Wooten, Codiem Renoir

400 S.W.3d 601, 2013 WL 2493973, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 824
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 12, 2013
DocketPD-1437-12
StatusPublished
Cited by229 cases

This text of 400 S.W.3d 601 (Wooten, Codiem Renoir) 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
Wooten, Codiem Renoir, 400 S.W.3d 601, 2013 WL 2493973, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 824 (Tex. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

PRICE, J.,

delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

A jury rejected the appellant’s self-defense claim, convicted him of murder, and assessed his punishment at sixty years’ confinement in the penitentiary. At the punishment phase of the trial, the appellant requested a sudden passion instruction. The trial court denied his request, and the Fourteenth Court of Appeals affirmed the appellant’s conviction but reversed the trial court’s judgment with respect to punishment, finding that the trial court erred by not giving the sudden passion instruction and that the error was “harmful.” 1 According to the court of appeals, the mere fact that the jury might have found in the affirmative on the sudden passion issue, subjecting him to a maximum sentence of only twenty years’ imprisonment, was alone enough to conclude that the appellant had been harmed. 2 We granted the State’s petition for discretionary review to examine both the court of appeals’s error and harm analyses. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals with respect to punishment.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In the Trial Court

The appellant was indicted for murder. 3 On the evening of August 29, 2009, the victim, Kwasi Johnson, went with Derrick Londow to a Houston strip club called Gator’s. At some point during that same evening, the appellant and his two “girlfriends,” one being Brandi Cleveland, also arrived at Gator’s. Cleveland, a prostitute, began approaching men in Gator’s to offer her services. She eventually approached Johnson and Londow, and Cleveland offered to have sex later that night with the two men for the agreed rate of two hundred and forty dollars.

*603 During the early morning hours of August 30, 2009, Johnson called Cleveland in order to arrange to pick her up for “the date.” Johnson and Londow picked Cleveland up from the home she shared with the appellant and headed to Johnson’s apartment. Once they arrived at the apartment, Londow left Johnson and Cleveland, and Johnson then attempted to negotiate a lower price. Cleveland refused the counteroffer, and Johnson offered to drive her home. In the car, Cleveland notified the appellant that Johnson was bringing her home and that “the date” was a “no-go,” alerting the appellant that Johnson had not delivered payment. When they arrived, Johnson brought the car to a halt and Cleveland got out, leaving the front passenger door open. As Cleveland walked up the path to the house, the appellant approached her and confirmed that the deal was a “no-go.” The appellant then continued down the path to Johnson, who was sitting in the car.

At trial, the appellant testified to the events leading up to the shooting and claimed that he acted in self-defense. Upon approaching Johnson’s vehicle, the appellant noted that Johnson had placed a gun on the console. As the conversation between the men turned to why “the date” did not happen and why Johnson did not pay Cleveland, Johnson’s demeanor became more combative. According to the appellant, he “[h]eard frustration in [Johnson’s] voice[,]” Johnson began to speak in a “heightened tone[,]” and Johnson began to display a sort of “aggressiveness” in his speaking. The appellant claimed that, when he pressed Johnson, asking him to give Cleveland something for her time, Johnson told the appellant, “fuck you, fuck that bitch, everything you stand for, I’ll kill you.”

A firelight ensued. The appellant’s description at trial as to who commenced the shooting was somewhat inconsistent. On direct examination, he testified 1) that Johnson shot him in the abdomen as he was reaching for his gun; 2) that Johnson shot him before he reached for his gun; and 3) that he reached for his gun when he saw the muzzle flash coming from Johnson’s car. When the prosecutor confronted the appellant with these three variations on cross-examination, the appellant maintained, “I felt the shot as I was reaching for my handgun.” Asked why he shot Johnson, the appellant replied, “Because I felt threatened for my life, sir. I felt it was self-defense. I felt I was righteous.” Johnson’s car and body were found nearby with his handgun still inside the car. The appellant conceded that in his initial interview with the police, he had failed to tell the police that he acted in self-defense, had a gun, or shot the victim; instead, he had fabricated a story about being the victim of a drive-by shooting.

Cleveland, the only other eyewitness to the gun battle, gave testimony that largely substantiated the appellant’s description. She testified that she stood close enough to Johnson’s and the appellant’s conversation to have heard it. However, according to her testimony, she “really wasn’t paying attention the whole time” and was mostly focused on her phone. But, after hearing gunshots, she glanced over in time to see a “muzzle flash” coming from inside of Johnson’s car, while simultaneously seeing the appellant raise his arm. While ballistic experts and investigators from the Houston Police Department confirmed that a gun battle took place, in which both men fired multiple shots, none could say which party fired first. After the close of evidence, the jury was instructed on the law regarding self-defense. However, it found the appellant guilty of murder, necessarily rejecting the appellant’s self-defense claim.

*604 The appellant elected to proceed to the jury for the punishment phase of the trial. After both sides presented punishment evidence, but before closing arguments, defense counsel and the trial judge had the following exchange regarding the submission of a sudden passion instruction to the jury:

[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: I would request a charge on sudden passion ... specifically that [the appellant] stated that once the shooting began that he was overwhelmed by emotions of fear.
THE COURT: Once his shooting began?
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Once the shooting began, that he was overwhelmed by emotions of fear, disorientation, confusion, et cetera. And, [Y]our Honor, I would argue that this would substantiate the charge.
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THE COURT: ... Obviously the self-defense has been rejected by the jury so — I just don’t see it. I’m going to deny that.

In the absence of a sudden passion instruction, which would have capped the available punishment at twenty years’ confinement, the jury assessed punishment at 60 years in the penitentiary.

In the Court of Appeals

The court of appeals reversed the trial court’s judgment with respect to punishment and remanded the cause to the trial court for a new punishment hearing. 4 After determining that the trial court erred not to grant the appellant’s request to include a sudden passion instruction in the punishment phase jury instruction, the court of appeals next proceeded to determine whether the appellant had been harmed by the lack of the instruction. 5

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
400 S.W.3d 601, 2013 WL 2493973, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wooten-codiem-renoir-texcrimapp-2013.