Ulloa v. State

901 S.W.2d 507, 1995 WL 62110
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 7, 1995
Docket08-93-00154-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 901 S.W.2d 507 (Ulloa 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
Ulloa v. State, 901 S.W.2d 507, 1995 WL 62110 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

BARAJAS, Chief Justice.

Luis Alberto Ulloa appeals his conviction for the felony offense of burglary of a habitation, enhanced by two prior felony convictions. Trial was by jury. Upon conviction, punishment was assessed at confinement in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for a term of 45 years. We reverse the judgment of the trial court.

I. SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE

In 1992, Ernesto Sosa was employed as the driver of a delivery van for an east El Paso flower shop. He made a habit of driving by his nearby suburban home while making deliveries because he was concerned about recent burglaries in the area. Fortunately, Sosa made one such trip by his house on the morning of December 9, 1992, at which time he observed an unfamiliar car in his driveway and saw a stranger standing near the front door of his house. Because the stranger turned to look at Sosa as he approached, Sosa continued past his house, making a U-tum and parking in the street several houses away to monitor the situation. After some three minutes Sosa, unable to see the front door from his position, again approached his house in the van only to find that the stranger was no longer standing at the doorway. Sosa then made another U-tum and pulled into his driveway so as to block the stranger’s car with his van.

Sosa found the front door locked and un-tampered with, but noticed footprints in the dirt of his unlandscaped front yard. Sosa followed the footprints around the side of the house and peered over the fence to see that they led to the garage door in the backyard. Sosa then returned to the front door and quietly unlocked and opened it. He there discovered his toolbox, which had previously been left in the garage on the living room floor. Sosa then took a screwdriver and wrench from the toolbox and proceeded to search for an intruder. A noise attracted his attention and Sosa turned in time to see the stranger escaping through a bedroom window, although Sosa saw only the man’s leg, which was clothed in bleached jeans and a cowboy boot. Sosa rushed back to the front yard to see Appellant entering his car. Sosa, screwdriver and wrench still in hand, at least twice instructed Appellant to exit the vehicle. When Appellant did not comply, Sosa went to the open driver’s side door and closed it against Appellant’s protruding leg, pinning Appellant. Sosa removed the keys from the ignition, instructed Appellant to remain in the car, and went to the house across the street to call police, visually monitoring Appellant all the while.

El Paso Police Officer Jorge Perez arrived within a minute. Perez handcuffed Appellant and secured the residence, limiting access to police personnel and Sosa when escorted by police. In the backyard, Perez found an open bedroom window with a bro *510 ken pane of glass and a rock lying inside the bedroom. Perez then accompanied Sosa throughout the house to determine whether any property was missing or had been moved. In addition to the toolbox, Sosa found many items not located as they were when he left for work, including clothes in disarray in a bedroom, a television on a bed, a cassette player on the floor of a bedroom, two open jewelry boxes with jewelry strewn around them in another bedroom, and jewelry next to a rock wall in the yard. Police later matched the footprints near the garage door and near the jewelry with Appellant’s boots.

II. DISCUSSION

Appellant attacks his conviction in ten points of error. In his second through seventh points of error, Appellant claims the trial court erred in refusing his requested “no-adverse-inference” punishment instruction regarding his failure to testify. Appellant argues the trial court’s action abridged the rights guaranteed him by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We agree.

It is axiomatic that a criminal defendant cannot be compelled to be a witness against himself. U.S. Const, amend. V, cl. 3. A defendant’s right not to testify continues beyond conviction until after a defendant has been sentenced. Beathard v. State, 767 S.W.2d 423, 432 (Tex.Crim.App.1989); Brown v. State, 617 S.W.2d 234, 237 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). Further, a defendant has a right to a no-adverse-inference instruction, which concerns the fact a defendant elects not to testify, at the punishment stage of a trial. White v. State, 779 S.W.2d 809, 828 (Tex.Crim.App.1989), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 962, 110 S.Ct. 2575, 109 L.Ed.2d 757 (1990); Beathard v. State, 767 S.W.2d at 432; Brown v. State, 617 S.W.2d at 238.

At the outset, we must determine whether Appellant either objected to the failure to include a no-adverse-inference instruction or, in the alternative, made a proper request to add such an instruction. A defendant waives the right to a no-adverse-inference instruction unless either a request is made to the trial court to add the instruction to its charge at the punishment stage or an objection is made to the omission of such instruction. See Brown v. State, 617 S.W.2d at 238.

The record in the instant case demonstrates that Appellant orally requested such an instruction. Prior to the submission of the charge to the jury, Appellant’s trial attorney made the following objection to the proposed charge on punishment:

DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Also, Judge, we would request the following instruction!)]
Our law provides that a Defendant may testify in his own behalf if he elects to do so. This, however, is a privilege accorded a Defendant, and in the event he elects not to testify, that fact cannot be taken as a circumstance against him. In this case the Defendant has elected not to testify, and you are instructed that you cannot and must not refer or allude to that fact throughout your deliberations or take it into consideration for any purpose whatsoever as a circumstance against the Defendant.
STATE’S ATTORNEY: Your Honor, may I respond? I think that’s more appropriate during the first stage of the trial.
THE COURT: The jury has been so instructed. Your objection is overruled.

In ruling on Appellant’s request, the trial court referred to the charge given the jury at the guilt-innocence phase of trial, which did include a no-adverse-inference instruction. The charge given the jury at the punishment phase did not include such an instruction. Although not phrased as an objection, we find the oral request sufficient to preserve error, especially since the trial court characterized Appellant’s statement as an objection and expressly ruled on it. See Tex.Code CRIM.PROC. art. 36.15 (Vernon Supp.1994) (deeming dictation of requested instruction to court reporter sufficient to preserve error).

Finding error, we must now determine whether such error is reversible. We reverse upon a finding of error, unless we determine beyond a reasonable doubt that the error made no contribution to Appellant’s *511 punishment. Tex.RApp.P. 81(b)(2).

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901 S.W.2d 507, 1995 WL 62110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ulloa-v-state-texapp-1995.