Ex parte Carty

• Decision Date: 07 February 2018
• Docket Number: NO. WR–61,055–02,WR–61,055–02
• Citation: 543 S.W.3d 149
• Parties: EX PARTE Linda CARTY, Applicant
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

543 S.W.3d 149

EX PARTE Linda CARTY, Applicant

NO. WR–61,055–02

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

Michael S. Goldberg, Baker Botts L.L.P., 910 Louisiana St., Houston, TX 77002, for Applicant.

Joshua A. Reiss, Assistant District Attorney, Harris County District Attorney, 1201 Franklin Street, Houston, TX 77002, Stacey Soule, Austin, TX, for The State.

ORDER

Per curiam.

This is a subsequent application for writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to the provisions of Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.071, § 5.

Applicant was convicted of murdering Joana Rodriguez in the course of kidnapping her. Prior to the instant offense, Rodriguez was pregnant and was living in the same apartment complex where Applicant resided. Applicant told people that she wanted Rodriguez's baby and that she was going to "cut the baby out" of her. Applicant recruited a group of men to break into Rodriguez's apartment to commit robbery and kidnap Rodriguez. These men included Christopher Robinson, Gerald Anderson, and Carliss Williams. A fourth man, Marvin Caston, was involved in their discussions but did not participate in the home invasion.

Robinson, Anderson, and Williams kicked in the door of Rodriguez's apartment after midnight on May 16, 2001, while Applicant waited outside. When the men entered the apartment, they became aware that Rodriguez had already given birth to a baby boy. They beat and bound Rodriguez's husband and another male relative. Rodriguez was brought outside and placed in a car trunk, and Applicant took the baby. The group drove to a residence where Applicant instructed the men to tie up Rodriguez. Williams opened the trunk, taped Rodriguez's mouth and hands, then shut the trunk. Another man, Zebediah Combs, was present at the residence and saw Rodriguez inside the car trunk.

Robinson testified at trial that he, Anderson, and Williams left the residence. When Robinson returned, he saw that the car trunk was open. He testified that Rodriguez was face down in the trunk and Applicant was holding a plastic bag over her head. Robinson testified that he tore open the bag and observed that Rodriguez was dead.

Police later questioned Applicant about the disappearance of Rodriguez and her baby. Charles Mathis, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent with whom Applicant had worked as a confidential informant, was present while she was being questioned. Applicant thereafter led police to the residence where the baby and Rodriguez's body were located.

Robinson, Caston, Combs, and Mathis testified for the State at Applicant's trial. The jury found Applicant guilty of the offense of capital murder in February 2002. See TEX. PENAL CODE § 19.03(a)(2). At punishment, the jury answered the special issues submitted pursuant to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 37.071, and the trial court, accordingly, set Applicant's punishment at death. This Court affirmed Applicant's conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Carty v. State, No. AP–74,295, 2004 WL 3093229 (Tex. Crim. App. April 7, 2004) (not designated for publication). This Court denied relief on Applicant's initial post-conviction application for writ of habeas corpus. Ex parte Carty, No. WR–61,055–01 (Tex. Crim. App. March 2, 2005)(not designated for publication).

Applicant presents six allegations in her –02 writ application in which she challenges the validity of her conviction and resulting sentence. We remanded this application for the trial court to consider three of Applicant's claims:

A. Whether Applicant's right to due process was violated by the State's presentation of false and misleading testimony at trial, in violation of her rights to due process and due course of law under Giglio and Napue.

B. Whether Applicant's right to due process and due course of law was violated by the State's presentation of false and misleading testimony against her at trial, in violation of her rights under Chabot and Chavez.

C. Whether Applicant's right to due process was violated by the State's failure to disclose impeachment and exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland.

Applicant specifically asserts in Claims A, B, and C that the prosecutors coerced Robinson and Caston to testify falsely at trial, that they threatened Anderson and Mathis, and that they failed to disclose impeachment and exculpatory evidence with regard to Robinson, Caston, Anderson, and Mathis.

After holding a hearing on Claims A, B, and C, the trial court made findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that those claims be denied. This Court has reviewed the record with respect to those allegations. Based upon the trial court's findings and conclusions and our own review, we deny relief on Claims A, B, and C.

In Claims D and E, Applicant contends that the "cumulative impact of the constitutional errors" violated her state and federal constitutional rights to due process and due course of law. In Claim F, Applicant contends that she "is actually innocent and her conviction and death sentence therefore violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution." With regard to these claims, we find that Applicant has failed to satisfy the requirements of Article 11.071, § 5(a). Accordingly, we dismiss Claims D, E, and F as an abuse of the writ without reviewing the merits of those claims.

Applicant has also filed in this Court a "Motion for Remand and Alternatively, Motion to Stay." Applicant asserts in this motion that the State failed to disclose to defense counsel that it had a deal with Combs in exchange for his trial testimony. This claim, which was not contained in the instant writ application, was raised by Applicant during the post-remand hearing in the trial court. Because we do not have jurisdiction to review this claim, we deny Applicant's motion to remand this application to the trial court for consideration of the merits of the claim.

IT IS SO ORDERED THIS THE 7^TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 2018.

Richardson, J., filed a concurring opinion in which Hervey and Walker, JJ., joined. Walker, J., filed a concurring opinion in which Hervey, J., joined. Alcala, J., concurred. Newell, J., did not participate.

RICHARDSON, J., filed a concurring opinion in which HERVEY and WALKER, JJ., joined.

CONCURRING OPINION

Applicant Linda Carty was convicted of the capital murder of Joana Rodriguez. She was sentenced to death in 2002. In this subsequent state habeas application, which was filed on September 10, 2014, Carty contends that newly discovered evidence shows that the State (1) knowingly used false testimony and (2) suppressed exculpatory evidence. Carty also filed a Motion to Remand. Today, this Court dismisses three of Carty's habeas claims as procedurally barred, denies the remaining three habeas claims on the merits, and denies Carty's motion for remand. I agree with the Court's decision.

BACKGROUND FACTS¹

On or about May 12, 2001, Raymundo Cabrera and Joana Rodriguez brought home their new baby boy, Ray. They shared their apartment with Cabrera's cousin, Rigoberto Cardenas. Carty and her boyfriend, Jose Corona, had lived in the same apartment complex in a unit very close to Cabrera's and Rodriguez's.

At 1:00 a.m., on May 16, 2001, Carty and three men went to the apartment complex. Those three men were Chris Robinson, Carliss "Twin" Williams,² and Gerald "Baby G" Anderson. Carty had driven to the apartment complex in a separate car and waited in the parking lot while the three men kicked in the door of Cabrera's and Rodriguez's apartment. The men beat Cabrera and taped his hands and feet together. Anderson taped up Cardenas who was asleep downstairs. They told Rodriguez to bring her baby outside and come with them. Williams and Anderson brought Rodriguez out of the apartment and put her in the trunk of Robinson's car. At some point Carty took the baby and put him in her car. The group left the complex with the baby and Rodriguez and met up at a storage unit. They moved Rodriguez to the trunk of Carty's car. Then they all went back to a house on Van Zandt where Robinson's half brother, Zebediah Comb (also known as "Jerome") and their grandmother lived. Williams taped Rodriguez's mouth and hands and closed the trunk. At some point the three men left, believing Carty would leave in her car (with Rodriguez in the trunk). Robinson returned to the house and said he saw Carty part-way in the trunk of her car. He said she "had [a plastic] bag over the lady's head." Carty and Robinson closed the trunk and left her car at the house. Robinson then drove Carty and the baby to a hotel room that Carty had rented and stocked with baby items. In the meantime, the police had been called to the crime scene. One of the witnesses they interviewed was a neighbor, Florencia Meyers, who tipped them off to Linda Carty's possible involvement based on Carty's odd behavior regarding having a baby. Thus, when Robinson and Carty were on the way back to the Van Zandt house, the police contacted Carty. She went to meet the police at the police station, and Robinson and the baby went back to the Van Zandt house.

When Carty was interviewed by the police, she told them that she had loaned a car she had rented to a group of men who must have been involved in the kidnapping of Rodriguez and her baby. She maintained that she knew nothing of their plan. She agreed to take the police to where she believed the car would be. When she and the police arrived at the Van Zandt house they found the baby alive in a car registered to Carty's daughter, and they found Rodriguez dead in the trunk of Carty's rental car.

After Robinson was arrested he was interviewed twice by police on the day after the murder (May 17, 2001). In his interviews, Robinson repeatedly said that Carty had manipulated the men into helping her take the baby. He said that Carty "conned" the men into believing that they were breaking into a drug dealer's apartment, but they didn't find any weed. He then said that after they broke into the...