Taylor v. State

148 S.W.3d 592, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 8958, 2004 WL 2255087
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 30, 2004
Docket2-03-228-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 148 S.W.3d 592 (Taylor 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
Taylor v. State, 148 S.W.3d 592, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 8958, 2004 WL 2255087 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinions

MEMORANDUM OPINION1

SUE WALKER, Justice.

I. Introduction

Appellant Delbert Wayne Taylor appeals his conviction for burglary of a habitation. A jury found Taylor guilty and assessed his punishment at seventeen years’ confinement. In four points, Taylor challenges two jury instructions and the use of a prior conviction and an unadjudi-cated extraneous offense during the punishment phase. We will affirm.

II. Factual Background

Eyewitness testimony at trial placed Taylor at the scene of the crime, carrying [594]*594a television set out of the complainants’ home. The eyewitness also testified that a female with long, black hair was sitting in a gray, four-door Ford waiting for Taylor.

A pawnshop employee testified that on the date of the burglary in question he took “a pawn” from Kristina Holland, matching the items stolen from the complainants. He testified that someone helped Holland carry in the items and identified that person as Taylor by comparing pictures to the videotape showing the pawn activity. In the months following the burglary, an officer located the car, which was described by the eyewitness, at Taylor’s mother’s house.

Taylor testified that on the date in question he had loaned his Ford Escort to “Chris and Angie,” who were occupants at the motel where he was living. He stated that they came back with the car later that afternoon and that Chris told him that he wanted someone with an ID to go to a pawn shop. He said that he took his girlfriend Kristina Holland to the pawn shop, as well as a television and a VCR. He admitted that he helped Holland pawn the items, but he stated that he had no idea where the items came from and that he was suspicious of them.

The jury charge at the guilt-innocence stage included an instruction on law of parties. After deliberating, the jury found Taylor guilty of burglary of a habitation. After hearing evidence during the punishment phase, the jury assessed Taylor’s punishment at seventeen years’ confinement. This appeal followed.

III. STANDARD OP REVIEW

Appellate review of error in a jury charge involves a two-step process. Abdnor v. State, 871 S.W.2d 726, 731 (Tex.Crim.App.1994). Initially, we must determine whether error occurred. Id. at 731-32. In determining if jury charge error exists, we view the charge as a whole, rather than focusing only on isolated statements or parts of the charge standing alone. Fowler v. State, 126 S.W.3d 307, 309 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 2004, no pet.) (citing Marvis v. State, 36 S.W.3d 878, 880 (Tex.Crim.App.2001)). If charge error occurred, we must then evaluate whether sufficient harm resulted from the error to require reversal. Abdnor, 871 S.W.2d at 731-32.

IY. Court’s Charge on Law op Parties

In his second point, Taylor argues that the trial court violated his right to a fair jury trial under the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and under article I, section 10 of the Texas Constitution by incorrectly instructing the jury on the law of parties. Specifically, Taylor argues that the charge’s application paragraph allowed the jury to convict him of burglary of a habitation without the necessity of finding that another responsible party actually committed the offense.

In Texas, “[a] person is criminally responsible as a party to an offense if the offense is committed by his own conduct, by the conduct of another for which he is criminally responsible, or by both.” Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 7.01(a) (Vernon 2003). Under the law of parties, the State may enlarge a person’s criminal responsibility to acts in which he may not be the primary actor if such person, acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense. Id. § 7.02(a)(l)-(2).

Here, the application paragraph instructed the jury:

Now if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, DELBERT WAYNE TAY[595]*595LOR, did, in Denton County, Texas, on or about the 11th day of January, 2002, then and there intentionally or knowingly enter a habitation, [without] the effective consent of Mark Courchesne, the owner thereof, with intent to commit theft or did attempt to commit theft, or commit theft, or if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, DELBERT WAYNE TAYLOR, on or about the 11th day of January, 2002, either by his own conduct, or by acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense of BURGLARY OF A HABITATION, as charged in the indictment, he solicited, encouraged, directed, aided or attempted to aid, KRISTINA HOLLAND, you will find the defendant guilty of burglary of a habitation, as charged in the indictment.

Immediately preceding the application portion of the charge, the jury was instructed in the abstract portion that

[a] person is criminally responsible as a party to an offense if the offense is committed by his own conduct, or by the conduct of another for which he is criminally responsible, or both. Each party to an offense may be charged with the commission of the offense.
Mere presence alone will not make a person a party to an offense. A person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by the conduct of another if, acting with intent to promote or assist the commission of the offense, he solicits, or encourages or directs or aids or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense.

Taylor did not object to the jury charge at trial.

Taylor argues that the phrase “to commit the offense (of BURGLARY OF A HABITATION)” should have been inserted after “KRISTINA HOLLAND” in the application portion so that the jury would have understood that it could only convict him for the criminal act of another if the State proved that Kristina Holland actually committed the burglary.

The law of parties instructions in the charge tracked the language of the relevant portions of the penal code. See id. §§ 7.01(a), 7.02(a)(2). The instructions explained when a person is criminally responsible for an offense committed by another and connected “an offense committed by the conduct of another” and “the other person to commit the offense” with “KRISTINA HOLLAND” by naming her in the application portion. Moreover, the following application paragraph language, requiring the jury to find that Taylor “either by his own conduct or by acting with intent to promote or assist in the commission of the offense of BURGLARY OF A HABITATION,” sufficiently explained that the jury could find Taylor guilty as a party only if he acted with the intent to promote or assist in the burglary of a habitation. The very next clause of the same sentence in the application paragraph linked the burglary of a habitation to Kristina Holland.

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Taylor v. State
148 S.W.3d 592 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)

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Bluebook (online)
148 S.W.3d 592, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 8958, 2004 WL 2255087, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-state-texapp-2004.