Steadman v. State

328 S.W.3d 566, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 6957, 2010 WL 2308591
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 26, 2010
Docket11-08-00183-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 328 S.W.3d 566 (Steadman 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
Steadman v. State, 328 S.W.3d 566, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 6957, 2010 WL 2308591 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

OPINION

JIM R. WRIGHT, Chief Justice.

The jury convicted Jeffrey Dee Stead-man guilty of three out of four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than fourteen years and of two counts of indecency with a child, and assessed his punishment on each of the three aggravated sexual assault charges at ninety-nine years confinement and a $10,000 fine. The jury also assessed Steadman’s punishment on each of the two counts of indecency with a child at confinement for twenty years and a fine of $10,000. The sentences are to run concurrently. We affirm.

There is no challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence.

Former Abilene Police Detective Thomas Valdez testified that he began the investigation in this case after he received a telephone tip. After Detective Valdez had interviewed various persons, including the minor victim, he determined that Stead-man was a suspect in the offense. Detective Valdez left a message for Steadman, and Steadman later returned the call. Detective Valdez testified that Steadman was aware of the allegations. During Detective Valdez’s testimony, the prosecutor asked: “[D]id he admit or deny the allegations?” Detective Valdez answered: “No.” Steadman’s objection was overruled. Detective Valdez also told the jury that he and Steadman made an appointment for an interview but that Steadman did not show up.

In his first issue on appeal, Stead-man complains that the trial court reversibly erred when it overruled a Fifth Amendment objection that he made.1 Steadman argues that his Fifth Amendment rights were violated when the trial court allowed Detective Valdez to testify that Steadman neither admitted nor denied the allegations against him. We disagree.

On appeal, we review the trial court’s decision to exclude or to admit evidence under an abuse of discretion standard. McDonald v. State, 179 S.W.3d 571, 576 (Tex.Crim.App.2005). We will not reverse a trial court’s decision in that regard absent a clear abuse of discretion. Id. An abuse of discretion occurs when the decision of the trial court regarding the admission or exclusion of evidence is “so clearly wrong as to lie outside that zone within [569]*569which reasonable persons might disagree.” Id.

The time frame to which Detective Valdez referred was at a time when Steadman had neither been arrested nor been given his Miranda2 warnings. The law is somewhat unsettled in this area, but we do have some guidance. Although the case involved post-Miranda silence, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has stated that “[p]rearnest silence is a constitutionally permissible area of inquiry.” Waldo v. State, 746 S.W.2d 750, 755 (Tex.Crim.App.1988). In another case, while the court found it unnecessary to address the question of the admissibility of pre-arrest silence, it did note that there were those federal courts of appeals that had held that pre-arrest silence is admissible. It also noted that there were other federal courts of appeals in which the opposite result was reached. Griffith v. State, 55 S.W.3d 598, 607 n. 33 (Tex.Crim.App.2001); see also State v. Lee, 15 S.W.3d 921, 924-25 n. 5 (Tex.Crim.App.2000) (referring to courts in various jurisdictions and their approach to comments upon the silence of a defendant when exercised at various stages in an investigation).

We also find direction from decisions in the federal courts of appeals. In United States v. Oplinger, 150 F.3d 1061, 1066-67 (9th Cir.1998), the silence commented upon occurred at a time before the defendant was arrested and before he had received any Miranda warnings, just as in this case. Further, the silence was not in response to any questioning by government officials, again, just as in this case. The court referred to the fact that, although the Supreme Court had not ruled on the exact issue before the Oplinger court and this court, that court has held that the government, for impeachment purposes, may properly comment upon a defendant’s pre-arrest silence. Oplinger, 150 F.3d at 1066 (citing Jenkins v. Anderson, 447 U.S. 231, 239, 100 S.Ct. 2124, 65 L.Ed.2d 86 (1980)). The court in Oplinger held that the pre-arrest/pr e-Miranda comments there did not offend the Fifth Amendment.

The court also discussed those situations in which an accused had received his Miranda warnings and chose to remain silent. In those situations, the government has, at least implicitly, told the accused that he has the right to remain silent and the exercise of the right would not be used against him. It would be fundamentally unfair to then use that silence against the accused. Id. at 1067 n. 5; United States v. Rivera, 944 F.2d 1563, 1567 (11th Cir.1991). That is not the case in pre-ar-rest/pre-Mircmda. situations. “There is no governmental inducement to remain silent and no promise that an individual’s silence will not be used against him.” Oplinger, 150 F.3d at 1067. The court reasoned that in such situations there was no fundamental unfairness. Id.

The Oplinger court recognized that the First, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits have held that comments upon pre-arrest silence violate the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Id. (citing United States v. Burson, 952 F.2d 1196, 1200-01 (10th Cir.1991); Coppola v. Powell, 878 F.2d 1562, 1565-68 (1st Cir.1989); United States ex rel. Savory v. Lane, 832 F.2d 1011, 1018 (7th Cir.1987)). “[T]he position those courts have endorsed is simply contrary to the unambiguous text of the Fifth Amendment, which plainly states that ‘[n]o person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against [570]*570himself.’ (citing U.S. Const, amend. V).” Id. The court also noted that in the cases to which it referred wherein the position was taken that such testimony violated the Fifth Amendment, the party seeking to claim the privilege had been questioned by a governmental official. Id. at 1067 n. 6. That was not the case in Oplinger and that is not the case in this appeal.

The court in Oplinger noted that the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits share its opinion that comments upon pre-arrest/pre-Miranda silence do not violate the Fifth Amendment. Id. at 1067; see, e.g., Rivera, 944 F.2d at 1568 (“The government may comment on a defendant’s silence if it occurred prior to the time that he is arrested and given his Miranda warnings.”).

In United States v. Zanabria, 74 F.3d 590

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328 S.W.3d 566, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 6957, 2010 WL 2308591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steadman-v-state-texapp-2010.