Swearingen v. State

101 S.W.3d 89, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 65, 2003 WL 1536227
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 26, 2003
Docket73,851
StatusPublished
Cited by918 cases

This text of 101 S.W.3d 89 (Swearingen 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
Swearingen v. State, 101 S.W.3d 89, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 65, 2003 WL 1536227 (Tex. 2003).

Opinions

OPINION

HOLCOMB, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court,

in which KELLER, P.J., and MEYERS, KEASLER, HERVEY and COCHRAN, JJ., joined.

Larry Ray Swearingen appeals his conviction of capital murder for which he was sentenced to death. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2); Tex.Code Crim. Pro. Article 37.071, §§ 2(b), 2(e), 2(g), 2(h). Swearin-gen was convicted for murdering Melissa Trotter by ligature strangulation in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping or aggravated sexual assault. Swearingen raises twenty-four points of error. We will affirm.

I. Points of Error Relating to Eviden-tiary Sufficiency

In his first four points of error, Swearin-gen asserts that the evidence adduced at trial was legally and factually insufficient to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the aggravating elements of the capital offense alternatively alleged by the State, that he intentionally caused Trotter’s death while in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping or aggravated sexual assault. Swearingen does not contend that the evidence was insufficient to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he intentionally murdered Trotter.

The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the State, shows that Swearin-gen became acquainted with Trotter on Sunday, December 6,1998, talked with her at length, got her phone number, and made plans to see or talk with her again the next day. The next day, she failed to show up for lunch after Swearingen had bragged to his coworkers about his plans to have lunch with Trotter. His coworkers teased him about being stood up even after he had told them that he called Trotter and she said that she had been taking a test. Swearingen appeared to be angry the remainder of the day.

Later that evening, while using his truck to help transport some furniture, Swearin-gen commented to Bryan Foster and William Brown that he was going to meet a young lady named Melissa for lunch the next day, and if everything went right, he was going “to have Melissa for lunch.” Brown noticed various items of clothing in the backseat of Swearingen’s truck. Swearingen called Trotter from Foster’s house and talked about meeting for lunch and helping her study for an exam.

[93]*93On Tuesday, December 8, Swearingen met Trotter in the college library around 1:80 p.m., after Trotter had purchased some tater-tots from the school cafeteria. After sitting by the computers and talking amicably with Swearingen for some amount of time, Trotter left the library with Swearingen around 2 p.m. Trotter’s vehicle remained in the college parking lot.

At 2:05 p.m., Swearingen returned a page he received and said he would have to call back later because he was at lunch with a Mend.

Swearingen returned to his trailer sometime before 3:30 p.m. and left between 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., then returned again to the trailer sometime before 5:30 p.m., asked his landlord some questions, then left again between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., to pick up his wife, Terry Swearingen, from his mother’s house. His neighbor, seeing Swearingen’s truck come and go, was not able to see through the tinted windows or see who got in and out of the truck.

When Swearingen and his wife returned home, a package of Marlboro Light cigarettes and a red lighter were on top of the television. The evidence showed that Trotter smoked Marlboro Lights and that neither appellant or his wife smoked.

That evening, Swearingen called Phyllis Morrison, a former girlMend, and told her that he was in trouble and the police might be after him.

On December 11, Swearingen was arrested pursuant to several outstanding warrants, and while being handcuffed, said that his wrist and ribs were sore from a bar fight he had been in the week before.

Trotter’s body was found in the Sam Houston National Forest on January 2, 1999, with a piece of hosiery still tied, as a ligature, around her neck. The state of the body’s decomposition was consistent with having been in the woods approximately 25 days, supporting December 8 as the date of death. The location where Trotter’s body was found was heavily wooded, secluded, and remote. The police had previously searched the area three times without finding the body. One had to be within twenty feet of the body before seeing it. Swearingen knew his way around this area; he had driven a date around the vicinity a few months earlier in his red pickup.

Trotter’s body was on its back in a pile of bushes, her right arm was above her head and slightly to the left. Her top and bra were pulled up under her arms, exposing her breasts and back. There were creases on her back from her neck to her waist that could have been caused by laying on the debris in the bushes for a period of time after she had died. Her jeans were on and the fly was closed, but the right rear pocket was torn downwards exposing part of her buttocks. She was wearing red underwear. There were no scratches found on her exposed skin as one would expect to find if she had been dragged to the location. However, there was no soil on Trotter’s shoes. She had only one shoe on; the other shoe was lying nearby.

Trotter died from asphyxia, lack of oxygen, by ligature strangulation. The nylon ligature was a section cut from a pair of pantyhose; the matching complementary portion of the pantyhose was found in Swearingen’s trailer. There also appeared to be a sharp-forced injury on Trotter’s neck that would have been inflicted before Trotter died, while her blood continued to circulate. Although there was subsequent animal activity and tooth marks on the neck organs at that area, a cut with a sharp object, like a knife, could not be ruled out.

[94]*94The lack of defensive wounds, such as broken fingernails, and the difficulty of tying an elastic piece of nylon around a struggling victim, suggested that Trotter may have been unconscious when the ligature was applied. Although the state of decomposition made it difficult to determine, the left side of Trotter’s face was much darker and at a more advanced stage of decomposition, which could be consistent with having sustained a bruise on the left side of her face. Evidence showed that animals are drawn to blood and a bruise would collect blood close to the skin’s surface. There was also a deep bruise on Trotter’s tongue, like a bite or a cut, consistent both with being struck under the chin, which would push the lower jaw up onto the tongue, and with biting down on the tongue while being strangled or suffering a seizure. There was also discoloration on Trotter’s vaginal wall, a bruise that could have been caused by sexual intercourse on the day of her disappearance.

There were fibers found on Trotter similar to fibers from Swearingen’s jacket, others similar to the seat and head-liner in Swearingen’s truck, and others similar to the carpet in Swearingen’s master bedroom. There were also fibers found in Swearingen’s truck that were similar to fibers from Trotter’s jacket. There were hairs in Swearingen’s truck that appeared to have been forcibly removed from Trotter’s head.

An internal examination revealed that Trotter’s stomach contained not only what appeared to be a form of potato, but also what appeared to be chicken and a small amount of greenish vegetable material.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
101 S.W.3d 89, 2003 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 65, 2003 WL 1536227, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swearingen-v-state-texcrimapp-2003.