Giddens v. State

• Decision Date: 16 April 2008
• Docket Number: No. 10-07-00076-CR.,10-07-00076-CR.
• Citation: Giddens v. State, 256 S.W.3d 426 (Tex. App. 2008)
• Parties: David Michael GIDDENS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

256 S.W.3d 426

David Michael GIDDENS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 10-07-00076-CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Waco.

April 16, 2008.

Rehearing Overruled May 13, 2008.

Joseph L. Sheppard, Keith Bradley, Bradley & Cain, LLC, Burleson, Patrick J. Garner, Fort Worth, for Appellant.

Dale S. Hanna, Johnson County Dist. Atty., Cleburne, for Appellee.

Before Chief Justice GRAY, Justice VANCE, and Justice REYNA.

OPINION

BILL VANCE, Justice.

A jury found David Michael Giddens guilty of both capital murder and injury to a child by omission in the death of his three-month-old adopted son. The capital murder conviction carried an automatic life sentence, and the jury assessed punishment on the injury-to-a-child-by-omission charge at life in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with a $10,000 fine. Giddens appeals on nine issues. In the first seven issues, Giddens challenges the jury charge and the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions. In the remaining two issues, Giddens complains of a Batson violation and challenges the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress. We will affirm.

Background

The facts surrounding this case are largely undisputed. In August of 2005, Giddens and his wife Lynn adopted two twin boys, Nicholas and Gary, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, Lynn and Giddens were given care, custody and control of the twins and obtained the necessary court order to return to Texas with them. During the day, while Lynn was at work, Giddens cared for the boys with the help of Lela Walker, Lynn's Aunt. Giddens stayed at home because of progressive and recurring symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

On February 8, 2006, at approximately 4:00 p.m., Giddens came home from picking up his adopted daughter, Hannah, from school and came into the living room to feed Nicholas. Nicholas, who had been suffering from thrush, began crying and refused to take the bottle. Walker testified that Giddens then got angry, yelled "I'm tired of this!", threw the bottle on the couch, and quickly carried Nicholas to his crib where Giddens was heard, through the child-monitor, twice striking Nicholas. In his statement given to police, Giddens stated that after striking Nicholas, he stopped crying and went limp.

At approximately 6:50 p.m., Lynn returned home and checked on the twins before leaving to take Hannah to church at 7:00 p.m. After picking up Hannah from church, having dinner and, lying down to rest, Lynn was awakened by Gary's cry at around 1:00 a.m. After changing and feeding Gary, Lynn wondered why Nicholas was not crying to be fed as well. When she checked on Nicholas, she noticed that he was cold to the touch and non-responsive. She called 9-1-1, and medical personnel arrived, but they were unable to revive Nicholas.

An autopsy of Nicholas was done that afternoon. Johnson County Assistant Medical Examiner Joanna Borkowski, M.D., was the first doctor to perform an autopsy on Nicholas. During her initial review, Dr. Borkowski opened Nicholas's skull and noticed that blood had collected inside. Upon further examination, Dr. Borkowski determined that Nicholas had suffered multiple, complex fracturing to the skull, hemorrhaging, and a rectangular depression in the skull. Because of the pliability of an infant's head, Dr. Borkowski realized that the type of injuries sustained by Nicholas were not accidental and could have only been sustained by an intentional severe blow to the head. For this reason, Dr. Borkowski stopped the autopsy and called police. Nicholas was later re-examined by two other medical examiners, Dr. Krouse and Dr. Rains, whose findings were similar to Dr. Borkowski's.

The police went to the Giddenses' home and requested an interview. Giddens subsequently gave three written statements to police.

During the first interview, which took place in the office of Cleburne Police Department Detective Bill Black, Giddens was asked to give a chronology of events leading up to Nicholas's injury. Giddens stated that he put Nicholas to bed at about 6:30 p.m. and that he did not realize anything was wrong with the child until Lynn woke him up later that night. Following Giddens's statement, the police's collective information, including the autopsy results and the statement by Walker, led to a determination that Giddens was the most likely person to have caused Nicholas's injury.

Giddens was interviewed a second time, and he acknowledged that he had not been completely truthful in his first interview. In his second statement, Giddens said that after Lynn had left to take Hannah to church, he picked Nicholas up for a feeding and, on the way back from the kitchen, he stumbled. He said that Nicholas's head hit the wall or doorframe and then he accidentally dropped Nicholas on the hardwood floor. He indicated that Nicholas had become lethargic, with his breathing shallow and gasping, and that although he realized these were signs of injury, he took no action and failed to inform Lynn when she returned home. Realizing that Giddens had volunteered information indicating he was guilty of injury to a child by omission, Fox later arrested Giddens.

After his arrest, Giddens agreed to take a polygraph examination. As the exam was beginning, Giddens asked the examiner to stop the questioning, stating that he had been untruthful during his second statement, and agreed to give a third statement. In this statement, Giddens admitted to (1) being angry at Nicholas, (2) striking him twice with an open hand out of anger, (3) stumbling with the child, and (4) that his failure to get help for Nicholas led to the child's death.

The State filed a five-count indictment against Giddens consisting of the charges of (1) capital murder, (2) murder, (3) felony murder, (4) injury to a child, and (5) injury to a child by omission. Before trial, the State dropped counts two through four and proceeded with the capital murder and injury-to-a-child-by-omission counts. The jury found Giddens guilty of both charges.

Motion to Suppress

Giddens filed a pretrial motion to suppress his written statement to police, arguing that this statement should have been suppressed because it was obtained through a prolonged coercive interrogation. The trial court denied the motion. In his ninth issue, Giddens argues that the court abused its discretion in denying this motion.

In a hearing on a motion to suppress, the trial judge is the sole and exclusive trier of fact and judge of the credibility of the witnesses as well as the weight to be given to their testimony. Romero v. State, 800 S.W.2d 539, 543 (Tex.Crim.App. 1990). If the court's resolution of a controverted issue is supported by the record, a reviewing court should not disturb that decision. Muniz v. State, 851 S.W.2d 238, 252 (Tex.Crim.App.1993).

On February 9, 2006, around 6:00 p.m. Detective Black was contacted by fellow officer, Commander Laseman. Laseman informed Black of the medical examiner's findings that Nicholas had suffered skull fractures indicating that his death was not accidental. Together, Laseman and Black went to Giddens's home and requested an interview with Giddens and his wife. At the police station, Giddens was taken to Black's office while another investigator interviewed Giddens's wife. Giddens's interview began at approximately 7:30 p.m., and Officer Black began by asking Giddens to give a timeline of the events that occurred on the day of Nicholas's death. As Giddens answered Officer Black's questions, another detective typed the responses on his computer. The interview ended at approximately 10:00 p.m., with Giddens reviewing and signing a printed copy of the witness statement.

In this first statement, Giddens indicated that there was nothing abnormal about Nicholas's behavior when he put him to bed at 6:30 p.m. and that he did not realize anything was wrong with him until his wife alerted him later that night.

After interviewing Walker and Lynn and receiving the autopsy information, the police believed that Nicholas's death was not an accident and that Lynn, Lela, and Giddens were possible suspects. Specifically, when Lela was questioned, she mentioned that Giddens had anger management problems and on the day of the incident, Giddens had taken Nicholas to the child's bedroom. She then heard what she believed were two slaps. Based on this information, the police believed that Giddens was the most likely person to have caused Nicholas's injury. For this reason, Detective Fox further questioned Giddens after his interview with Officer Black.

At this second interview, Fox first laid out the aforementioned evidence implicating Giddens and asked Giddens to be honest about what had happened to Nicholas. Fox began taking down Giddens's second statement in which Giddens admitted to dropping Nicholas and being untruthful during his first interview. Fox printed a copy of the typed statement, read it to Giddens, and then allowed him an opportunity to read over it and make any changes. Following the completion of the second interview, Giddens was arrested and taken to jail.

The next day, Black met with Giddens and asked if he would be willing to travel to Arlington to take a polygraph test. Giddens agreed. Before taking the test, Officer Wood administered the appropriate Miranda warnings and read Giddens his first two statements. Giddens then indicated that his statement to Fox had not fully disclosed all of the details surrounding Nicholas's death and he asked to give a third written statement. Wood then took down Giddens's third statement, which took approximately fifteen to twenty minutes.

To be admissible, a confession must be voluntarily given and free from coercion or improper influences. Wyatt v. State, 23 S.W.3d 18, 23 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000); Kearney v. State, 181 S.W.3d 438, 443 (Tex.App.-Waco 2005, pet. ref'd.); Sendejo v. State, 953 S.W.2d 443, 447-48 (Tex. App.-Waco 1997, pet. ref'd.). A confession is involuntary or...