Lacer v. State
| Decision Date | 30 August 2018 |
| Docket Number | NO. 01-17-00267-CR,01-17-00267-CR |
| Parties | JESUS JOSE LACER, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
On Appeal from the 33rd District Court Burnet County, Texas1
A jury found appellant, Jesus Jose Lacer, guilty of the felony offenses of assault of a family member2 and sexual assault,3 and it assessed his punishment at confinement for ten years and twelve years, respectively. And the trial court ordered that the sentences run concurrently. In ten issues, appellant contends that the trial court erred in admitting certain evidence and not allowing appellant to "play[] in open court" two video recordings from his cellular telephone.
We affirm.
The complainant, Whittney Wills, testified that appellant, who she has known since she was fifteen years old, is her ex-boyfriend and the father of her two children, J.L. and I.L. (collectively, "the children"). Over the course of their approximately fourteen-year relationship, she lived with him "on and off." On May 8, 2015, while the complainant was living with appellant and the children4 at the Lake LBJ motel in Burnet County, Texas, he, about mid-morning, entered their motel room angrily. Appellant and the complainant began arguing, and he started "slamming [her] around." Although she did not "swing back" or hit him, appellant screamed at the complainant, shoved her, and pushed her to the floor.
While the complainant was on the floor, appellant got "on top" of her and put his hands around her neck. As he "chok[ed]" her, the complainant had difficulty breathing. Appellant also "stomped" on the complainant's ribs, and at some point, he "slapped [her] on [the] face," causing a bruise in the shape "of his handprint." When the complainant tried to "get up" off of the floor, appellant "tried to shove [her] back down," telling her to "stay there and shut up." She had difficulty breathing and thought that her ribs had been broken.
Eventually, appellant, who had continued screaming at the complainant, let her go to the bathroom. However, while she was in the bathroom, he "shoved [her] off [of] the toilet" and "tr[ied] to stick [her head] into the toilet." After the complainant "made it out of the bathroom," "there was just a lot of screaming," and appellant yelled, (Internal quotations omitted.) Appellant then "shoved [the complainant] back[wards]," causing her head to hit the metal frame of the bed in the motel room. Because she thought that her head had been "busted open," she asked appellant to call for emergency assistance. He did not acknowledge her request.
The complainant noted that during the mid-morning assault on May 8, 2015, appellant made the children stay in the motel room so that they could "see[] everything." The children were scared, and J.L. tried to cover I.L.'s eyes "to shield her from seeing" the assault. The complainant explained that during the assault,appellant did not choke her by "accident" or because of a "mistake." After the assault, he left the motel room, leaving her "on the floor." The complainant then laid down because she was "in a lot of pain."
The complainant further testified that appellant later returned to their motel room on the night of May 8, 2015. At the time, the children were sleeping and the complainant was lying down on the bed. Appellant asked her "to give him oral sex," and she said, "No." He then "came over" to where the complainant was lying down on her stomach and "pulled [her] pants down." She said, "[N]o," and appellant "forced himself on [her]." He "penetrate[d] [her] sexual organ with his sexual organ," and she cried, was hurt, and said "no." After the assault, appellant did not say anything and fell asleep.
The complainant explained that she did not "make up the story about the sexual assault" and the children remained asleep during it. Further, she noted that the mid-morning assault and the subsequent sexual assault were two separate incidents that both occurred on May 8, 2015. The assault occurred when "the sun was up" and the sexual assault occurred at "nighttime."
In regard to her relationship with appellant, the complainant admitted that she and appellant had used methamphetamine together, but she noted that she began using it because of him. Further, the complainant explained that during the course of their relationship, it was common for them to argue. And on previous occasions,appellant had been angry, shoved her, and choked her. For instance, when J.L. was two years old, appellant "slammed" the complainant "up against [a] wall" while she held J.L. Appellant would also tell her to "shut up" and "backhand [her] in the face if [she] wasn't quiet."
In the time leading up to May 8, 2015, appellant had become "more and more violent" toward the complainant. Specifically, on April 27, 2015, at the Hill Country Lodge motel, appellant "caused . . . violence" to occur. The complainant and appellant "shov[ed] each other," he "tr[ied] to pull [her] out of [a] vehicle," and he was the aggressor. Because of this fight, appellant, the complainant, and the children moved from the Hill Country Lodge motel to the Lake LBJ motel at the end of April 2015.
On May 15, 2015, after the May 8, 2015 assault and sexual assault, two investigators from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services ("DFPS") came to the Lake LBJ motel to speak with the complainant and the children. At that time, she did not tell either investigator about the sexual assault that had occurred on May 8, 2015, but they "could see the marks on [her] face" and a "grabbing mark" on her arm. And the complainant told them that appellant had assaulted her by impeding her breath. DFPS removed the children from the complainant's care on May 15, 2015, and when they were taken, she "c[ouldn't] live without [them]." The complainant also heard appellant, who was on a telephonewith a friend who was at the Lake LBJ motel at the time, say that "if [the complainant] didn't kill [herself], he would kill [her]."
Subsequently, on June 12, 2015, at a court hearing related to DFPS's removal of the children, the complainant told DFPS investigator Kristin Cantu about the sexual assault that had occurred on May 8, 2015. In response, Cantu told the complainant that she needed to report the sexual assault to law enforcement officers. After the hearing, Cantu then went with the complainant to the Burnet County Sheriff's Office, where the complainant gave a written statement to a law enforcement officer.5
The complainant further testified that after DFPS had removed the children from her care, she went to live at a "crisis center" for a few weeks and then stayedat the Hill Country Lodge motel with a friend, Johnny Maxwell. On May 31, 2015, while the complainant, Maxwell, and Andrew Brennanan, Maxwell's neighbor, were all together in Maxwell's motel room, appellant came to the motel. He "pull[ed] up and jump[ed] out of [his] car," and he screamed outside of the motel room window that the complainant was a "whore." Appellant was "acting crazy at the window," "screaming at [her] that he was going to kill [her]." After the complainant called for emergency assistance, he "jumped back in [his] vehicle" and "took off." Two law enforcement officers came to see her later that day about the incident.6
J.L. testified that on May 8, 2015, appellant, who was upset, entered their Lake LBJ motel room. After appellant and the complainant began verbally fighting, he slapped her in the face and pushed her. He also spit on her, choked her while she was on the floor. Appellant "st[ood] on her" or "stepp[ed] on her" near her ribs. Specifically, J.L. saw her "gasping" while appellant put his hands around her throat. Appellant then said, (Internal quotations omitted.) He also threatened to kill the complainant. Although J.L. and his sister, I.L., tried to leave the motel room, appellant would not let them.
In regard to appellant and the complainant's relationship, J.L. explained that they had spent his entire life "fighting." Although it was not physical fighting at first, appellant and the complainant began to fight physically when they moved to Texas. And they would fight in front of the children. J.L. also noted that he had heard appellant sexually assaulting the complainant in the past, i.e., before May 8, 2015. He explained that appellant "would come in late at night, and then [he and I.L. would] hear [appellant and the complainant] arguing, and then it would just lead to that." In other words, he had heard "sexual assault[s]" happening in the past, but he did not see anything because there was a divider placed between the two beds in the motel room. J.L. opined that what he had heard "didn't sound consensual" because when the complainant would say "[s]top" or "[p]lease get off of me," appellant would tell her to "[b]e quiet." (Internal quotations omitted.)
J.L. further testified that on May 15, 2015, he spoke with DFPS investigators about the May 8, 2015 assault. The trial court, without objection, admitted into evidence an audio recording of DFPS investigator Cantu's interview with J.L. In it, J.L. stated that he had been living at the Lake LBJ motel for approximately one week and he, the complainant, appellant, and I.L. had previously lived at the Hill Country Lodge motel. However, they had been kicked out of the Hill Country Lodge motel because the landlord "didn't like them" and appellant and the complainant had gotten into a fight.
J.L. explained that appellant and the complainant mostly fought verbally, but sometimes their fighting would get physical. For example, appellant would slap the complainant in the face with an open hand. On May 8, 2015, however, the fighting was "really bad," and appellant made the children stay to watch it. During that fight, which lasted for an hour, appellant choked the...
To continue reading
Request your trial