Landers v. State

• Decision Date: 26 June 2003
• Docket Number: No. 14-01-00186-CR.,14-01-00186-CR.
• Citation: 110 S.W.3d 617
• Parties: Christi Ann LANDERS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 617

110 S.W.3d 617

Christi Ann LANDERS, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 14-01-00186-CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Houston (14th Dist.).

June 26, 2003.

David R. Bires, Houston, for appellant.

Julie Klibert, Houston, for appellee.

Panel consists of Justices HUDSON, FOWLER and DUGGAN.^*

CORRECTED OPINION

LEE DUGGAN, JR., Senior Justice (Assigned).

Our opinion of April 17, 2003 is withdrawn due to a typographical error, and this corrected opinion is substituted in its place.

Appellant, Christi Ann Landers, was charged with the felony offense of driving while intoxicated. TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. §§ 49.04(a) and 49.09(b).¹ She pled true to the two prior DWI convictions alleged to enhance the primary offense to a felony. A jury rejected her plea of not guilty to the primary offense alleged, and she pled true to the punishment enhancement paragraph alleging a conviction for possession of cocaine, and to a conviction for driving while her license was suspended. The jury assessed her punishment at six years' confinement. Appellant asserts seven issues on appeal.

We affirm.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

During the evening of September 19, 2000, a truck driven by appellant swerved and struck a roadside post in the 200 block of North Main Street in Highlands, Texas. The State's and appellant's evidence differed by two hours as to time of the accident's occurrence. The State presented evidence that appellant was operating the vehicle at approximately 9:45 p.m., and struck the post because she had lost the normal use of her physical and mental faculties from having earlier ingested drugs. Three police officers and an emergency room physician testified to her impaired mental and physical faculties that night and early the next morning.

Appellant's evidence fixed the time of the accident as two hours earlier than the State's testimony. Appellant presented evidence that her truck had recurring mechanical problems — pulling to the right, steering difficulty, acceleration problems, and a malfunctioning battery. She testified that her truck's engine repeatedly died as she drove home from work and that she struck the post because the truck's steering mechanism caused the truck to pull to the right as she attempted to restart the engine. She testified that a couple traveling, in a pick-up truck behind her stopped to assist her, helped her move her pick-up truck to the side of the road, and drove her home afterward. She testified that she changed clothes at home, took the prescription medication that caused her later-observed condition, and spent time with a neighbor before the police came and returned her to the accident scene.

II. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

In her first two issues, appellant contends the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she had lost the normal use of her physical and mental faculties at the time the State's sole eyewitness to her driving observed her. She asserts the eyewitness to her driving, Wayne Baxter, "failed to articulate sufficient facts" to show that she was intoxicated.

The indictment alleged appellant was intoxicated by not having the normal use of her mental and physical faculties by reason of the introduction of benzodiazepine or a combination of drugs into her body.²

A. Standards of Review

When reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Wilson v. State, 7 S.W.3d 136, 141 (Tex. Crim.App.1999). We do not resolve conflicts of fact or assign credibility to witnesses, as it is the function of the trier of fact to accept or reject any, part, or all of any witness's testimony. See Adelman v. State, 828 S.W.2d 418, 421 (Tex.Crim.App. 1992); Lucero v. State, 915 S.W.2d 612, 614 (Tex.App.-El Paso 1996, pet. ref'd). We determine only if the explicit and implicit findings of the trier of fact are rational by viewing all the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict. See Lucero, 915 S.W.2d at 614. Any inconsistencies in the evidence are resolved in favor of the verdict. Id.

In reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence, we view all the evidence for and against the finding in a neutral light and set aside the verdict only if "proof of guilt is so obviously weak as to undermine confidence in the jury's determination, or ... although adequate if taken alone, is greatly outweighed by contrary proof." Johnson v. State, 23 S.W.3d 1, 11 (Tex. Crim.App.2000). We review the fact-finder's weighing of the evidence and are authorized to disagree with the factfinder's determination. Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 133 (Tex.Crim.App.1996).

Our review, however, must be appropriately deferential so as to avoid substituting our own judgment for that of the factfinder. Jones v. State, 944 S.W.2d 642, 648 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). The factfinder is the judge of the credibility of the witnesses and may "believe all, some, or none of the testimony." Chambers v. State, 805 S.W.2d 459, 461 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). An appellate court may not interfere with a jury's resolution of conflicts in the evidence. Davila v. State, 930 S.W.2d 641, 647 (Tex.App.-El Paso 1996, pet. ref'd); Taylor v. State, 921 S.W.2d 740, 746 (Tex. App.-El Paso 1996, no pet.).

B. Legal Sufficiency

In her first issue, appellant asserts there is no evidence that, at the time she operated a motor vehicle, she had lost the normal use of her physical or mental faculties due to the use of drugs or alcohol, or a combination of both.

Wayne Baxter testified that at approximately 9:45 p.m., he saw appellant driving very slowly and erratically across lanes of the road; he was forced to the side of the road to avoid an accident when she swerved toward his car as he tried to pass her. Baxter saw appellant's truck hit a pole beside the road, after which he saw a woman of appellant's stature get out of the truck, appearing dazed and having difficulty moving around. Baxter testified he regularly gets off of work at 9:00 p.m., it takes him 45-50 minutes to drive home, and he was about ten minutes from home when the incident occurred. Baxter parked beside the road and called 911. He then saw a man and a woman drive up in a small truck, push appellant's truck to the side of the road, and drive off with her. Baxter followed them, saw them drive into a nearby trailer park, and returned to the scene of the accident. There, he told Deputy Constable Landers, who had arrived in the meantime, what happened.

Deputy Landers testified he received a dispatch call about 10:00 p.m. and arrived at the scene within five minutes. He spoke to Baxter briefly, went to appellant's trailer park, and found her sitting in the truck that drove her home. There, within fifteen minutes of the accident, Landers observed that appellant's eyes were wide open, that she was semi-coherent and that she spoke with slurred words.

Landers returned appellant to the scene of the accident about 10:25 p.m., and turned the investigation over to Deputy Sheriff Seward, who first observed appellant approximately thirty minutes after the accident. Seward testified that appellant was unable to stand without assistance, fell back onto the patrol car, and slurred her speech. In his opinion, appellant had lost the normal use of her mental or physical faculties. Seward took her into custody for observation, and drove her to the police station; because he smelled no alcohol on her breath, he called ahead for a drug recognition expert.

Deputy Sheriff Barnett, a drug recognition specialist, observed appellant at the police station within an hour and twenty minutes of the accident. Barnett testified that appellant slurred her words, stumbled, had poor coordination, and was sluggish. Her performance was poor on field sobriety tests Barnett conducted and videotaped. The videotape was admitted into evidence. Appellant admitted to Barnett that she had taken Prozac, Valium, and pain medication that evening. At the police station, she remained unable to walk without assistance, was too incapacitated to give a urine sample, and became delirious and incoherent. Because Barnett feared appellant had had an overdose, he had her transported to the hospital. There, the emergency room physician, Dr. Nguyen, observed that appellant arrived asleep and had to be awakened. Appellant told Dr. Nguyen that she had taken fifteen tablets of Propacet (a combination of Tylenol and opiate drug) six hours earlier, at about 7:00 p.m. Dr. Nguyen testified that Propacet alone, and in combination with Valium, would cause drowsiness; that the maximum effect of the drugs would be approximately two hours after ingestion, and would continue for some time. In Dr. Nguyen's opinion, appellant had lost the normal use of her mental faculties based on an overdose of the opiate drug, Propacet.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence is legally sufficient to support the jury's verdict. Lucero, 915 S.W.2d at 614. We overrule appellant's first issue.

C. Factual Sufficiency

Appellant testified and presented an alternative explanation to the State's as to when and why the accident occurred, and her condition at the time of the accident, at the hospital, and when the officers observed her. She claimed the accident took place two hours earlier, at about 7:45-8:00 p.m. She testified that the clutch was out on her truck, and her momentary inattention plus the poor working condition of her truck caused the accident. Her parents testified that the truck was in poor repair and had been in the shop; that her mother had driven her to work that morning; and that her father had her truck towed to the parking lot at her work that day.

Additionally, appellant's neighbor testified that she visited...