Louis v. State

• Decision Date: 20 March 2013
• Docket Number: No. PD–0323–11.,PD–0323–11.
• Parties: Corey Don LOUIS, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

393 S.W.3d 246

Corey ¹ Don LOUIS, Appellant

v.The STATE of Texas.

No. PD–0323–11.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

June 6, 2012.

Rehearing Denied March 20, 2013.

Steven R. Miears, Bonham, for Appellant.

John R. Messinger, Asst. State's Atty., Lisa C. McMinn, State's Attorney, Austin, for State.

OPINION

JOHNSON, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which Keller, P.J., PRICE, HERVEY, COCHRAN, and ALCALÁ, JJ., joined.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder for the death of his girlfriend's two-year-old son. Because the state did not seek the death penalty, appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment. The court of appeals determined that the evidence was legally insufficient to prove that appellant intentionally or knowingly caused the death of the child and, accordingly, reversed the capital-murder conviction and acquitted him of that charge. Louis v. State, 329 S.W.3d 260 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2010). That court also determined that there was jury-charge error and remanded the case to the trial court for a new trial on the lesser-included offenses that had been included in the jury charge. Id.

We granted review of all seven grounds raised by the state prosecuting attorney's petition. Those grounds ask:

1. Did the court of appeals violate Jackson v. Virginia by not considering all of the evidence, re-assigning weight and credibility, and generally not viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict?

2. Was the evidence sufficient?

3. Is an instruction on mistake of fact appropriate when the mistaken “fact” is the result of the conduct in a result-of-conduct offense?

4. Is mistake of fact applicable to lesser-included offenses when the culpability negated by the mistaken belief applied only to the greater offense?

5. Does mistake of fact apply to the culpable mental states of recklessness and criminal negligence?

6. Is the failure to submit a mistake-of-fact instruction that merely denies the charged offense ever harmful?

7. Is instructing the jury that it may infer intent or knowledge from acts done or words spoken ever harmful, either alone or in combination with other erroneous instructions?

Although articulated in seven grounds, the state's grounds seek review on three issues asserting that: 1) the evidence is legally sufficient, 2) the trial court did not err in refusing to submit a jury instruction on the mistake-of-fact defense, and 3) any jury-charge error was harmless.

I. Facts

The court of appeals recites the underlying facts of this case very well. Louis v. State, supra. The record reflects that appellant lived with several children and his girlfriend, the mother of the victim. The indictment alleged that appellant intentionally or knowingly caused the death of a named child younger than six years of age by beating him about the body. The alleged beating occurred after the two-year-old boy and his four-year-old sister arose during the night and made a big mess in their home, spreading food, including mustard, mashed potatoes, dog food, and household chemicals on the floor. Upon arising that morning, appellant “disciplined” the two children for making the mess. This discipline included multiple rounds of whippings with a belt and orders that the two children remain standing facing a wall until appellant returned home from work. Appellant's girlfriend also disciplined the two children, including tying the boy's wrists to a clothes rod in a closet when he was unable to remain standing. After removing the boy from that position and putting him to bed, the mother later found him “stiff in bed-rigor mortis had set in.” Louis v. State, 329 S.W.3d at 264. Emergency medical personnel arrived at the home, determined that the boy was already dead, and took his body to the local hospital. Later, both appellant and the mother spoke with officers about the circumstances of the child's death and made videotaped statements. Subsequently, they were both arrested and charged with offenses related to the child's death. Pursuant to a plea agreement, appellant's girlfriend plead guilty to injury to a child and to murder and was sentenced to fifty years' imprisonment in each case. She also agreed to, and did, testify at appellant's trial. Although implicating appellant in the bulk of the beating of the children, the girlfriend did admit to kicking the victim during the incident and hanging him in the closet by his wrists.

In addition to the capital murder alleged in the indictment and over appellant's objections, the jury charge also included instructions on several lesser-included offenses, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and injury to a child, which were “submitted to [the jury] in the alternative.” Also over appellant's objection, the jury charge included language that a “person is nevertheless criminally responsible for causing a result if the only difference between what actually occurred and what he desired, contemplated, or risked is that a different offense was committed [,]” with such language being included in the definitions portion and in the portion applying the law to the facts to the capital murder and to each of the lesser-included offenses. The trial court also overruled and denied appellant's request that the jury charge include an instruction on the defense of mistake of fact. The jury found appellant guilty of the offense of capital murder as charged in the indictment. Because the state filed a notice of its intent not to seek the death penalty, appellant was sentenced to life imprisonment.

II. Court of Appeals Opinion

On appeal, appellant raised several points of error, including challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the guilty verdict. Appellant also raised claims that the trial court committed reversible error in refusing his requested mistake-of-fact jury instruction and in including in the jury charge objected-to language that impermissibly commented on the evidence, specifically that “[i]ntent or knowledge may be inferred by acts done or words spoken.”

Appellant was accused of intentionally or knowingly causing the death of a named child who was younger than six years of age by beating him about the body. Thus, the state had the burden of proving that accusation. In reviewing the evidence for sufficiency, the court of appeals considered the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Louis v. State, 329 S.W.3d at 267. After setting out the facts of the case in great detail, the court analyzed the evidence to determine whether it was legally sufficient to prove that appellant had the requisite mens rea to be convicted of capital murder which, as a result-of-conduct offense, is defined in terms of whether the perpetrator's actions were intended to produce or had a substantial certainty of producing, a specified result. Id. The court of appeals determined that “[n]o evidence was presented that [appellant] ever held the intention to kill [the child,]” but rather there was evidence that appellant was engaged in disciplining the children, “albeit to an excessive, horrific, and cruel degree.” In its opinion, the court of appeals pointed out that even a police-officer witness did not think that appellant intended to cause the child's death and believed that the death was accidental. Id. at 268. The court of appeals likewise determined that there was no evidence that appellant was aware that his spanking of the child was reasonably certain to cause the child's death. Id. at 269. It noted that all of the evidence pointed to appellant and the mother “doing what they did with the intent to discipline the children, but not attempting to kill them or to engage in conduct they knew was reasonably certain to kill them.” Id. Thus the court concluded that there was “simply no evidence that [appellant] knowingly killed [the child] as ‘knowingly’ is defined in the Texas Penal Code.” Id. at 270. Accordingly, the court rendered an acquittal for capital murder, found “harmful jury error,” and remanded for a new trial on the lesser-included offenses that had been included in the original jury charge. Id. at 270 and n. 7.

III. State's Grounds for Review

The state's first two grounds complain about the court of appeals' determination of insufficient evidence. Ground one asks whether the court of appeals violated Jackson v. Virginia in its sufficiency review, while ground two asks whether the evidence was sufficient. We follow Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), as the standard for reviewing the sufficiency of evidence. “In determining whether the evidence is legally sufficient to support a conviction, a reviewing court must consider all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether, based on that evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom, a rational fact finder could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Gear v. State, 340 S.W.3d 743, 746 (Tex.Crim.App.2011). The court of appeals properly noted that standard. Louis v. State, 329 S.W.3d at 267.

The state argues that the evidence is sufficient for a rational juror to find beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant intentionally or knowingly killed the victim. It asserts that “[t]he severity and repetition of the beating, the use of an implement, and the diminutive size of the victim all support the inference that appellant's conduct was reasonably certain to cause death.” The state acknowledges that the court of appeals cited the proper standard of review, noted the relevant law on the inference of intent, and mentioned its duty to defer to the jury's determinations of weight and credibility. But the state also contends that the court of appeals “ignores this duty by only assigning weight to the testimony contrary to the verdict and by failing to...