Hughes v. State

• Decision Date: 12 April 2000
• Citation: 24 S.W.3d 833
• Parties: (Tex.Crim.App. 2000) TOMMIE COLLINS HUGHES, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS NO. 73,129
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Page 833

24 S.W.3d 833 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000)

TOMMIE COLLINS HUGHES, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS

NO. 73,129

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS

APRIL 12, 2000

ON DIRECT APPEAL FROM THE 204TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT OF DALLAS COUNTY

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O P I N I O N

MANSFIELD, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which MCCORMICK, P.J., KELLER, PRICE, HOLLAND, WOMACK, and KEASLER, J.J., joined.

Appellant, Tommie Collins Hughes, was charged with capital murder committed in Dallas County on or about August 13, 1997. See Tex. Pen. Code 19.03(a)(2). Appellant was accused of shooting and robbing two women in the parking lot of a theater in north Dallas. A jury found appellant guilty, and its answers to the special punishment issues necessitated that a sentence of death be imposed by the trial court. Art. 37.071, 2(b)(1), (e), & (g).¹ Direct appeal to this Court is automatic pursuant to Article 37.071, 2(h). Appellant presents fourteen points of error for this Court's consideration, and we shall address the points of error as they occurred at trial.

Appellant argues in the first point of error that the State deprived him of qualified trial counsel by failing to "even remotely attempt to comply with the capital screening procedure required by Article 26.052." In those counties not served by a public defender's office, that article ensures that indigent defendants accused of capital murder are appointed counsel who is qualified under standards adopted by a specially designated committee in each administrative judicial region. Art. 26.052(b),(c),&(d). These standards are to be prominently posted with an accompanying list of attorneys qualified for appointment in each district clerk's office. Art. 26.052(d).

In a signed affidavit, the administrative judge for the First Administrative Judicial Region of Texas declared that a committee was convened and did promulgate the qualifications needed to represent a capital defendant in that region, but the committee never posted the criteria accompanied by a list of qualified counsel. Instead, it appears the administrative judge ordered that individual district judges develop any additional standards, beyond the minimum standards, then compile and publish the list of qualified attorneys in his or her individual district. In the district where appellant was tried, this list was never promulgated or published by the time counsel for appellant was declared indigent and counsel appointed. Not until March of 1999 was a proper order for appointment of qualified counsel promulgated in the First Administrative Judicial Region.

Based on the available information and by the State's own admission, there was a failure to completely comply with Article 26.052. However, we do not find harm in this case, especially harm so egregious as to affect a substantial right. See Tex. R. App. Pro 44.2(b).² Contrary to appellant's assertion, the record reflects he was represented by fully qualified and capable counsel. Both men were trial attorneys possessing extensive experience in criminal matters, including capital murder litigation. Their actions at appellant's trial capably demonstrate this experience. Additionally, the list of qualified counsel that was eventually posted in compliance with the statute contained the names of both appellant's appointed counsel, and the trial judge, in his findings of fact and conclusions of law on this issue, asserted that, if the list had been available, he would have chosen both attorneys to represent appellant in this case. Appellant suffered no harm and was not deprived of qualified trial counsel. The first point of error is overruled.

In his third point of error, appellant claims the trial court erred in refusing to grant his motion to suppress evidence found on him, a fellow suspect in this case, and inside the car in which the two were riding as passengers just prior to their arrest. Appellant claims this evidence was seized by police after an illegal, warrantless arrest. See Art. 14.01(b). This police misconduct, it is further argued, enabled investigators to find the murder weapon, ammunition, bloodstained clothes, and stolen property inside the vehicle and on the suspects themselves. This evidence, it is argued, should have been suppressed as fruit of the illegal arrest.

We note initially that, regardless whether appellant's arrest was illegal, he cannot claim a violation of any legitimate, reasonable expectation of privacy as a result of the search and seizure of the vehicle or its other occupants. "A person who is aggrieved by an illegal search and seizure only through the introduction of damaging evidence secured by a search of a third person's premises or property has not had any of his Fourth Amendment rights infringed." Rakas v. Illinois, 99 S.Ct. 421, 425 (1978). See also Meeks v. State, 692 S.W.2d 504, 510 (Tex.Crim.App. 1985). Appellant claims no possessory interest in the vehicle itself or in those items seized from within it. Nor does he claim possession of any property found on the second suspect in this crime. With regard to those items, appellant endured no infringement of any right ensuring freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. These were properly admitted into evidence.

As for the evidence found on appellant himself, the facts surrounding his arrest show police were justified in conducting a warrantless arrest, and, therefore, those items were admissible as evidence. We remain aware that, as a general rule, police officers must obtain an arrest warrant prior to taking someone into custody. Dejarnette v.State, 732 S.W.2d 346, 349 (Tex.Crim.App.1987).However, statutory exceptions do exist, and, in the case at bar, circumstances demonstrate that the justification to arrest without a warrant arose from Article 14.04.³ To lawfully arrest under Article 14.04, there must be some evidence, amounting to satisfactory proof, either related by a credible person to an officer or observed by the officer him/herself, indicating that a felony has been committed, that the person arrested is the offender, and that the person was about to escape so that there was no time to procure a warrant. Id. at 349-51. What must be shown by "satisfactory proof" is the legal equivalent of constitutional "probable cause." Earley v. State, 635 S.W.2d 528, 531 (Tex.Crim.App. 1982). See also Amores v. State, 816 S.W.2d 407, 413 (Tex.Crim.App. 1991). Probable cause exists where the police have reasonably trustworthy information, considered as a whole, sufficient to warrant a reasonable person to believe a particular person has committed or is committing an offense. Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 87 (Tex.Crim.App. 1997); Amores v. State, 816 S.W.2d at 413. Probable cause requires more than mere suspicion but far less evidence than that needed to support a conviction or even that needed to support a finding by a preponderance of the evidence. Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d at 87.

Considered as a whole, the particular facts of this case, as they were elicited by the State at trial, demonstrate there was satisfactory proof that a crime had been committed and that the individuals arrested shortly after the crime occurred were responsible. The theater where the crime occurred had experienced a rash of robberies and burglaries in the recent past, and law enforcement officers had staked out the area with specific hopes of catching those responsible. During the evening in question, undercover officers noticed appellant and his partner, Michael English, as the two walked through the parking lot toward the theater building. Approximately ten minutes later, both men were observed walking quickly back toward their car, a Mercury Tracer. Appellant was twenty to thirty feet behind English. English appeared to be hunched over, concealing what was described as a "large bulge" beneath his shirt. This "bulge" had not been observed earlier. After both men entered the car, the driver,who had never left the vehicle, quickly accelerated, exiting the parking lot at a high rate of speed, and continued onto the highway reaching speeds of ninety miles an hour. To the undercover officers, these actions, under the existing circumstances, indicated the two men may have just burglarized a parked motor vehicle. One officer, in an unmarked vehicle, began a clandestine pursuit, maintaining a safe distance so as not to arouse the suspect's suspicion. The officers remaining at the theater searched the parking lot for signs of a possible burglary. Within minutes, theater patrons came upon the two victims, both apparently dead of gunshot wounds. Authorities were notified, and the occupants of the Mercury Tracer then became capital murder suspects. By viewing the totality of the circumstances, there was satisfactory proof that a crime had been committed and the occupants of the Mercury Tracer were responsible. See Dejarnette v. State, 732 S.W.2d at 351.

We determine now whether there was satisfactory proof that appellant was about to escape, and there was insufficient opportunity to obtain an arrest warrant. Information of the crime and its possible suspects was immediately dispatched over the police radio. The undercover officer kept the speeding Mercury Tracer within his sight until a marked police unit intervened and occupied a position directly behind, and within obvious view of, the fleeing vehicle. The officer did not, however, activate the unit's emergency lights at this time. The suspect vehicle eventually exited the highway and pulled into a gas station in south Dallas. Appellant exited and appeared as though he was preparing to activate the gas pump. The pursuing unit pulled in behind the suspect vehicle, activated its emergency lights, and, almost immediately, other marked units converged on the scene. Appellant was ordered onto the ground and arrested. The remaining occupants of the car were...