Torrence Renard Ivy v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 10, 2014·No. 01-13-00504-CR·Published

Opinion

Opinion issued July 10, 2014

In The

Court of Appeals

For The

First District of Texas

confinement in prison. On appeal, Ivy complains of several evidentiary rulings, of charge error, of the trial court’s improper comments, and of the trial court’s rulings during closing argument. Finding no error, we affirm.

Background

The complainant, Albert Dussette, testified at trial that Ivy owed him money for cocaine that Ivy had recently purchased from Dussette. On the morning of the incident, Ivy asked Dussette for change for a fifty-dollar bill. Unbeknownst to Dussette, the fifty-dollar bill that Ivy gave him was a counterfeit. Later that day, Ivy used another counterfeit fifty-dollar bill to pay Dussette the money he owed him.

Dussette testified that he suspected the fifty-dollar bills were counterfeit.

Dussette made Ivy go with him and another man who lived with Dussette, John Lewis, to a nearby store to have the store clerk examine one of the bills. Dussette testified that the clerk checked the bill with a “highlighted” pen and determined that it was a ten-dollar bill with a fifty-dollar bill copied on top of it.

Dussette testified that he and Ivy argued outside Dussette’s house, in the car on the way to the store, and at the store, and that the argument became physical when they returned to Dussette’s house. Dussette grabbed Ivy by the shoulder, slammed him against the wall, and was about to punch him, but instead told Ivy to replace the counterfeit fifty-dollar bills by 5:00 p.m.

Ivy returned to Dussette’s house around 5:30 p.m. Dussette and Lewis were there, as was Andrea Thomas. Dussette testified that Lewis answered the front door and that Ivy told Lewis to “put [Dussette’s] dog up” so that Ivy could come inside. Dussette testified that he told Lewis to “put the dog up” and then went to the door, where he saw Ivy take a firearm out of his pocket and start shooting. The first bullet hit Dussette in his shoulder. Dussette testified that he shut the door, but Ivy kept shooting through the door.

Lewis’s testimony was consistent with Dussette’s. Lewis testified that when he opened the front door, Ivy did not come in because he was scared of the dog, and that even after Lewis placed the dog in a back room, Ivy still would not enter. Lewis testified that Ivy was still outside the front door when Dussette went to the doorway. Lewis testified that he did not see a firearm in Ivy’s hand because Dussette blocked his view of Ivy, but that he heard the shot fire from where Ivy was standing. Lewis testified that he started to turn and accidentally bumped Dussette, causing Dussette to hit the door, and the door to shut. Lewis testified that there were five or six shots total.

Thomas testified that she saw Ivy holding a firearm when Ivy was standing outside the front door and that she heard five shots total. Dussette, Lewis, and Thomas each testified that none of them had a weapon.

No firearm was found at the scene, but Officer S. Morton with the Houston Police Department testified that he found four shell casings outside the front door and one just inside the doorway.

Lewis and Dussette testified that they told the police that Ivy was the shooter. Officer Morton testified that Lewis and Thomas described Ivy as the suspect and Lewis supplied Ivy’s address. Officer M. Rippy with the Houston Police Department testified that about four days after the shooting, he re- interviewed Dussette and Lewis to confirm the initial report and they again identified Ivy as the suspect.

Accomplice Witness Rule

In his second point of error, Ivy contends that Dussette, Lewis, and Thomas were accomplices and that their uncorroborated testimony was the only evidence connecting him to the crime. Therefore, Ivy argues, his conviction violates the accomplice witness rule. TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.14.

An accomplice is a person who participates with the defendant in an offense by affirmatively acting to promote the commission of the offense with which the defendant is charged. Druery v. State, 225 S.W.3d 491, 498 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). “And complicity with an accused in the commission of another offense apart from the charged offense does not make that witness’s testimony that of an accomplice witness.” Id. The critical question is whether there is sufficient

evidence in the record to support charging the witness alleged to be an accomplice with the same offense with which the defendant is charged. Blake v. State, 971 S.W.2d 451, 455 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998).

Dussette, Lewis, and Thomas could be considered accomplices only if they participated in the commission of the charged offense with Ivy. See Druery, 225 S.W.3d at 498 (“An accomplice is someone who participates with the defendant . . . .”). There is no evidence that Dussette, Lewis, or Thomas performed any affirmative act to assist Ivy in committing the assault with a deadly weapon. See id. at 500 (holding that witnesses’ mere presence at the scene of the crime does not render any an accomplice witness). Ivy argues that Lewis, Thomas, and Dussette were accomplices because they sold drugs together. But there is no evidence that Ivy conspired with Dussette, Thomas, and Lewis to sell drugs. Similarly, any alleged conspiracy involving Dussette, Lewis, and Thomas as drug sellers and Ivy as a buyer could not violate the accomplice witness rule. Ivy’s use of counterfeit money was not in furtherance of their joint unlawful purpose, nor was Ivy’s assault on Dussette. Therefore, Dussette, Thomas, and Lewis could not be charged with the charged offense—aggravated assault of Dussette. Accordingly, we hold that Dussette, Thomas, and Lewis were not accomplices.

Cross-Examination

In his fourth point of error, Ivy contends that the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to adduce evidence through cross-examination to support his defense, which was that Lewis, Thomas, and Dussette conspired to frame Ivy. Ivy complains of 17 instances in which the trial court sustained the State’s evidentiary objections. He also complains that the trial court made improper comments in making some of these rulings. A. Evidentiary Rulings We review a trial court’s decision to exclude evidence under an abuse of discretion standard. Torres v. State, 71 S.W.3d 758, 760 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002). When a trial court denies a defendant the opportunity “to elicit certain, specific responses from [the] State’s witness,” error is preserved by (1) calling the witness to the stand outside the presence of the jury and asking specific questions or (2) making an offer of proof that demonstrates what questions would have been asked and the expected answers to those questions. Koehler v. State, 679 S.W.2d 6, 9 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984); Stults v. State, 23 S.W.3d 198, 203 (Tex. App.— Houston [14th Dist.] 2000, pet. ref’d).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Torrence Renard Ivy v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Torrence Renard Ivy v. State (Torrence Renard Ivy v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Thompson v. State
89 S.W.3d 843 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Gutierrez v. State
36 S.W.3d 509 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2001)
Powell v. State
252 S.W.3d 742 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Delgado v. State
235 S.W.3d 244 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
ORSAG v. State
312 S.W.3d 105 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Wesbrook v. State
29 S.W.3d 103 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Hudson v. State
675 S.W.2d 507 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Smith v. State
595 S.W.2d 120 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Cockrell v. State
933 S.W.2d 73 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1996)
Gonzales v. State
831 S.W.2d 491 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Anderson v. State
831 S.W.2d 50 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Hammock v. State
46 S.W.3d 889 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2001)
Blake v. State
971 S.W.2d 451 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1998)
Jasper v. State
61 S.W.3d 413 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2001)
Peek v. State
106 S.W.3d 72 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Torres v. State
71 S.W.3d 758 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Gonzales v. State
807 S.W.2d 830 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Mayberry v. State
532 S.W.2d 80 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1976)
Long v. State
823 S.W.2d 259 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1991)