Luna v. State

• Docket Number: s. 11-22-00039-CR,11-22-00040-CR
• Decision Date: 21 March 2024
• Citation: Luna v. State, 687 S.W.3d 79 (Tex. App. 2024)
• Parties: Joel LUNA, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

687 S.W.3d 79

Joel LUNA, Appellant

v.The STATE of Texas, Appellee

Nos. 11-22-00039-CR & 11-22-00040-CR

Court of Appeals of Texas, Eastland.

Opinion filed March 21, 2024

On Appeal from the 70th District Court, Ector County, Texas, Trial Court CauseNos. A-18-1666-CR &A-18-1665-CR

Dusty Gallivan, District Attorney, Michelle Townsend, Assistant, for Appellee.

Bret Mansur, for Appellant.

Panel consists of: Bailey, C.J., Trotter, J., and Williams, J.

OPINION

W. STACY TROTTER, JUSTICE

Appellant was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and causing serious bodily injury to his wife, Trena Luna, a first-degree felony (trial court cause number A-18-1666-CR), and capital murder for causing the death of Trena’s unborn child (trial court cause number A-18-1665-CR).SeeTex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 1.07(a)(26),19.02(b)(1),19.03(a)(8),22.02(b)(1)(West Supp. 2023).The cases were consolidated for trial.Because the State did not seek the death penalty for the capital murder conviction, the trial court sentenced Appellant to life imprisonment in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice without the possibility of parole.SeePenal§ 12.31(a)(2)(West 2019);Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 37.071, § 1(a)(West Supp. 2023).The jury assessed Appellant’s punishment at thirty-six years’ imprisonment for the aggravated-assault offense, and the trial court sentenced Appellant accordingly.

In six issues, Appellant challenges various evidentiary rulings regarding the trial court’s admission of certain evidence, the trial court’s refusal to submit Appellant’s requested self-defense instruction, the definitions in the trial court’s charge of the mental states that apply to the aggravated-assault offense, and the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction for capital murder.¹We affirm in part, and we reverse and remand in part.

I.Factual Background

Appellant and Trena were romantically involved for eighteen years.They met when they were both sixteen, married a few years later in November 2003, and had three children together.Appellant became physically violent about a year into their relationship; at the time, Trena was seventeen and pregnant with their oldest child.Appellant routinely "liked to choke [Trena]" during arguments that they had "[t]o get [her] to shut up," but Trena never reported the abuse to the police because she"felt like it was [her] fault."

Trena and Appellant separated in January of 2018, after Trena became aware of Appellant’s fourteen-year affair with her sister.They began dating other people, but decided to reconcile in April of 2018.Before Trena and Appellant resumed living together, Trena told Appellant that she might be pregnant with her former partner’s child.At first, Appellant"didn’t have much of a reaction," but did proclaim that "he was not going to raise another man’s baby."Trena testified that two days after she and the children returned home, Appellant indicated that she needed to have an abortion.

Later that evening, in order "to celebrate getting back together,"Appellant decided to treat Trena to a night on the town, which culminated with a visit to a local strip club where, among other things, Trena watched Appellant enjoy a lap dance; they argued, understandably, on the way home.When they pulled into the driveway around 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., Trena ran inside the house and locked the door because she"didn’t want to be hurt."As Appellant climbed through their bedroom window, Trena yelled at him to "stay away" and announced that she and the children were leaving.Appellant, however, responded that no one was going anywhere.

Once Appellant was inside, Trena threw a variety of objects at him to keep him at a distance, knowing "he would hurt [her]" if he got close.Appellant caught Trena in the hallway, pushed her against the wall, and choked her.When he let her go, she went to the kitchen, grabbed some scissors, and held them out "[t]o keep distance between" her and Appellant.Trena retreated to their bedroom, where Appellant pinned her down on the bed, got on top of her, and choked her "to the point where [she] couldn’t see anymore."Their oldest daughter, D.L., testified that she saw Appellant with both hands around Trena’s neck, and heard her mother"gasping for air."

Just before Trena was about to lose consciousness, Appellant walked out of the bedroom, and began yelling to the children: "your mom is f-----g pregnant by somebody else."The children did not know about Trena’s pregnancy, so Trena ran after Appellant, and started "hitting him" and "shaking … his shoulders."Appellant then threw Trena down onto the hallway floor, knelt on her stomach, and pressed his bodyweight into her stomach.

Trena next remembered Appellant saying, "I’m going to kill that f-----g baby," and she felt like she"got the wind knocked out of [her] by some unimaginable force."She began and continued saying his name until he got off her.Trena described being in "excruciating pain … [r]ight below [her] rib cage in the center of [her] abdomen," where Appellant had been pressing with his knee.Appellant told her to get up, but she could not move, so he dragged her to their bedroom.

Trena told D.L. to call the police as Appellant dragged her past D.L.’s bedroom, but Appellant grabbed D.L.’s cell phone and yelled, "you’re not calling the f-----g cops."Trena was unable to call for help; she was in "so much pain" and felt like she was dying.She described throwing up and crying all night; Appellant slept in the living room because her crying "agitated him."Trena threw up "green vomit" for the next two days, until Appellant finally left to go to work.When Appellant returned everyone’s cell phones, D.L. called an ambulance, and Trena was transported to the hospital.

Chris Ackerman, the nurse practitioner who treated Trena, noticed "a red mark on the right side of her neck," which "appeared to be a thumbprint."Trena also had "multiple bruises" on her arms and legs and reported that her husband had "repetitively kicked and hit her."Concerned that Trena had sustained a serious abdomen injury, Ackerman ordered an ultrasound, which revealed "free fluid" in an area associated with abdominal bleeding, showed an injury to her pancreas, and confirmed her pregnancy.

Within thirty minutes after the ultrasound, Dr. Richard Wesley Ellison, a trauma and acute care surgeon with Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, began performing "exploratory laparotomy" emergency surgery on Trena.Dr. Ellison observed that Trena’s pancreas had been split in half, and that her injury "clearly had been present for well over 24 hours, because of all the inflammation."Dr. Ellison explained to the jury that "pancreas injuries are very rare," and Trena’s injury would "have required a slow, constant pressure" to move the other organs "out of the way in order for her pancreas to get injured all by itself."Due to her pregnancy, Dr. Ellison "purposefully did everything [he] could to avoid" her pelvis and uterus during the surgery; however, Trena’s unborn child did not survive.The severity of Trena’s injury carried a "60 percent mortality risk" to her, and a "90 percent [chance] that she would lose [the unborn child]."It was the severity of her injury and its aftermath that, in Dr. Ellison’s opinion, contributed to the loss of the fetus.

Appellant was indicted for (1) capital murder of an unborn child and (2) aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and causing serious bodily injury to a family or household member, or a person with whom Appellant has or had a dating relationship.At trial, the State presented the following witnesses: Trena, D.L., Ackerman, Dr. Ellison, Detective Mario Baeza with the Odessa Police Department, and Judy Drury, an expert on the subject of domestic violence and the dynamics of relationships that involve domestic violence.

Appellant testified and denied physically abusing Trena during their relationship and attested that he first learned about Trena’s pregnancy "[m]aybe a day after [Trena] was admitted to the hospital."

With regard to the night in question, Appellant portrayed Trena as "screaming and yelling" at him as they drove home from the strip club but averred that he remained calm.Appellant testified that he walked into their home through the front door rather than by entering through the bedroom window, and he attempted to leave when their encounter began to escalate.However, when he went to his pickup, he realized that he had left his keys inside their home.He attempted to reenter their home, but the front door was locked with the dead bolt.It was only then that he entered through the bedroom window, then went straight to the kitchen to retrieve his keys.According to Appellant, Trena was "yelling … hitting [him], throwing things at [him]," and she threw an eight-inch knife at him while he was in the kitchen, which struck him "between the eyes."Appellant testified that Trena then "pulled out the scissors" and said that "she was going to stab [him]"; Appellant claimed that he feared for his safety.Appellant was bleeding, so he then went to the bathroom to clean the wound that resulted from the knife striking him between his eyes.Trena followed him to the bathroom, and "[tried] attacking [him] again," so he"put her on the floor."At that point, Trena did not have a knife or any scissors in her hand.

Appellant admitted to grabbing Trena, getting her to the floor by trying to "lay her down," and putting his knee on her stomach for "about five, ten seconds."He testified that he was "[t]rying to calm her down," but "she was jumping, bucking, [he] guess[es] you could say."However, when Trena "finally … said that she was in pain,"he"helped her up."Appellant claimed that he helped Trena to the bedroom, and they"laid down … [f]or the night."

Appellant likewise admitted to pinning Trena down on their bed "[p]rior to the … knife incident," but said he"never...