Wirth v. State

342 S.W.3d 161, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 4225, 2011 WL 1519349
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 3, 2011
Docket06-08-00220-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 342 S.W.3d 161 (Wirth 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
Wirth v. State, 342 S.W.3d 161, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 4225, 2011 WL 1519349 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION ON REMAND

Opinion on Remand by Justice MOSELEY.

On January 31, 1996, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued its ruling in Cle[163]*163wis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126 (Tex.Crim.App.1996), wherein it acknowledged that the Texas Constitution conferred upon the courts of appeals “appellate jurisdiction, under such regulations as may be ‘prescribed by law. Provided, that the decision of said courts [of appeals ] shall be conclusive on all questions of fact brought before them on appeal or error 1 and ruled that the authority to rule on the factual sufficiency of evidence extended to reviews in criminal cases. In the Clewis case, it was announced that the proper standard of review for factual sufficiency of the elements of the offense to be employed by the courts of appeals, “views all the evidence without the prism of ‘in the light most favorable to the prosecution.’... [and] sets aside the verdict only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust.” Id. at 129. This factual sufficiency review standard announced at that time was contrasted with that of the legal sufficiency review standard set out by the United States Supreme Court in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979): “whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Clewis, 922 S.W.2d at 128-29.

Based on that distinction and employing the differing standards announced in Cle-wis, this Court found that although there was legally sufficient evidence to warrant the conviction of Raymond Waier Wirth by a jury for the charged crime of theft of $20,000.00 or more' but less than $100,000.00, the evidence was factually insufficient to support the conviction. Wirth v. State, 296 S.W.3d 895 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2009), vacated & remanded, 327 S.W.3d 164 (Tex.Crim.App.2010). Although our ruling in that case also dealt with the admissibility of certain evidence and with complaints regarding venue, the sole issue raised by the State in its petition for discretionary review dealt with the determination that there was factually insufficient evidence to support the conviction.

Subsequent to the issuance of that opinion by this Court, but before the Wirth case was disposed of by it on appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued its opinion in Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 894 (Tex.Crim.App.2010). In Brooks, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals took its “next small step,” whereby it ended its almost fifteen-year flirtation with the Texas Constitution’s grant to the courts of appeals of the exclusive and conclusive duty of factual sufficiency review, determining that there had become no meaningful distinction between the Jackson legal sufficiency standard and the Clewis factual sufficiency standárd of review, specifically overruling Clewis. Id. at 912. It then vacated this Court’s judgment in the Wirth case and remanded it to us for reconsideration, this time to take into account the disintegration of the Clewis factual sufficiency review as announced in Brooks. Wirth, 327 S.W.3d at 165.

I. Factual Background

A. The Leasing Business

The charges against Wirth arose from his operation of an automobile leasing business, a trade that had been operated by him for more than twenty years. The business was operated under the umbrella of two corporations with different functions: RW Leasing did the marketing of vehicles and Wirth Leasing, Inc., provided the funding sources and received one-third of the profits. Whereas Wirth was the [164]*164sole owner of Wirth Leasing, Inc., he owned only half of RW Leasing, the other half being owned by its sales manager, James Rogers. Under the business plan, the sales force made contact with persons interested in leasing automobiles and would solicit information from those prospective customers regarding the type of automobile they wanted to lease and the prices they were willing to pay. Armed with this information, the company would locate automobiles through dealerships to fill the customers’ needs and wants and negotiate for the purchase of the automobiles. Wirth Leasing, Inc., through its contacts with several major banking institutions, would seek approval by the bank of the customer as lessee, arrange for the purchase of the automobiles, arrange for the transfer of the title to the vehicle, sign the lease agreement with the customer, and then assign the lease agreement to the financing bank. A draft (in this circumstance, each of which was signed by Rogers in his capacity as the agent for RW Leasing) would be drawn on the account of RW Leasing at the First State Bank of Prosper, Texas, and sent to the automobile dealership for the purchase price of the vehicle, and the vehicle was delivered to the customer. When the funding bank received the car title, it would electronically transfer funds into the RW Leasing bank account at the Prosper bank; upon receipt of the funds, a check drawn on the RW Leasing bank account was used to honor the draft presented by the dealership. The customer made lease payments directly to the funding bank as the assign-ee of the lease contract according to the terms of the contract. Wirth’s agreement with the funding banks involved fees or compensation paid to his company on the contracts that had been approved. This process had been in place for several years until the early part of 2005, at which time the carefully-orchestrated scheme fell apart when at least fifteen of the drafts (totaling over half a million dollars, each signed by Rogers in his representative capacity) sent to automobile dealerships were dishonored and Wirth closed the Prosper bank accounts. A large part of this debt was discharged by Wirth through a bankruptcy proceeding.

Wirth was indicted for theft of property over $200,000.00 in connection with the transfer of title of the fifteen vehicles when the drafts for each remained unsatisfied. Allegations of theft involved one Fannin County automobile dealership and other allegations from other dealerships outside Fannin County, all of which were prosecuted together as a continuing conduct or scheme.2 The jury found Wirth guilty of the lesser offense of theft of $20,000.00 or more but less than $100,000.00 and assessed punishment at ten years’ imprisonment and a $10,000.00 fine, and recommended community supervision. The trial court sentenced Wirth accordingly by placing him on community supervision for five years and ordered that he pay restitution of $128,103.27.

B. Argument of Wirth

Wirth argues there is no evidence to satisfy the mandatory criminal intent requirement of the charged offense, maintaining that by this prosecution, the State [165]*165is attempting to reinstitute the notion of a “debtors prison” by convicting him for failing to repay debts.

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Related

Wirth v. State
361 S.W.3d 694 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Wirth, Raymond Waier
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2012
Wirth v. State
342 S.W.3d 161 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
342 S.W.3d 161, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 4225, 2011 WL 1519349, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wirth-v-state-texapp-2011.