Campbell v. State
| Decision Date | 25 August 2022 |
| Docket Number | 01-21-00332-CR |
| Parties | JARVIS LEMAR CAMPBELL, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Do not publish. Tex.R.App.P. 47.2(b).
On Appeal from the 209th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 1574500
Panel consists of Chief Justice Radack and Justices Countiss and Farris.
JULIE COUNTISS JUSTICE.
A jury found appellant, Jarvis Lemar Campbell, guilty of the felony offense of murder.[1] After appellant pleaded true to the allegation in an enhancement paragraph that he had been previously convicted of a felony offense, the trial court assessed his punishment at confinement for forty-five years. In three issues, appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for mistrial and in instructing the jury.
We modify the trial court's judgment and affirm as modified.
T.S., a teenager, testified that on December 20, 2017, when he was twelve years old, he rode his bicycle to the Wilson Food Mart (the "food mart") on Wilson Road across from the Colony Apartments in Humble, Harris County, Texas. He stopped at the food mart to talk to "[a] girl." Appellant whom T.S. knew as "Black," was outside of the food mart, standing by his car near a gas pump. (Internal quotations omitted.) T.S. knew that appellant also lived at the Colony Apartments. Appellant asked T.S. "where [appellant's] gun was," and T.S. responded that he "didn't know." Appellant retorted, "You know you got my gun." And T.S. replied that he did not have appellant's firearm. Appellant told T.S. that he was taking T.S.'s shoes, which were red and white "Jordans,"[2] because T.S. had taken appellant's firearm. Appellant then removed T.S.'s shoes from his feet.
After the encounter with appellant, T.S. rode his bicycle to the home of his friend, "Boo," later identified at trial as Raymond Dixon. T.S. told Dixon "about the situation that [had] happened" at the food mart, and Dixon "called [T.S.'s] stepdad," Damien Sanders, whom T.S. called "Memphis." After completing the telephone call, Dixon's sister drove Dixon and T.S. to the Colony Apartments in her black car. She stopped the car near a stairwell by the apartment where appellant lived.
From his vantage point, T.S. could see that Sanders and his mother-the complainant-had already arrived at the Colony Apartments in their Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle (the "SUV").[3] He saw Sanders standing next to the stairwell and speaking to appellant, who was standing in the doorway of his apartment. The complainant was standing in the grass nearby. T.S. could tell that Sanders and appellant "were having an argument." Dixon got out of the black car and stood beside it. T.S. also got out of the black car, and he could hear appellant and Dixon arguing. He started walking toward the door to appellant's apartment "to get [his] shoes." Appellant gave him the shoes and T.S., Sanders, and the complainant left the doorway of appellant's apartment and got inside the SUV. The windows in the SUV were "down."
T.S then heard appellant say something to Sanders and the complainant. Appellant left the doorway and went back into his apartment. T.S. saw appellant's girlfriend, later identified at trial as Lekendra Sims, come from inside the apartment and stand in the doorway.
The complainant got out of the SUV again, and Sanders got out and stood by the back of the SUV. The complainant and Sims had an argument, but there was not a "physical confrontation." T.S. saw appellant, who was holding a firearm, join Sims in the doorway. Appellant shot the complainant. T.S. went to the complainant to try to help her.
Meanwhile appellant ran past T.S. to the parking lot behind the Colony Apartments. T.S. then saw appellant driving away in a gray Pontiac car. T.S. "got in" the SUV and "started to chase after him." T.S. turned left out of the Colony Apartments and headed "toward[] the high school." But before he caught up to appellant, T.S. saw law enforcement officers driving behind him. T.S. stopped the SUV and got out. Law enforcement officers "put [T.S.] in handcuffs and took [him] back" to the Colony Apartments. T.S. saw that the complainant was "still there on the ground," and "a lot" of law enforcement officers were "around." After about fifteen minutes, T.S. was taken to the Humble Police Department ("HPD") station, where he spoke with law enforcement officers.
Sanders testified that he was the complainant's boyfriend in 2017 and T.S. was his "stepson." On the morning of December 20, 2017, he received a telephone call from his friend, Dixon. When he answered the call, Sanders could hear T.S. in the background, sounding upset, "screaming," and crying. Dixon told him that appellant had "pulled a gun on" T.S. and had taken "some property from him, shoes and other things from his pockets." After the call ended, Sanders and the complainant left their home and drove to the Colony Apartments where appellant lived. When they arrived at appellant's apartment, Dixon, his sister, and T.S. were already there in a black car. Sanders and the complainant got out of the SUV, and as they "walked toward[] the door" of appellant's apartment, appellant came outside. Sanders asked appellant about T.S.'s shoes, and he had T.S. come out of Dixon's car and stand with them by the stairwell in front of appellant's apartment. Sanders asked T.S. what appellant had taken from him. After T.S. told him that appellant had taken the shoes, appellant went back into the apartment, came out again with the shoes, and gave them to T.S. Sanders then asked the complainant and T.S. to "go get in the [SUV], which they did." Sanders also got in the SUV. Then, "out of nowhere," appellant screamed, "[N]ext time I catch your son over here, I'm going to blow his ass off." The complainant reacted by getting back out of the SUV and walking toward appellant. Sanders also "jumped out" of the SUV to "try to stop her." Appellant was standing by the door to his apartment, just outside the apartment, and Sims was standing in the doorway behind him. The complainant "made it to the stairwell," but he did not hear the complainant say anything. Before Sanders could reach the complainant, he heard a firearm "go off." Appellant "shot [the complainant] in the head." The complainant fell "[b]y the stairwell." Sanders saw a firearm in appellant's hand.
Because Sanders had seen a law enforcement officer earlier that day at a church on "the other side of th[e] wooded area" behind the Colony Apartments, he thought that he could have the law enforcement officer "come over and save [the complainant]." So, Sanders "took off running" toward the church. While running, Sanders slipped and fell in a grassy area by the Colony Apartments. Sanders "got up and continued to run," and he "made it to the other side where [a] ditch was" before he "somehow . . . ended up falling again." According to Sanders, he then heard someone running behind him. When Sanders turned around to see who it was, he found appellant "standing over" him, still holding the firearm that he had used to shoot the complainant. Sanders began "begging for [his] life," and appellant replied, "Bitch, you fixing to die, too." Sanders "held [his] hand up," and appellant shot him. The bullet went through Sanders's hand and struck him in his side. Appellant "tried to shoot [Sanders] again," but the firearm "jammed." When appellant heard an emergency siren, he "took off running," and Sanders walked "down the side of the ditch" until he reached Wilson Road.
Sanders received a telephone call from Dixon on his cellular telephone. After they spoke, Dixon drove over and picked up Sanders. Sanders was "bleeding badly," so Dixon brought him to a hospital. Sanders later spoke with law enforcement officers.
Micaela Briggs testified that in 2017, she lived at the Colony Apartments. Her apartment was just to the left of the stairwell near where the complainant was shot, "[d]irectly facing the crime scene." On December 20, 2017, Briggs was inside her apartment when she "heard commotion at first but then it sounded kind of muffled and it sounded like people were getting in and out of cars." Then she heard something "pop" that "sounded like a firecracker." (Internal quotations omitted.) After that, "everything got silent." But then she heard "a good amount" of "pops." Briggs later learned that the "pops" were actually "[g]unshots."
Briggs further testified that she eventually went outside to see what had happened. When she walked out of her apartment, she saw "[a] woman [lying] on the ground by the staircase with blood out of her head." She also saw a boy standing beside the woman. He looked "extremely traumatized" and "like he couldn't move." Once Briggs realized that the woman had been shot, Briggs began screaming. The boy "ran over to [Briggs] after he kind of collected himself" and said, (Internal quotations omitted.) Briggs asked the boy, "Who shot your mom?" (Internal quotations omitted.) The boy responded that appellant, whom he called "Black," had shot his mother. (Internal quotations omitted.)
According to Briggs, the boy then jumped into the driver's seat of the SUV. Briggs "tried to open" the front passenger door of the SUV but "it was locked." The boy kept saying, "That n[*]gga shot my mom, that n[*]gga shot my mom." (Internal quotations omitted.) And he said, "I'm going to go get him." (Internal quotations omitted.) The boy drove away in the SUV. Later, Briggs gave a statement to a law enforcement officer.
Chasity Jones testified that in 2017, she lived at the Countryside Village Apartments, which was on Wilson Road next to the Colony Apartments. Jones knew that appellant lived near...
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