted to do the same with her computer.

Kelsey testified that Appellant told her that, if anyone asked, Kelsey needed to say that Appellant had been at home with her and Ryan the morning of the fire. Kelsey understood this to mean that Appellant was asking her to be untruthful because Kelsey did not know if Appellant had been home that morning before Kelsey was awakened. Ryan and Kelsey also noticed that the pickup that Appellant typically drove appeared to have been moved that morning. It had been raining, and the tires were muddy.

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