Wyatt v. State
Wyatt v. State
Opinion of the Court
[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 255
This is an appeal from a conviction for the felony offense of Capital Murder. Following their "guilty of Capital Murder" verdict, the jury assessed appellant's punishment at imprisonment for life. On appeal, appellant presents two points of error for our consideration, viz :
Point of Error One: The appellant's conviction and sentence must be reversed, because the trial court erred in admitting into evidence, over objection, a portion of an oral statement allegedly made by the appellant obtained in violation of Article
38.22 (3)(c), Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Article I, Section 10, Constitution of the State of Texas.Point of Error Two: The trial court erred in not granting a mistrial due to the prosecution's comment on the appellant's failure to testify, in violation of Article
38.08 , Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Article I, Section 10, Texas Constitution, and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America.
Appellant's first point of error has its genesis in a pretrial hearing in which appellant attempted to suppress his various oral renditions of events surrounding the robbery of a convenience store and fatal shooting of the store's clerk. The record before us reflects that shortly after the robbery and shooting occurred in the early morning hours of July 6, 1991, appellant and another man, Terry Wearren, were arrested. Detective Clifton Orr of the Beaumont Police Department was notified and initially drove to the scene of the robbery, a Circle A convenience store. Detective Orr observed the condition of the inside of the store to be "all torn up." Detective Orr testified that it appeared that "quite a struggle" took place inside the store as many items such as candy, chips and various display racks were knocked over and strewn about the floor. Outside, approximately sixty to seventy yards from the store, was the body of the clerk, Mohammed Iqbal.
Upon learning that suspects had been arrested, Detective Orr drove to the scene of the arrests. By the time he arrived, the suspects, appellant and Wearren, were already en route to the police station. Detective Orr inspected the vehicle that the suspects were operating when stopped and arrested. He noticed a cash drawer lying near the vehicle. Inside the vehicle, Detective Orr noticed a check dated July 6, and made out to "Circle A." He also observed a rifle inside the open trunk. The rifle was later identified as the weapon that killed Mr. Iqbal. Detective Orr then drove to the police station in order to speak to the suspects.
Following the standard "Miranda"1 warnings, Detective Orr interviewed appellant. After initially denying involvement, appellant eventually admitted to having robbed and shot Mr. Iqbal. Because some of the details of the robbery and shooting were unclear, Detective Orr requested appellant to return to the store with Orr and describe the events that took place inside the store between appellant and the victim. Appellant agreed, and both he and Detective Orr returned to the Circle A store. Appellant then walked Detective Orr through the events involving Mr. Iqbal and appellant. Orr related that appellant admitted entering the store with *Page 256 the rifle and demanding money from Mr. Iqbal, who was behind the counter. Iqbal refused to hand over any money to appellant so appellant moved behind the counter to gain access to the cash register himself. Orr further testified to appellant's acknowledging having pointed the rifle at Iqbal when Iqbal suddenly grabbed the rifle and a struggle ensued. During the struggle behind the counter, the rifle discharged with a bullet lodging itself in a portion of the wall near the ceiling just behind a grey-colored piece of peg-board. At that point, as appellant described the events to Orr, a fight and struggle over the rifle took place beginning behind the counter and continuing into the store and then all the way out into the parking lot.
Significant to our analysis is the following testimony of Detective Orr taken from the pretrial hearing:
Q. (the State) I'm sorry. Let me back up. Let's just pick up from where we were. He told you about the gun being discharged. Could you show us using your diagram what supposedly happened after the gun was discharged?
A. (Orr) As they continued to fight and struggle over the gun both of them had their hands on the gun trying to gain control of it. They fought out from behind the counter all the way outside the store and even fought in the parking lot here (Indicates).
Q. Let me back up. Was there any other slug or hole in the wall consistent with anyone else in that particular area at an upward angle?
A. No, sir. I did not see any.
Q. That was the only one found in that area?
A. That's correct.
Q. Which would have been consistent with what he said?
A. That's correct.
Q. So he came around the corner and fought out in the park (sic) lot?
A. Right. They fought all the way out of the store. The store was pretty much much (sic) torn up. There were display racks and things tumped over all the way out of the store. It appeared to be like it was quite a struggle going out of that store.
On appeal, appellant complains that Detective Orr's testimony of appellant's "walk through" rendition of events occurring inside the store was inadmissible as it did not fall under the "unrecorded oral statement" exception of TEX.CODE CRIM.PROC.ANN. art.
The Court of Criminal Appeals recently reaffirmed the concept that if but one of the assertions within a confession, offered under the sec. 3(c) exception, is found to be true and conduces to show the guilt of the accused, then the confession is admissible in its entirety. Gunter v. State,
Appellant's second point of error avers error by the trial court in refusing to grant a mistrial following a sustained objection to an allegedly improper final argument at the guilt/innocence phase of the trial. We emphasize the following portion of the State's final argument of which appellant specifically complains:
Consider and weigh the evidence carefully and remember them (sic). Remember the robbery. A man was shot in the back after quite a chase. No evidence of a gun. No evidence of self-defense. No justification for deadly force by the defendant. No requirement — (emphasis added)
As alluded to previously, appellant objected that the above sentence was a direct comment on his failure to testify. Said objection was sustained by the trial court with an instruction to the jury to disregard. Appellant's motion for a mistrial was denied.
As we have noted in previous opinions addressing this issue, reversible error will result from improper prosecutorial argument only if the argument is extreme, manifestly improper, injects new and harmful facts into the case, or violates a mandatory statutory provision, and is so inflammatory that its prejudicial effect cannot reasonably be cured by a judicial instruction to disregard. Hernandez v.State,
AFFIRMED.
Concurring Opinion
I readily concur with the Court's opinion relevant to the appellant's point of error number two. By this brief concurrence there is added an additional ground for overruling point of error number two. Concededly, a prosecutor violates our State and Federal Constitutions when that prosecutor comments on an accused's failure to testify. See Garrettv. State,
The language of such a comment must be either manifestly intended, or of such a character that the jury would naturally and necessarily take it to be a comment on the defendant's failure to testify. (emphasis added)
My opinion is that the State's argument simply did not meet the test of what is a comment under Owen v. State,supra. The challenged remarks, in my view, are not manifestly intended to be a comment; nor were the challenged remarks naturally and necessarily to be taken by the jury as a comment on the accused's failure to testify. Of course, the language used must be more than an implication or an indirect allusion to the accused's silence. Thus, on this additional basis I concur.
Moreover, the prosecution asked the jury to remember the robbery; that a man was shot in the back after quite a chase; that there was no evidence of a gun. The remainder of the remarks were logical, reasonable deductions and a summation of that phase of the evidence. Alejandro v. State,
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
A single indictment charged Cornelius Wyatt with aggravated robbery and aggravated sexual assault. Appellant entered an unagreed guilty plea to both counts and elected to have the jury assess punishment. Appellant was sentenced to confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, for seventeen years on the aggravated robbery and forty-five years on the aggravated sexual assault. Appellant’s sole point of error urges “The trial court erred by denying Appellant’s motion to suppress Appellant’s recorded custodial statement which was the result of an illegal arrest.”
Where a plea of guilty is voluntarily and understanding^ made, all non-jurisdictional defects including claimed deprivation of federal due process are waived. Helms v. State, 484 S.W.2d 925 (Tex.Crim.App. 1972). Appellant argues that the Court of Criminal Appeals “effectively ‘repealed’ the Helms
Appellant has a right to appeal after entering an unagreed plea of guilt. Tex. Code CRIM.Peoc.Ann. art. 44.02 (Vernon 1979). This right of appeal is not encumbered by the procedural restrictions imposed upon plea bargained guilty pleas. Id., see also, Tex.Code CRIM.PROcAnn. art. 26.-13(a)(3) (Vernon 1989). The record reflects that appellant entered a plea of guilty in the absence of a plea bargain. The rule remains that when there is no plea bargain and a plea of guilty is knowingly made, all nonjurisdic-tional defects that occurred before entry of the plea, including claimed deprivations of federal due process, are waived. Wise v. State, 857 S.W.2d 813 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, no pet.); Hall v. State, 853 S.W.2d 756 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, pet. ref'd); Morris v. State, 837 S.W.2d 789 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1992, no pet.). “If there has been a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, it is only possible to appeal rulings on pre-trial motions when there has been an agreement as to punishment, otherwise the Helms rule applies and all nonjuris-dictional defects are waived.” Jackson v. State, 841 S.W.2d 38, 39 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1992, no pet.).
We find nothing in the record to suggest that appellant entered his plea on the condition that error would be preserved. Jackson, 841 S.W.2d at 40. Nor did the trial court give appellant any assurances that he could effectively appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. See, Larson v. State, 759 S.W.2d 457 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1988, pet. ref'd), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1008, 109 S.Ct. 1646, 104 L.Ed.2d 161 (1989). The sole point of error is overruled. We affirm the judgment.
AFFIRMED.
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