Cardenas v. State

• Decision Date: 26 April 2000
• Citation: 30 S.W.3d 384
• Parties: (Tex.Crim.App. 2000) RUBEN RAMIREZ CARDENAS, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS NO. 73,107
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 384

30 S.W.3d 384 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000)

RUBEN RAMIREZ CARDENAS, Appellant v.THE STATE OF TEXAS

NO. 73,107

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS.

April 26, 2000

Rehearing Denied June 7, 2000.

ON DIRECT APPEAL FROM HIDALGO COUNTY.

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

O P I N I O N

MEYERS, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which McCormick, P.J., Mansfield, Price, Holland, Johnson and Keasler, J.J., joined.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder on February 18, 1998.Tex. Penal Code Ann. §19.03(a)(2).Pursuant to the jury's answers to the special issues set forth in Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 37.071 §§2(b) and 2(e), the trial judge sentenced appellant to death.Art. 37.071 §2(g).¹Direct appeal to this Court is automatic.Art. 37.071 §2(h).Appellant raises five points of error.We will affirm.

In his fifth point of error, appellant alleges that his "conviction should be vacated and a judgment of acquittal be entered because there was [legally] insufficient evidence to establish all of the necessary elements for both the underlying offenses (kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault) and capital murder."²

The evidence at trial showed that appellant and the victim were first cousins.During February of 1997, the victim's parents assisted with repairs to appellant's parents' trailer.After school, the victim would stay at the trailer while her parents worked.Appellant asked the victim's mother if he could take the victim out so that she would not be bored, and she assented.On February 13, 1997, appellant drove the victim and her boyfriend to the mall to play video games.On February 19, appellant took the victim with him to pick up his sister at a pizza place.After appellant took the victim home that evening, he used the bathroom in her family's apartment.The victim's door was open and her bedroom could be seen from the hallway leading to the bathroom.

The following night, February 20, appellant took the victim to a carnival.At 10:30 p.m., appellant stopped by Adolfo Vallejo's house.Vallejo testified that appellant was stumbling and told him that he had an eighteen-year-old girl in his car to whom his cousin had introduced him.Appellant said that he was planning to put cocaine in her beer "to get her messed up so that he could get into her pants."As appellant left, Vallejo looked in the car and saw the girl.A couple of days later, Vallejo recognized the victim's picture in the paper as the girl he had seen with appellant.

At 2:30 a.m., on Saturday, February 22, appellant crawled through Maria Juarez's window and came to the edge of her bed.He said that he was looking for her sister.She told appellant that her sister was not there, and appellant left.Juarez testified that she had known appellant for about six months.He had been in her house only once before and did not have permission to come through her window in the middle of the night.Anselma Rangel also testified that she had known appellant for about six months and that he had come by her house at around 2:30 or 3:00 a.m., on February 22.He told her that he had a friend with him and they wanted to party.Appellant left when Rangel told him that he could not come in.Rangel noticed that appellant was driving a gray car.

The victim shared a bed with her nine-year-old sister.Around 6:00 a.m., on February 22, the victim's sister was awakened by an intruder in their room.The intruder was leaning over her in the bed.She then noticed her sister's mouth was covered in tape and her hands were tied behind her back.The intruder picked up the victim, told her to stand up and keep quiet, and then went out the window with her.The victim's sister ran to alert her parents, and they called the police.

Jessica Rodriguez, who was staying in the same apartment complex as the victim's family, testified that at about 6:00 a.m. on February 22, she observed a man walking down the sidewalk with a barefooted girl who was wearing only a shirt and underwear.The girl's hands were tied behind her.The man was wearing dark pants, a white shirt, and dark jacket.Rodriguez called the police.Appellant was identified by Rodriguez in court as resembling the man she saw that morning.

Another neighbor, Americo Aleman, testified that at about 6:00 on the morning of the offense, he observed a man sitting in the passenger seat of a car that Aleman later identified as resembling appellant's mother's car.The man told Aleman that he was waiting for a friend.

During their investigation of the victim's whereabouts, police spoke with appellant, who voluntarily came to the police station.He explained that on the night the victim disappeared he had been out with his friends in his mother's gray Ford Probe, but denied any involvement in her disappearance.One of the investigators noticed scratch marks on appellant's hands and arms, which appellant said were caused by his friend's dog.Appellant also had fresh scratches on his side near his armpit and over his belly button.

Appellant was arrested and arraigned when Tony Castillo, appellant's friend and co-defendant, admitted that he and appellant had kidnaped the victim.On February 23, 1997, appellant gave the following statement:

On Saturday, February 22, 1997, at about 1:30 a.m., I went to the Cubby Lounge in Edinburg with some friends, Mando and another friend who works at Pop-a-Top.

Once there, I met with another friend, Tony Castillo.A short while later, we all went for a cruise in my mother's car.The Edinburg police stopped us at the Circle K and they told uswe needed [to] go home since we were drunk.The police officer then told me I was too drunk to drive and told my friend that works at Pop-a-Top to drive.He then drove to Pop-a-Top and the driver got off.I then started driving and went and dropped Mando off.

We then went by my house and picked up a bottle of Presidente.We then kept driving around.We were on Trenton Road when Tony asked me where we were going.I told him to wait and see.I was driving to [the victim's] apartment.When I was almost there I told him if he would help me kidnap somebody [sic].He told me he would help me.I then parked in a parking lot at the Retama Village away from [the victim's] apartment.I then walked to [the victim's] apartment.I had some black electrical tape in my pocket.I also had a rag, and a pair of dark blue gloves on.I then picked [sic] my t-shirt and pulled it over my mouth and nose.I went through the back of [the victim's] apartment and I saw that the window was open a couple of inches.I then took the screen off and pulled open the window.I then went to [the victim's] bedroom.I opened the door and went in, and then closed the door.I then saw that she was awake looking at me.I told her to be quiet and I put the tape around her mouth.I then told her to get up.I then told her to turn around.After she stood up I tied her hands behind her back with the cloth I had.I got a sweater from her room and put it on her.I then grabbed a pair of jeans for her.I then opened the bedroom window and told her to step out.She stepped out and I followed her.I then walked her to the car.When I got to the car Tony was in the passenger side so I told him to drive.I then told [the victim] to turn around and I blindfolded her.I then put her in the back seat through the passenger side.I then got in the back with her.Tony then drove off and went behind the school.He then drove to Pecan.When he got to Pecan, I could see two police cars getting to the Retama Village.Tony then drove to McColl.On McColl he turned left and went towards Edinburg.By this time I had already taken the tape off her mouth and then thrown it out.Tony then drove north of Edinburg on McColl.He pulled into a dirt road off McColl.We stayed there for awhile and Tony said he didn't want any part of what I was doing.He then got off and went walking.After Tony left I untied [the victim's] hands, but I left the blindfold on.I asked her if she was afraid and she said yes.I had sex with [the victim] while we were parked there.She didn't struggle when I was having sex with her.We were there for about an hour.I then tied her back up, and I went driving around the northwest area of Edinburg.She asked me if I could let her go.I was driving on a dirt road and I stopped by a small lake.I got her off and told her I was going to let her go.I untied her hands and she then came at me and scratched me all over my hands.I then put her on the ground and told her to stop.She then hit me with her knee on my leg.I then lost it and started punching her on the face.I then punched her on the neck with my right fist.She then started coughing up blood and was having a hard time breathing.She then stopped breathing.I got scared and put my ear on her chest.I couldn't hear a heart beat or any breathing.I tried giving her C.P.R. but she did not breath.I tried a couple of times but it didn't work.I checked her pulse on the neck but there was none.I then tied her back up and rolled her down a canal bank.The canal is close to the lake.

I didn't plan on doing this but I was high on cocaine.I then went to Tony's house and he did not answer.I then went home.

Appellant supplemented his statement several days later to reflect that he had expressed to Castillo in advance that he wanted to kidnap someone and that Castillo said he was willing to help but wanted "to see somebody die."Appellant added that Castillo did not walk away but was hanging around the car during the rape and murder.He further revised his statement to say that he killed [the victim] at the site where he raped her, then tied her up and drove her body to the canal.

Appellant led police to the scenes where he raped the victim, where he threw out the electrical tape, and where he disposed of the body.The victim's body was mostly submerged in water and only the tops of her legs were visible.Her jeans...