Smith v. State

945 S.W.2d 343, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 2519, 1997 WL 231535
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 8, 1997·No. No. 01-96-00620-CR·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

OPINION

NUCHIA, Justice.

Appellant was convicted by a jury of murder and assessed punishment of life in prison. He appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

On July 11, 1994, the family of Melissa Cavender contacted the Santa Fe Police Department and reported her missing. Melissa’s car was located in the parking lot of Lit’l Red’s pub, located on Highway 646 near Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Police Department turned it over to the Galveston County Sheriffs Department because the pub was outside their jurisdiction. The investigators assigned to the ease — Sergeants Hansen, Tut-toilmondo, and Pruitt — learned from patrons at Red’s that Melissa Cavender had last been seen speaking to a man dressed as a rodeo clown. They also learned that shortly after Melissa left, the clown followed. After determining that the clown was appellant, the investigating officers contacted appellant at home. When they arrived at his home late that evening, appellant was standing in the driveway with his girlfriend, Brenda Walleck. The officers identified themselves and asked if they could speak to appellant alone. Appellant agreed to speak to the officers, and Walleck went into the house.

The officers told appellant that they were investigating a missing person report, and, because he had been seen talking to Caven-der at Red’s, they wanted to know if appellant had any information regarding what might have happened to her. When asked what he had done the night before, appellant told the officers that he worked a rodeo on Sunday, July 10. Appellant said that, after visiting several other bars, he arrived at Red’s. Appellant told the officers that he had met a woman at Red’s who fit Melissa Cavender’s description. Appellant stated that after he unsuccessfully attempted to “pick up” the woman at the bar, she left Red’s. Shortly thereafter, appellant said, he went to his home and spent the night with Walleck.

Appellant also told the investigators that they could search his vehicle. Hansen advised appellant that before they searched the vehicle, they would have to obtain his written consent. Before completing any specific information on the consent form, Hansen read the printed language to appellant and asked if he still wanted to offer his consent. When appellant stated that he did still want to allow the officers to search his truck, Hansen filled in the blanks on the form and again read the completed consent form to appellant. After appellant signed the consent form, Hansen and Pruitt began searching appellant’s truck. In the open bed, Hansen noticed a clump of hair under a tire tool. The tire tool also had what appeared to be clumps of hair stuck to it. Unsure as to what type of hair it was,1 the officers collected a sample of the hair, and discontinued [345]*345their inspection in order to obtain a search warrant.

The officers then asked appellant to accompany them to the Santa Fe police station in order to give a statement, and appellant voluntarily agreed to do so. At the request of the officers, Walleck also agreed to go to the police station and provide a statement.

At the Santa Fe police station, after receiving his Miranda warnings from Hansen, appellant voluntarily gave the officers a written statement. The statement — which was typed by Hansen — contained written Miranda warnings in accordance with Tex.Code CRIm.P.Ann. art. 38.22 (Vernon 1981); each of the warnings was initialed by appellant. Pruitt read the complete statement to appellant, and appellant was given an opportunity to read the statement again before he signed it.

After the statements of appellant and Wal-leck were complete, the officers noticed some discrepancies between the two statements. When confronted with these discrepancies, appellant admitted to Hansen and Pruitt that he had asked Walleck to lie for him. Hansen asked appellant if he killed Melissa Caven-der, and appellant told the officers that he was too intoxicated the night before, and he did not remember if he killed the victim. When the officers told appellant that they wanted to find Melissa Cavender so they could help her if she needed help or find her body if she was dead, appellant said that he was having a “vision” of a location where the victim might be found. The “vision” was of a rural area near a gate.

Based on appellant’s description of his “vision,” the officers concluded that he was describing an area near the Hall’s Bayou Ranch or the Kiddo Tacquard Ranch in Galveston County. When the officers decided to look near those areas for the victim, appellant volunteered to go with them. Appellant and the officers left the police station to search those areas in Hansen’s van at approximately 4:30 a.m. Appellant was not handcuffed during the search. With appellant directing the way and attempting to identify each location as that featured in his “vision,” the search began in the area around gates near Hall’s Bayou. After searching the Hall’s Bayou area, appellant directed them to the Kiddo Tacquard Ranch Road area. Appellant appeared to recognize the area and eventually pointed out a brushy area on the south side of the road. There they found the nude body of Melissa Caven-der. She had a fractured skull, and had been strangled until her larynx had fractured. The body was found at 8:10 a.m. — after the officers and appellant had spent approximately three hours and forty minutes searching for the victim.

Before trial, appellant urged two motions: the first sought to exclude all evidence discovered during the search of his vehicle and the second sought to exclude the body and appellant’s oral statements leading to its discovery, as well as a videotaped confession appellant gave to the investigators following his arrest. The trial court denied both motions.

DISCUSSION

In a single point of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in overruling his motions to suppress “the body of the victim and the circumstances surrounding its discovery,” because that evidence was obtained during and as the result of an investigative detention which was illegal because it went on too long.

The trial judge, in his findings relative to appellant’s motion to suppress, found that there was no detention of appellant prior to the point where appellant was taken to search for the vietim. The judge did find that, at that point, the appellant was “under investigative detention” and found that “the investigators had probable cause to detain said defendant for a period of time necessary to either confirm or eliminate the said defendant as a suspect.”

A trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. Butler v. State, 872 S.W.2d 227, 236 (Tex.Crim.App.1994). As the sole finder of fact and arbiter of credibility at the hearing on a pretrial motion, the trial court’s findings will not be disturbed on appeal unless they lack support in the record. Green v. State, 615 S.W.2d 700, 707 (Tex.Crim.App.[346]*3461980). So long as those fact'findings are supported by the record, this Court’s only inquiry is whether the trial court correctly applied the law to those facts. Johnson v. State, 698 S.W.2d 154, 159 (Tex.Crim.App.1985).

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

Smith v. State, 945 S.W.2d 343, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 2519, 1997 WL 231535 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

945 S.W.2d 343 (Smith v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

the State of Texas v. Ramon P. Astorga
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2021
Johnnie Lee Wilson v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016
Michael Paul Everitt v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011
LeBlanc v. State
138 S.W.3d 603 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
LeBlanc, William v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004
Ramirez v. State
105 S.W.3d 730 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Andrew Ramirez v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003