Huffman v. State

• Citation: 746 S.W.2d 212
• Decision Date: 03 February 1988
• Docket Number: No. 69388,69388
• Parties: Jim David HUFFMAN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas. Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Page 212

746 S.W.2d 212

Jim David HUFFMAN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 69388.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas,

En Banc.

Feb. 3, 1988.

Sam Ogan, Court appointed, Lubbock, for appellant.

Jim Bob Darnell, Dist. Atty., and Ruth Cantrell, Asst. Dist. Atty., Lubbock, Robert Huttash, State's Atty., Austin, for the State.

Before the court en banc.

OPINION

ONION, Presiding Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction of capital murder, V.T.C.A., Penal Code, § 19.03(a)(2), in which the death penalty was assessed by the court following affirmative answers by the jury to the two special issues submitted pursuant to Article 37.071(b)(1) and (2), V.A.C.C.P.

Appellant raises eight points of error, two of which challenge the sufficiency of the evidence in some respect. One contends that the evidence fails to show that the murder was committed during the course of a robbery, and another contends the evidence is insufficient to support the jury's affirmative finding as to the issue of future dangerousness.

The record reflects that on February 14, 1984, the deceased, Jeanette Peters, age 48, lived alone in a trailer house on Space 242 in the Camelot Mobile Home Park in Lubbock. She was a LVN nurse who was on a leave of absence because of a back injury. Appellant, age 22, lived with Ann Young, age 31, in a trailer house on Space 239 in the same trailer park as Peters. Peters had befriended appellant and Young and frequently allowed them to use her telephone as they had none. It appears from the evidence that three or four days prior to February 14th Ann Young had taken her clothes and had gone to Stephenville.

Arthur Walsh Carnrick, Peters' Sunday School teacher, testified he talked to Peters between 7 and 7:30 p.m. on February 14th before he left Lubbock for Austin about a church choral group rehearsal which Peters organized, etc., that after his flight arrived in Austin he telephoned Peters between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. but no one answered. The next morning he called again and became concerned when he still received no answer. He then telephoned Peters' sister, Betty Williams, about 8 a.m. on February 15, 1984. Williams testified she had talked with Peters several times on February 14th, the last time being about 8:15 p.m. and had planned to take Peters to the doctor at 9 a.m. on February 15th. ¹ After Carnrick's call she immediately drove to Peters' trailer house, observed that Peters' car was missing, and was unable to get any response within the house by knocking and hollering. The door was locked. Williams drove to a store and called her husband and asked him to call the police. She later met Patrolman Bill Johnson at the trailer house. He had been there earlier, about 7:20 a.m., trying to locate the registered owner of a 1979 Chevrolet which had been involved in a police chase and a D.W.I. arrest and was thought to be stolen. Williams and Officer Johnson went to the rear of the trailer where Williams got a bedroom window open and saw her sister's nude body on the bed. Johnson then popped open the locked front door and went in and established that Peters was dead. Other officers were called. There was a tennis shoe sole imprint on Peters' face. The evidence reflects that Peters' television set, revolver, jewelry and other items were missing. Drawers had been emptied.

Dr. Alberto Gerdets, a pathologist, testified that he performed an autopsy at 1 p.m. on February 15, 1984, and in his opinion Peters had been dead 12 to 18 hours prior to that time. There were multiple contusions on her face and head and tennis shoe sole imprints on both sides of her face. There was a laceration of the right ventricle produced by pressure applied over the heart causing pressure between the spine and the heart. This could have been the cause of death, but in the doctor's opinion the cause of death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation of the neck.

Richard Carstensen, a student who lived at the trailer park, testified that late in the afternoon on February 14, 1984, he took appellant, at his request, to the Strip where appellant purchased a six pack of beer and a bottle of whiskey, and they returned to the trailer park about 7 p.m. He described appellant as being "down" as his girlfriend had gone to Stephenville to see her ex-husband.

Troy Bradshaw, age 16, lived with his father and Tanna Coleman in the trailer on Space 243 in the Camelot Park. He knew appellant, his girlfriend, and Peters, and knew appellant and Ann Young often used Peters' phone. Bradshaw testified appellant taught him how to kick and punch, and that he once saw appellant jump and kick the ceiling with his foot. Appellant also told him how a person could be killed by pressure to the heart through the chest.

Bradshaw revealed that on February 14, 1984, he went to work after school about 5:30 p.m. at Duff's restaurant, and that about 8:30 p.m. he received a telephone call from Ann Young, who had left four days earlier. She wanted Bradshaw to tell appellant she had left Stephenville and was in Graham and that she loved him. Bradshaw got off work about 10:30 p.m. and Richard Davis, a co-worker, took him home. As they were entering the gate to the trailer park, about 10:45 or 11 p.m., Bradshaw saw someone driving Peters' car out of the park. Bradshaw knew that the deceased Peters did not usually go out that late and didn't usually permit anyone to use her car. Davis testified that a man was driving the car they observed.

Bradshaw related that as soon as he got home he went to appellant's trailer to give him Ann Young's message. No one was home. Bradshaw then went to visit his friend, Shane, at another trailer. Twenty minutes later walking to his home Bradshaw saw Peters' car in appellant's driveway. He then saw appellant come out of his trailer and called to him from about 20 yards away. He observed that at the time appellant was wearing tennis shoes. Appellant ignored him and got into the deceased's car and drove out of the park without the car lights being on.

Lubbock Police Detective Aubrey Stark at 1 a.m. on February 15, 1984, observed a 1978 Chevrolet Malibu, license number RYZ 616, weaving from lane to lane and in a near collision with a concrete abutment. The vehicle sped away when he tried to stop it. He radioed for assistance and marked police vehicles responded and a wild chase ensued with the Chevrolet finally being driven onto the Fairgrounds parking lot hitting cement parking cones and going airborne. The Chevrolet finally stopped. As the officers were getting out of the marked units the Chevrolet was driven into both police vehicles and then finally came to a stop. Appellant was the driver of the Chevrolet shown by the evidence to belong to Peters, the deceased. He had to be pulled through a window as the car door could not be opened. Appellant was twice given the Miranda warnings. Stark described appellant as abusive, combative and intoxicated. He observed a television set in the back seat of the car. Other evidence showed that a Sears remote control selector, a revolver, watches, a checkbook, jewelry sunglasses, etc., all belonging to Peters, were found in the car, as well as a coffee can of dirt and mud and some of appellant's clothes. There was also a partially filled Evans-Williams whiskey bottle.

Officer Terry Sansing, who helped to subdue appellant at the scene, described him as being six foot tall, weighing 180 pounds and as being "stout" in the upper chest and arms.

Appellant was taken to the intoxilizer room at the police department. There, while handcuffed, he bolted out of a chair, kicked Officer Richard Foster in the leg, and fell to the floor and suffered a laceration to his head. When Detective Stark first saw appellant at "the DWI room" he was screaming and thrashing about with a laceration over one eye. After he quieted down he was taken by ambulance to the Lubbock General Hospital about 1:45 or 2 a.m. Stark rode in the ambulance and related that appellant became violent again, kicking and screaming, but understood he was going to the hospital to have his cut treated. After arriving at the hospital, Stark stated appellant "stayed violent" and had to be restrained by leather cuffs on a gurney and was tied with sheets. Appellant still had on his tennis shoes. Stitches were taken on his forehead and then he was examined by Dr. Michael Paul Wenzler, a psychiatrist, sometime between 2 and 3 a.m. Dr. Wenzler testified that at first appellant was uncooperative, but his statements were short and coherent, that he asked to have his restraints loosened. He did not appear to be hallucinating, was not delusional, knew his name, was "oriented as to person," and appeared to understand what was going on around him. According to the doctor appellant's emotions were labile, quite changeable, from angry and struggling to tearfully repeating that no one loved him, and mentioning a girlfriend's name. He expressed a deep sense of sadness. The doctor ordered a blood test which showed "191 milligrams per decileter" or 0.19 percent of blood alcohol. Dr. Wenzler testified appellant was intoxicated, but he did not believe that the use of drugs was involved.

From the hospital appellant was taken to the Sheriff's office where a videotape was made, and appellant was placed in a padded cell at which time he became violent again, kicking, resisting and struggling.

It was shown that appellant's tennis shoes soles matched the prints on the deceased's face, and that blood on the shoes matched the blood of Peters with a high degree of reliability. The blood also matched that found in the trailer and could not have been that of appellant. It was stipulated that at 7 p.m. on February 14th appellant had called the telephone number at the house of Ann Young's grandmother in Stephenville and that the call had been placed from the telephone of the deceased Peters at her trailer house.

The State called Ann Young, who testified she met appell...