Sutton v. State

899 S.W.2d 682, 1995 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 64, 1995 WL 335766
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 7, 1995
Docket1080-93
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 899 S.W.2d 682 (Sutton v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sutton v. State, 899 S.W.2d 682, 1995 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 64, 1995 WL 335766 (Tex. 1995).

Opinions

[683]*683OPINION ON APPELLANT’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

MANSFIELD, Judge.

A jury found appellant, Daniel Charles Sutton, guilty of driving a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated with alcohol.1 The trial court assessed appellant’s punishment at confinement in the county jail for two years, probated, and a fine of $500. The Seventh Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Sutton v. State, 858 S.W.2d 648 (Tex.App.—Amarillo 1993). We granted appellant’s petition for discretionary review, pursuant to Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 200(c)(2), to determine whether the jury charge authorized conviction on a theory not alleged in the information. We will affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

Appellant was charged by information with driving while intoxicated with alcohol. In relevant part, the information alleged that appellant,

on or about the 27th day of May, A.D.1989, in the County of Dallas and State of Texas, did then and there drive and operate a motor vehicle in a public place ..., to wit: a street and highway, while intoxicated, in that [appellant] did not have the normal use of his mental and physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol into [his] body.

Several witnesses testified at appellant’s trial. Rosie Nash testified that at approximately 10:00 p.m., May 27, 1989, after she stopped her car at a red light in Dallas County, another car hit her ear from behind. After the collision, Nash exited her car and walked over to the car that had hit her. Although the driver of the other car said nothing, Nash believed him to be intoxicated with alcohol because he staggered and because she “could smell it on him.”

Dallas Police Officer Archie King testified that he arrived at the scene of the collision at approximately 11:00 p.m. and found appellant still behind the wheel of his car. King arrested appellant after concluding that he was intoxicated with alcohol. King’s conclusion was based on appellant’s inability to stand unassisted, his slurred speech, and “a strong smell of alcohol coming from his breath.”

Dallas Police Officer Greg Williams testified that after appellant was brought to a Dallas police station at approximately 11:10 p.m., he (i.e., appellant) refused to give a breath or blood sample. Williams also testified that appellant, while at the police station, “had a strong smell of alcohol coming from his mouth,” that he “had a strong sway,” and that he was unable to “comply with ... instructions that were relatively simple.” Based on his experience and observations, Williams concluded that appellant was intoxicated with alcohol.

Appellant then took the stand in his defense and testified that he had no memory of the collision with Nash’s car, although he did recall being behind the wheel of his car shortly after the collision. He testified further that, in the hours preceding the collision, he ingested two pills of the drag Klono-pin, prescribed for him by his doctor; that his doctor never warned him to avoid mixing alcohol and Klonopin; that about thirty minutes before the collision, he consumed two beers; and that he found himself in “a precarious situation” on the night in question [684]*684“not because of alcohol [but] because of [his] medication.”

Finally, defense witness John T. Castle, the owner-director of a forensic science laboratory in Dallas, testified that Klonopin, even taken properly, causes drowsiness in approximately fifty percent of users and “the appearance of intoxication” in approximately thirty percent of users; that an adult male taking Klonopin a few hours before drinking two beers “very likely ... would appear to be intoxicated on alcohol”; and that even one beer “would enhance the effect of the Klono-pin.” He also conceded that a Klonopin user could drink enough alcohol to become intoxicated from alcohol alone.

In its charge to the jury, the trial court instructed the jurors first that they could find appellant guilty if they found beyond a reasonable doubt that he had driven or operated a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated, “in that [he] did not have the normal use of his mental or physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol into [his] body, as charged in the Information.” The trial court also instructed the jury, over appellant’s objection, as follows:

You are further instructed that if a Defendant indulges in the use of Klonopin to such an extent that he thereby makes himself more susceptible to the influence of alcohol than he otherwise would have been, and by reason thereof becomes intoxicated from recent use of alcohol, he would be in the same position as though his intoxication was produced by the use of alcohol alone.
Now, therefore, if you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant, Daniel Charles Sutton, on or about the 27th day of May, A.D.1989, in the County of Dallas and State of Texas was intoxicated, in that the Defendant did not have the normal use of his mental or physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol into his body, and while so intoxicated, by reason of the introduction of alcohol into his body, either alone or in combination with Klonopin, and on the said date did then and there drive or operate a motor vehicle in a public place, to wit: a street and highway ..., you will find the defendant guilty as charged in the information....

(Emphasis added.) The jury subsequently found appellant guilty “as charged in the Information.”

On appeal, appellant argued that the jury charge, by authorizing conviction “by reason of the introduction of alcohol into [his] body, either alone or in combination with Klono-pin,” authorized conviction on a theory not alleged in the information. Appellant argued further that, under Garcia v. State, 747 S.W.2d 379 (Tex.Crim.App.1988), a jury charge may not authorize conviction for driving while intoxicated with a combination of intoxicants unless the State has first alleged that combination in the charging instrument. The court of appeals, relying upon our decision in Heard v. State, 665 S.W.2d 488 (Tex. Crim.App.1984), held that the trial court’s jury charge “did not authorize appellant’s conviction on a theory not alleged in the information; instead, the [trial] court merely applied the law to the facts of this prosecution.” Sutton v. State, 858 S.W.2d at 651.

The issue presented to this Court in Heard was identical to the issue presented to us in this case. In Heard, the defendant was charged by information with driving a motor vehicle in a public place while “under the influence of intoxicating liquor.”2 After the State rested its case, defense witness Dr. Norman Kaplan testified that the defendant was his patient at the time of the offense and that she was, at his instruction, taking various medications for treatment of hypertension. Kaplan testified further that a person in the defendant’s condition acting under the influence of those medications might appear intoxicated with alcohol, and that the mixing of those medications with alcohol might cause [685]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
899 S.W.2d 682, 1995 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 64, 1995 WL 335766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sutton-v-state-texcrimapp-1995.