Flores v. State
| Docket Number | 01-20-00213-CR |
| Decision Date | 31 March 2022 |
| Parties | ROBERTO MEDINA FLORES, 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Do Not Publish.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 10th District Court Galveston County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 17CR0756
Panel consists of Justices Goodman, Rivas-Molloy, and Farris.
A jury convicted Appellant Roberto Medina Flores of the second-degree felony offense of sexual assault. Appellant pleaded true to an enhancement paragraph, and the trial court assessed Appellant's punishment at fifteen years' confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.
Appellant raises five points of error. In his first point of error, he contends the evidence was legally insufficient to support his conviction for sexual assault because the State failed to prove scienter. In his second point of error, Appellant argues the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion for new trial because the judge's comments during voir dire violated his Fifth Amendment right not to testify at trial and to the presumption of innocence. In his third and fourth points of error, Appellant asserts he was denied effective assistance of counsel during the guilt-innocence phase of trial because his counsel failed to investigate available witnesses and seek a forensic examination of the complainant's video/audio recorded statement to law enforcement. In his fifth point of error, Appellant asserts the trial court erred in considering extraneous evidence outside the record in denying his motion for new trial. We affirm.
In August 2014, the complainant, Megan Beck ("Beck") left Houston and moved to Galveston where she began working at one of the shops on The Strand in Galveston called at Lapalapa. Lapalapa's owner owned several other nearby shops, including Bunch A' Cool Stuff, and his employees typically worked among the different shops. Appellant worked at Bunch A' Cool Stuff and Gizmos's Bar.
Appellant visited the shop where Beck worked on occasion. Beck testified Appellant was "very flirtatious" and "always acted like he was into me." Appellant would tell Beck "he wanted to sleep with [her]" and "wanted to go out with her, different things like that." Beck repeatedly told Appellant she was not attracted to him, did not like him, and "wanted nothing to do with that every time." At the time, Beck was twenty-one years old and Appellant was thirty-four years old and had a young child. Beck testified she "had no interest in anybody that much older who had a child and everything else."
While working at Lapalapa, Beck met Landers Weakley ("Weakley"), who worked at a cigar store at The Strand and lived in a loft above Lapalapa. Beck and Weakley became friends and eventually started dating. Beck testified she and Weakley saw each other a couple of times a week. She testified she "really didn't drink" until she turned twenty-one and did not drink "that often." She would hang out with Weakley and they would have a few drinks together, "[m]ostly whiskey."
On December 21, 2014, Beck planned to meet Weakley after her shift at work and going home to walk her dog. Weakley got off work first and walked a few blocks to his loft. Weakley told Beck "he needed to take a nap" and she agreed to "meet up with him once [she] got back from hanging out with [her] dog." When Beck's shift ended, she ran into Appellant who suggested they get a drink "down the street" where Appellant's co-worker, Vlad, was bartending. Appellant and Beck went to Bobby's House of Spirits on The Strand. Beck drank a couple of glasses of whiskey and three shots-a fireball, a liquid marijuana, and a third unknown shot.
She testified she went to the bathroom and, upon returning she saw a third shot sitting on the bar and she drank it. Beck testified she had never had drinks with Appellant before that day.
Beck testified Appellant was "very flirtatious" with her at the bar and told her "to give him a chance." Beck replied that she "wasn't interested whatsoever." At one point, Appellant touched Beck and "put his hand towards [her] vagina over [her] jeans." Beck pushed Appellant away and "told him not to do that." Beck testified Appellant complied and "just kind of laughed it off."
Aware she had had too much to drink, Beck decided to leave the bar and walk to Weakley's loft a block and a half away. When she tried to stand up, she nearly fell over and she stumbled as she walked. Appellant left the bar at the same time as Beck and "insisted on driving" her to Weakley's loft. Beck "kept telling him, no" and that she "was going to walk" because the loft "was right down the street." Beck testified that "she was stumbling a lot," and as she and Appellant walked down the street, Appellant told her again he wanted to have sex with her. She told him that it "was never ever, ever going to happen" and she "had no interest in him whatsoever."
Beck then blacked out. She testified the next thing she remembered was "waking up in Appellant's truck." Beck testified she did not remember where she was when she blacked out or how she got into Appellant's truck. When she awoke, Beck was in the passenger seat of Appellant's truck. Beck's pants "were pushed down to mid-thigh," Appellant was on top of her, facing her, and "his penis was inside [her] vagina." When Beck realized what was happening, she pushed Appellant off with both of her hands, and told him to get off of her. Beck testified Appellant then moved to the driver's seat of the truck, "grabbed [her] head and pulled [her] over to his side to do oral sex on him." Beck testified that when Appellant grabbed her head and pulled it down, her mouth contacted his penis. Beck "pulled back as soon" as she could, pulled her pants up, and "jumped out of the truck." She began walking "down the street and tried to go back" to Weakley's loft.
Beck testified the next thing she remembered was sitting on Weakley's bed in his loft. She could not recall how she got to Weakley's loft. She "just remember[ed] getting in his apartment and sitting down on his bed." Beck testified she did not tell Weakley what had happened because she was "still very messed up and trying to figure out what had happened" herself. She testified she was still "very intoxicated" and "could barely walk." She could not "see straight" and could not process fully "what had happened." Her memory of what happened next was "spotty."
Beck testified Weakley drove her to her "apartment on the west end." He dropped her "off at the front of the complex and drove away." As Weakley left, Beck realized she did not have her purse or her keys. She assumed they had fallen in Weakley's car. She called Weakley to ask him to return to her apartment. Beck stated that when "[Weakley] arrived, he pointed out that my keys were sticking out of my pocket." Beck testified she began crying hysterically "[b]ecause at that point, [she] knew that she was not in control of what was happening." The next thing Beck remembered was being in her apartment with her dog. She took a shower and "sat there with [her] dog" and "just went to sleep."
Beck testified Weakley picked her up the next day to take her to work because she had left her car on The Strand the previous day. She testified she Beck testified she did not tell Weakley the full extent of what had happened because she "was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it, trying to figure out what had actually happened." She testified Weakley was "a bit of a hothead" and she "didn't want him to run down The Strand and try to beat [Appellant] up."
That same day, while Beck was at work, Appellant stopped by to return the contents of Beck's purse to her-her wallet, taser, and birth control. Appellant did not return her purse and the money that had been in her wallet was gone. Beck avoided eye contact with Appellant, took her belongings, and walked away. She worked the rest of her shift and then she "went home trying to figure out what to do with everything."
Beck testified that when she returned home she "pieced together pretty much the whole night" and was trying to decide whether to press charges. She testified she knew of others who had pressed similar charges and "had horrible experiences with it and cases like it being drug out for five years." She also testified that "if there's any alcohol involved, police don't usually believe women." Beck worried that if she reported the incident "it would cause more harm in my life than good" because she would have to tell multiple people what happened, undergo a sexual assault nurse examination ("SANE"), and relive the incident for years. Beck ultimately decided to report what had happened to her because she wanted Appellant arrested and charged.
The next day, Weakley called Officer Jeff Banks ("Officer Banks") with the Galveston Police Department. Beck met with Officer Banks outside the cigar shop where Weakley worked. Beck testified she told Officer Banks that she went to a bar with Appellant and later blacked out, and that she woke up in Appellant's truck with him "on top of [her] and pushing him off." She could not recall whether she told Officer Banks about the "oral part," stating it was "a horribly disgusting thought, and I was just trying to tell him what had happened so we could get started," but she stated she disclosed the information during the SANE at the hospital.
When Officer Banks met with Beck outside the cigar shop, Beck was upset and hesitant to talk with him. Officer Banks testified Beck told him that "she had been raped...
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