Baker v. State
| Decision Date | 09 April 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-17-00193-CR,02-17-00193-CR |
| Parties | HOWARD WAYNE BAKER, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
On Appeal from the 396th District Court Tarrant County, Texas
Per Curiam Memorandum Opinion
After hearing evidence about a December 2014 bar fight between rival motorcycle gangs in Fort Worth that left one man dead and at least three others injured, a jury convicted Appellant Howard Wayne Baker of seven offenses: (1) three counts concerning the death of Texas Ghost Rider Geoffrey Brady—directing the activities of a criminal street gang, engaging in organized criminal activity, and murder; (2) two counts concerning the aggravated assault of Wino's Crew member David Antes—directing the activities of a criminal street gang and engaging in organized criminal activity; and (3) one count each of engaging in organized criminal activity concerning the aggravated assaults of fellow Bandidos Bill Dudley and Michael Anderson. But the jury acquitted Baker of one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. The trial court then sentenced Baker to forty-five years' confinement for the two counts of directing the activities of a criminal street gang, forty years' confinement for the four counts of engaging in organized criminal activity, and forty years' confinement for murder, ordering all the sentences to run concurrently.
In ten points, Baker challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support all seven convictions (Points One through Seven), contends that his multiple convictions regarding Brady's death and the aggravated assault of Antes violate the Double Jeopardy Clause (Points Eight and Nine), and complains that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting other gang members' extraneous offenses into evidence against him (Point Ten). We affirm the trial court's judgments.
In December 2014, tensions were flaring among the Bandidos, a worldwide outlaw motorcycle gang, and other motorcycle clubs and gangs in the Fort Worth area because no motorcycle club or gang was allowed to wear a Texas patch as the "bottom rocker"—the patch at the bottom of their vests (also known as cuts)—without the Bandidos' permission, but some groups did so anyway. Against this backdrop, on December 12, 2014, the Bandidos stormed a bar en masse, resulting in several injuries and one death. Because the fighting took place both inside and outside the bar, the State's evidence of the night's events had to be pieced together from the differing perspectives of several witnesses.
The night of December 12, two young women planned to go to Gator's Bar on Race Street in Fort Worth. They parked and walked toward the bar when several Bandidos arrived, parked across the street, and began entering the bar.1 One of the Bandidos told the two young women not to go inside. The women "stepped back on the sidewalk," heard a gunshot within seconds, ducked, heard more gunshots "a few seconds later," and saw people running away from the bar. The women then left, and one of them called 911, stating that she had seen approximately twenty Bandidos.
Micah Baker, who was not related to appellant Howard Baker but who had dated him in the past, was inside the bar with friends from the Bandidos' rivalmotorcycle gangs, the Ghost Riders and Wino's Crew. She also saw a Cossack inside the bar but did not know him. Micah heard and saw motorcycles drive up and park across the street. She knew the men riding them were Bandidos because she recognized their red and gold vests. Micah saw the men enter from all three bar entrances. She recognized Robert Stover when he came through the front door but not the man behind Stover, who was wearing a helmet.2 Micah saw Stover stop, turn around and look, and then head straight for Antes, a Wino's Crew member. Sheryl Miscavage, Antes's girlfriend at the time of the incident but his wife by the time of trial, testified that Antes's Wino's Crew patch was facing the front door when Stover came in. Stover passed by Miscavage as he walked over to Antes; when he approached Antes, he "kind of smiled whenever [Antes] looked up at him . . . and knocked the crap out of him." Similarly, Micah testified that Stover hit Antes "very hard" and "knocked him out."
Megan Cline Smith, the wife of Wade Smith, a Ghost Rider whom the Bandidos beat up that night outside Gator's, testified that Stover hit Antes with either a sock with a lock in it or a Maglite flashlight. Antes did not know who hit him or what that person hit him with.
Chaos ensued when Stover hit Antes, and more fighting took place toward the front of the bar. Then Micah heard multiple gunshots, after which the fighting movedoutside. She later saw Antes in the bathroom, "bloody and looking in the mirror." He had a swollen eye with a golf-ball-sized knot on his cheek, which was split. His "face was pretty messed up for" a few weeks.
A member of a band that regularly played at Gator's was having a beer with one of his bandmates after their set when they "heard a couple of bikes roll in kind of silently." His bandmate looked out the window, said "red and gold," and got up to leave. As they were leaving, the band member saw "approximately 20-something guys or more" coming in. He also saw Baker, wearing his cut and colors and "everyone else [coming] in behind him." It was clear to the band member that there was going to be a fight because the men entering the bar were hitting their palms with flashlights, clubs, and whatever was in their hands. Baker and several of the men carried clubs, and another person in the group carried a drawn pistol.
After leaving the bar, the band member stood off to the side of the front porch. As soon as he stepped out, he heard two gunshots from inside the bar. Then he saw the fight move outside, and a crowd pushed Brady outside. After the crowd stumbled over three motorcycles, according to the band member, the Bandidos "had [Brady] on the ground," facedown at first. "They [were] all pretty much standing right over the top of him." Baker stood at the back of the group, and Stover was also in the group. The band member then saw flashes and gunfire from the group surrounding Brady and saw the group run away.
Cline Smith had a different perspective. After Stover hit Antes, Cline Smith saw her husband and Brady push all of the people who had run into Gator's back outside, and then she saw Stover point a gun at Brady's head and pull the gun up. Cline Smith went out the side door to check on her husband. By the time she got outside, she saw Brady lying on the ground with a group of Bandidos kicking him in the head and punching him. She saw Baker in that group, not hitting or kicking Brady but standing by him with a gun. Brady was bleeding.
The Bandidos fled, and a Ghost Rider shot at them. After they were gone, Cline Smith saw that Brady was dying. The police arrived at Gator's a short time later, about six minutes after the Bandidos had first arrived at Gator's.
Brady died at the scene. His autopsy revealed three gunshot wounds from two guns with different calibers; two of the wounds were "individually fatal."
After Harris Hospital alerted the Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) that gunshot victims had arrived in the emergency room, a Fort Worth police detective assisting with the case interviewed Bandidos Joshua Horton and Joseph Karadeema and Rebel Rider3 Stephen Martin, who had gone to the hospital by car. A FWPD officer stopped a motorcycle rider headed away from Gator's, Rebel Rider William Connor, who wore the Bandidos colors. Connor had three guns and ammunition. Police eventually traced one of those guns to Karadeema. The police also photographed the injuries and collected the clothing of two other Bandidos—Anderson and Dudley—who had been shot at Gator's and had gone to the emergency room. A spent bullet was recovered from Anderson's back pants pocket.
The police conducted an extensive investigation, including seizing and examining Baker's cell phone and cell phones found on two other Bandidos. The cell phone evidence generally confirms coordination between the Bandidos and Rebel Riders, the intent to retaliate against a person "wearing it," and concern for individual Bandidos' and Rebel Riders' safety after the event.
Police found bullets and casings at Gator's as well as at businesses across the street, which also had shot out windows and doors. A FWPD forensic division manager of the crime lab testified at Baker's trial that at least ten different firearms were involved in this case, but no bullets or casings collected throughout the investigation matched any recovered gun.
In his first seven points, Baker challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his seven convictions. He does not contend that the murder or aggravated assaults did not occur. Instead, he contends that the State convicted him based merely on his presence at the scene and his membership in the Bandidos—"a dangerous precedent." According to Baker, the eight eyewitnesses did not testify that he personally committed any act against Brady, and the evidence collected by lawenforcement as part of their investigation was no evidence. We discuss Baker's sufficiency points by offense rather than in the order assigned by Baker's briefing.
Federal due process requires that the State prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of the crime charged. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 316, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 2787 (1979); see U.S. Const. amend. XIV. In our due-process evidentiary-sufficiency review, we view all the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether any rational factfinder could have found the crime's essential elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319, 99 S. Ct. at 2789; Queeman v. State, 520 S.W.3d 616, 622 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017). This standard gives full play to the...
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