Stewart Lindsay Sherrod v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided October 19, 2016·No. 03-14-00584-CR·Published

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-14-00584-CR

Stewart Lindsay Sherrod, Appellant

v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF COMAL COUNTY, 207TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT NO. CR2010-105, HONORABLE DIB WALDRIP, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Stewart Lindsay Sherrod was charged by indictment with four counts of

forgery and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity. See Tex. Penal Code §§ 32.21,

71.02. Appellant pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery, and the jury convicted him of those counts

pursuant to his pleas. He pleaded not guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity and the

remaining two counts of forgery, and the jury found him guilty of engaging in organized criminal

activity, guilty of one of the two counts of forgery, and not guilty of the remaining count of forgery.

Appellant pleaded “true” to enhancement paragraphs alleging five prior convictions, and the trial

court assessed punishment at fifteen years’ imprisonment for each forgery conviction and thirty-five

years’ imprisonment for the conviction for engaging in organized criminal activity, with the

sentences to run concurrently. See id. §§ 12.34, 12.35, 12.42, 12.425. The charges in this case were based on two forged checks that were passed to a bank

in Bulverde, one on September 28, 2009, and one on October 8, 2009.1 The evidence at trial shows

that both checks were made payable to “Patrick Manning,” whose wallet had been stolen when he

was robbed at a bar in Blanco earlier that September. The State alleged that appellant, who knew

Patrick Manning and was at the bar on the night Manning was robbed, collaborated with

Steven Hargrove, a friend of his, and Hargrove’s girlfriend, Misti McMain, to forge the checks.

McMain worked as a teller at the bank and pleaded guilty to engaging in organized crime, admitting

that she participated with appellant and Hargrove in a scheme to commit forgery. She testified at

trial that she gave appellant and Hargrove an account number from the bank. Appellant admitted

during an interrogation that he was at the bank on September 28 when the first check was passed but

denied that he passed it (alleging that Hargrove did so) and denying that he knew it was forged at the

time that it was passed. He pleaded guilty to passing the forged check on October 8.

In two issues on appeal, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to

support his convictions for engaging in organized criminal activity and committing the September

28, 2009, forgery. In a third issue, he contends that the trial court erred in admitting a portion of his

videotaped interrogation. We will affirm the trial court’s judgments of conviction.

DISCUSSION

Sufficiency of the Evidence

In his first two issues, appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to support

his convictions for forgery and engaging in organized criminal activity. When reviewing the

1 Because we must discuss the facts of this case in detail below in order to address the issues raised by appellant, we limit our recitation of the facts here.

2 sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, we consider all the evidence in the light most

favorable to the verdict to determine whether, based on that evidence and the reasonable inferences

that can be drawn from it, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the

offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979); Temple v. State,

390 S.W.3d 341, 360 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). In our analysis, we assume that the trier of fact

resolved conflicts in the testimony, weighed the evidence, and drew reasonable inferences in a

manner that supports the verdict. Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319; Isassi v. State, 330 S.W.3d 633, 638

(Tex. Crim. App. 2010). We may not substitute our judgment for that of the jury by reevaluating the

weight and credibility of the evidence. See King v. State, 29 S.W.3d 556, 562 (Tex. Crim. App.

2000). The jury alone decides whether to believe eyewitness testimony, and it resolves any conflicts

in the evidence. See Hooper v. State, 214 S.W.3d 9, 15 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). We consider only

whether the jury reached a rational decision. See Isassi, 330 S.W.3d at 638 (“Our role on appeal is

restricted to guarding against the rare occurrence when a factfinder does not act rationally.” (quoting

Laster v. State, 275 S.W.3d 512, 517 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009))).

Legal sufficiency of the evidence is measured by the elements of the offense as

defined by a hypothetically correct jury charge. See Thomas v. State, 444 S.W.3d 4, 8 (Tex. Crim.

App. 2014) (citing Malik v. State, 953 S.W.2d 234, 240 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997)). “A hypothetically

correct jury charge is one that ‘accurately sets out the law, is authorized by the indictment, does not

unnecessarily increase the State’s burden of proof or unnecessarily restrict the State’s theories of

liability, and adequately describes the particular offense for which the defendant was tried.’” Id.

(quoting Malik, 953 S.W.2d at 240). The law as authorized by the indictment means the statutory

3 elements of the charged offense as modified by the factual details and legal theories contained in the

indictment. See Daugherty v. State, 387 S.W.3d 654, 665 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013).

The statute under which appellant was convicted for forgery states the following, in

relevant part:

(a) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Forge” means:

(A) to alter, make, complete, execute, or authenticate any writing so that it purports:

(i) to be the act of another who did not authorize that act;

(ii) to have been executed at a time or place or in a numbered sequence other than was in fact the case; or

(iii) to be a copy of an original when no such original existed;

(B) to issue, transfer, register the transfer of, pass, publish, or otherwise utter a writing that is forged within the meaning of Paragraph (A).

....

(b) A person commits an offense if he forges a writing with intent to defraud or harm another.

Tex. Penal Code § 32.21.

The statute under which appellant was convicted for engaging in organized criminal

activity states the following, in relevant part:

(a) A person commits an offense if, with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination or as a member

4 of a criminal street gang, the person commits or conspires to commit one or more of the following:

(1) murder, capital murder, arson, aggravated robbery, robbery, burglary, theft, aggravated kidnapping, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, continuous sexual abuse of young child or children, solicitation of a minor, forgery, deadly conduct, assault punishable as a Class A misdemeanor, burglary of a motor vehicle, or unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Id. § 71.02.

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