Ingerson v. State
| Decision Date | 19 September 2018 |
| Docket Number | NO. PD-1445-16,PD-1445-16 |
| Citation | 559 S.W.3d 501 |
| Parties | Fred Earl INGERSON III, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas |
| Court | Texas Court of Criminal Appeals |
Edgar A. Mason, State Bar No. 13153000, 6060 N. Central Expressway, Suite 600, Dallas, Texas 75206, for Appellant.
Stacey M. Soule, State Prosecuting Attorney, Bar I.D. No. 24031632, P.O. Box 13046, Austin, Texas 78711, for State of Texas.
Appellant, Fred Earl Ingerson III, was convicted of capital murder for killing Robyn Richter and Shawna Ferris in the same transaction. Because the State did not seek the death penalty, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Ingerson appealed, in part arguing that the evidence was legally insufficient to support his conviction. The court of appeals agreed and rendered an acquittal. Ingerson v. State , 508 S.W.3d 703, 704 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2016) (mem. op.). We agreed to review the decision of the court of appeals and conclude that it erred in finding the evidence insufficient. Consequently, we will reverse its judgment and remand the cause for the court of appeals to address Ingerson's remaining points of error.
In the early morning hours of June 28, 2008,1 the bodies of Robyn Richter and her friend, Shawna Ferris, were found in Richter's vehicle outside of a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar called Miyako in Granbury. They both were shot once in the head. Almost two years later, Ingerson was arrested for capital murder and was convicted.
Richter met Ingerson at the Hood County Tax Assessor-Collector Office in Granbury, where she handled car registrations in the Motor Vehicle Division. Ingerson was immediately smitten with Richter and asked her to go on a date with him. They developed a friendship over a two-month period, exchanging phone calls and text messages on a daily basis. Richter considered them just friends, but Ingerson was interested in a romantic relationship. Although Richter was not interested in that, she led Ingerson to believe that she was because she enjoyed being "wined and dined," and she needed money to appear more financially stable while trying to adopt a young girl. One of her co-workers and best friends warned her on multiple occasions not to lead Ingerson on, especially because she was romantically interested in another man named Mohamed "Mo" Sylla, but she did not think that Ingerson knew Richter was using him. Ingerson's statements to police indicated otherwise.2
During the same time period that Richter and Ingerson became friends and began spending time together, Richter was trying to adopt a girl named S.L.3 The problem for Richter, however, was that she did not make much money. At the end of each month, she had $194 leftover after paying her bills and other expenses. Richter told S.L. that Ingerson tried to have sexual intercourse with her and that she refused, but she also told S.L. that, even though she thought that Ingerson was disgusting, she would be nice to him so he would lend her money. About a month before the murders, Richter told one of her friends and S.L. that Ingerson had given her $10,000 to help with her adoption case. Bank records, however, showed that $10,000 was never deposited into Richter's account. The average deposit was a few hundred dollars. Days before the murders, Ingerson and Richter went to dinner, and she asked him for a $1,500 loan, but Ingerson refused.
On June 27, 2008, Ingerson went to the Tax-Assessors Office to buy license plates. When he pulled out his checkbook to write a check, Richter jokingly asked if she could write a check out to herself. Ingerson told her no. After he left, Richter made fun of him in front of the entire staff, mocking him because he was balding, because he walked funny, and because he was a nerd. Despite making fun of him in front of her co-workers, later that evening, Richter texted Ingerson and Sylla a picture of her cleavage with the caption, "Yes they miss u 2." Ingerson responded, asking Richter if she was "bored, horny, or teasing?"
Later that evening, Richter and Ferris invited Ingerson to Miyako. He told them that he would meet them there because he needed to get ready first. Richter and Ferris arrived at Miyako between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. They sat at the sushi bar. While they were there, they started talking to the bartender and told him that they had been spending Ingerson's money when they were out shopping earlier that day. When Ingerson arrived at about 10:00 p.m., he sat with Richter and Ferris at the sushi bar.
A number of people overheard or saw interactions between Ingerson, Richter, and Ferris that night. The manager overheard something about "relationships" and heard Ingerson shouting racial pejoratives. Ingerson's tirades were directed at Sylla, the other man Richter was seeing, because he is black, and Ingerson did not like black people. Richter had also told Ingerson that she was going to see Sylla later that night. While Richter was in the restroom, another employee overheard Ferris tell Ingerson that "it" would not be okay with her because Richter was like a sister to her, referring to a threesome that Ingerson had previously suggested. Richter and Ferris also flirted with two other patrons at the bar, and Richter even grabbed one of the men's crotch, which he loudly noted. Ingerson chastised her, telling her to control her behavior.
Richter and Ferris left Miyako between 10:40 p.m. and 10:45 p.m., but Ingerson stayed. While the bartender was cleaning up, he saw Ingerson talking on his phone, and he thought that Ingerson was talking to Richter or Ferris. After Ingerson got off of the phone, he started talking to the manager. During that conversation, the manager noticed Richter's vehicle pull into the parking lot but that Richter and Ferris just sat in the car. After the manager saw Richter's vehicle, he told everyone to leave so they could close the restaurant. There were six people still in Miyako. Three of those people were customers and the other three worked there. All six people left the restaurant together, and Frankie Cheung, a part owner, set the alarm. That was at about 11:45 p.m. The bartender rode home with the manager, and the other three, Cheung and two bar patrons, went to look at a blown speaker in Cheung's car for a few minutes before they left. The last person to leave the parking lot except for Ingerson, Richter, and Ferris was the bartender, and he left at about 11:55 p.m. When he left, he saw Ingerson talking to Ferris at the passenger side of the vehicle. Ingerson told police that, as he was leaving Miyako, he saw Richter and Ferris, and he briefly spoke with Richter at the driver's side of the vehicle before walking over to the passenger side to talk to Ferris. According to him, he left shortly thereafter, and when he left, they were listening to "jigaboo" music. Police later found Ingerson's palm prints on the driver's side of the car.
After Ingerson left Miyako, he called Lynn Harper, another romantic interest, at 12:16 a.m. and asked if he could come over. He used a second mobile phone to call her. Harper lived in Arlington, and Ingerson drove there from Granbury, arriving at about 1:30 a.m. According to Harper, they had talked earlier about Ingerson coming over, but they never made firm plans. She also said that Ingerson had never called her that late to come over, but that he was acting normal when he arrived. Ingerson told Harper that he was going to a car show the following morning at LaGrave Field in Fort Worth.
The day after the murders, police received a call about two people possibly passed out in a vehicle in front of Miyako. When they arrived at about 10:00 a.m., they found the bodies of Richter and Ferris. Both the driver-side and passenger-side windows were still rolled down. The women had been shot from the passenger side of the vehicle. Police noticed that Richter's phone and some cash were on the floorboard, so they ruled out robbery as a possible motive. The medical examiner concluded that Richter and Ferris could have been murdered as early as 9:00 p.m. or as late as 2:00 a.m., but he thought that some time around midnight was most likely. During their investigation, police learned that Ingerson was the last person to speak to Richter on the phone and that he was the last person to see the women alive. The last outgoing call on Richter's phone, which was to Ingerson, ended at 11:53 p.m., just before everyone left Miyako. From 11:53 p.m. to 12:22 a.m. there was no phone activity, but beginning at 12:22 a.m., Richter received several phone calls and texts that she did not answer. Security footage from a daycare on the way from Miyako to Ingerson's house showed Ingerson driving past the turn to his house and slamming on his brakes before backing up on the highway and turning down the road to his house. Based on the video, police determined that Ingerson left Miyako as late as 12:05 a.m. because he was seen driving past the daycare at about 12:07 a.m, and it established a time frame for the murders of about 10 to 12 minutes—from when Ingerson and Richter's call ended at 11:53 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. when he was seen pulling out of the Miyako parking lot.4
As police were investigating the murders on June 28, and Ingerson was allegedly at a car show in Fort Worth, he was actually getting his car serviced at a Kwik Kar in Granbury. One employee remembered Ingerson because he told him that he had just broken up with a woman because of her drinking. The employee said that he remembered the conversation because he thought it was weird that Ingerson told him that. And, while servicing Ingerson's vehicle, a technician who was vacuuming the floorboards, noticed a revolver under the driver's seat. He later told police that he thought it was stamped with an "S&W" for...
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...Identity may be proven by direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, or by reasonable inferences from the evidence. Ingerson v. State, 559 S.W.3d 501, 509 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018). Appellate courts draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the verdict. However, juries are not permitted to com......
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...Identity may be proven by direct evidence, circumstantial evidence, or by reasonable inferences from the evidence. Ingerson v. State, 559 S.W.3d 501, 509 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018). Appellate courts draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the verdict. However, juries are not permitted to com......