Martin v. State

• Decision Date: 13 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. 14-06-00724-CR.,14-06-00724-CR.
• Parties: Tameka Nichole MARTIN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

246 S.W.3d 246

Tameka Nichole MARTIN, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 14-06-00724-CR.

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

December 13, 2007.

Frances M. Northcutt, Houston, for appellant.

Carmen Castillo Mitchell, Houston, for appellee.

Panel consists of Chief Justice HEDGES and Justices ANDERSON and SEYMORE.

OPINION

JOHN S. ANDERSON, Justice.

A jury found appellant, Tameka Nichole Martin, guilty of the brutal capital murder of her ten-month-old baby girl. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 19.02(b)(1), 19.03(a)(8) (Vernon 2003). The trial court assessed punishment at incarceration for life in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division. In four issues, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence, the trial court's failure to charge the jury on the lesser included offense of injury to a child, and the trial court's admission of expert testimony regarding appellant's intent. Appellant also requests correction of the judgment's recitation of punishment because it improperly reflects that the jury assessed punishment. It is clear from the record the judge assessed appellant's punishment; therefore we modify the judgment to reflect that the judge, not the jury imposed punishment.¹ We affirm the judgment as modified.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

At approximately 6:30 a.m. on Monday, September 8, 2003, appellant woke up her ten-month-old infant, D.D., and noticed D.D.'s eyes were swollen. Concerned about D.D.'s condition, appellant called her mother, Elaine Sanders, at work and told her D.D. was sick and needed to go to the hospital. Sanders told appellant she was unable to get off work. Appellant also spoke with Willie Mae Cains, D.D.'s paternal grandmother, who worked with Sanders. Cains told appellant to call 9-1-1, and appellant informed Cains she would take D.D. to the hospital. Instead of calling 9-1-1, appellant called her grandmother, and her grandmother told her to put Vaseline on the baby's eyes. At some point, appellant also called her aunt and asked her aunt for a ride to the hospital. Around 7:30 that morning, the daycare bus came to pick up D.D., and appellant informed the driver D.D. would not be attending daycare that day. Appellant had no explanation for why she did not ask the daycare bus to take her to the hospital other than she did not think D.D.'s injuries were too serious. Appellant continued to wait for her aunt to pick her up.

Around 1:00 or 1:30 p.m., Billy Davis, D.D.'s father, arrived at appellant's apartment. Cains called Davis earlier that morning and told him to go check on D.D. Because of her earlier conversation with appellant, Cains told Davis D.D. was at a hospital, so Davis rushed to two different hospitals before learning D.D. was still at appellant's apartment. Immediately upon arriving at appellant's apartment, Davis noticed D.D.'s eyes were swollen, one of her eyeballs looked crooked, and she was not responding. Davis attempted to call 9-1-1, but appellant grabbed the phone out of his hand. Davis then went to a neighbor's apartment, asked to use her phone, and called 9-1-1.

Don Larson, Senior Captain with the Houston Fire Department, arrived on the scene at 1:38 p.m. Larson arrived before the ambulance, so he briefly assessed D.D.'s condition. Larson testified D.D. was lethargic, moving slowly, her eyelids were swollen, and she did not feel feverish. Larson testified he did not take the baby's diaper off or pick her up. He also testified he found no outward signs of trauma, but admitted closed head injuries were often hard to see. Larson also testified it is often more difficult to notice bruises on a dark-skinned baby. When the ambulance arrived, Larson turned the patient care over to the paramedic.

Daniel Caballero, a paramedic with the Houston Fire Department, arrived on the scene around 1:42 p.m. Upon arriving at the scene, Caballero assessed the baby. Caballero testified he did not notice any trauma on the baby in the form of big bruises, deformities, or bleeding. He testified the baby was breathing a little fast, her skin was warm and dry, her heart beat was normal, and her response to stimuli seemed normal. Caballero testified he took off D.D.'s diaper to check for injuries and he did not notice anything unusual. He also testified he did not notice, any bruises on D.D. or redness near her vaginal area and around her nose. It was not until the hospital nurse pointed it out to him that Caballero noticed the bruises on D.D.'s forehead and pelvis and her deviated eye. Caballero also testified no person at the scene could have realized D.D. had head trauma, and there was nothing obvious to him indicating something was substantially wrong with the baby. However, Caballero admitted on direct examination this was his first baby case and he did not feel confident. He also admitted on redirect the baby's position in her car seat, the color of her skin, and the lighting in the apartment could have all been factors in why he missed some of her injuries.

After arriving at the scene, Caballero and another paramedic transported D.D. to the hospital. Caballero testified appellant did not act as if she was in a hurry to get to the hospital. He testified appellant did not request to sit in the back of the ambulance with D.D., but instead she sat in the front seat talking and laughing with the driver. Caballero also testified on the way to the hospital he attempted to ask appellant some additional questions about D.D.'s history and appellant became angry with him.

D.D. arrived at the Texas Children's Hospital around 2:40 p.m. and spent approximately two hours in the emergency center. The hospital then moved D.D. to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Four days later, on September 12, 2003, D.D. died of craniocerebral trauma.

Dr. Coburn Allen was the attending physician in the emergency center at Texas Children's Hospital the afternoon D.D. was admitted. Dr. Allen testified when he first saw D.D. she was actively seizing grossly abnormal, and only responding to painful stimuli. He testified D.D. had obvious braising on her forehead, her scalp, her nose, her upper thigh, and her inguinal groin area. In addition, D.D.'s eyes were deviated. Dr. Allen testified based on D.D.'s symptoms he immediately suspected she had a serious head injury, so he placed D.D. on a ventilator.

While Dr. Allen cared for D.D. in the emergency room, another doctor conducted the primary interview with the family to determine D.D.'s past medical history. During the initial interview, appellant told the doctor she did not know what happened to D.D. and that she just found her in that condition. Dr. Allen later spoke with appellant in the emergency room, and he testified appellant appeared disinterested in her child and aloof. He testified the way appellant was whispering on her phone was very bizarre to him, and his gut instinct was she was developing her story.

Sometime after being admitted to the emergency room, Dr. Allen sent D.D. to have a CT scan. Dr. Allen testified the CT scan revealed D.D. had significant trauma to the left side of her brain. He testified the left side of the brain was swollen and pushing over onto the right side, which is called herniation. Dr. Allen also testified this type of injury was highly inconsistent with a minor head injury. Instead, he testified this type of accident was similar to crashing in a high speed motor vehicle accident, falling from a roof, or being hit with a baseball bat. Dr. Allen testified these types of injuries would cause the child to be profoundly sleepy, and it would be shocking if a child was able to eat or even wake up after such trauma. Dr. Allen stated he "[could not] imagine anyone [who was] able to hear and speak and talk and walk that would not recognize a child like this to be terribly abnormal and very, very unresponsive."

In addition to the trauma to her brain, D.D. suffered trauma to her body as well. Dr. Allen testified D.D. suffered from malnutrition and multiple broken bones. After conducting x-rays, Dr. Allen discovered D.D, suffered from a fresh femur fracture on top of an old femur fracture. The femur fractures were categorized as spiral fractures, which are most often caused by severe jamming or twisting of the leg. He explained that this type of femur fracture occurs in accidents such as a severe motor vehicle crash. Dr. Allen testified this type of fracture on a child is highly consistent with child abuse. Also, D.D. suffered from multiple fractures in her arms and shoulders. Dr. Allen testified these types of injuries were very rare and were typically caused by a high amount of force. During trial, Dr. Allen used a baby doll to demonstrate the amount of force necessary to cause the type of broken bones D.D. suffered.

When asked his opinion, Dr. Allen testified D.D. "was a severely beaten child that died." Dr. Allen testified the injuries were "all high speed, high velocity injuries, which were directly intended to hurt [the] child." Dr. Allen testified the retinal hemorrhages, the multiple broken bones, and the types of fractures suffered were all indications of intentionally inflicted injuries. He also testified whoever killed D.D. would have immediately known she was severely injured. According to Dr. Allen, the symptoms of being severely lethargic or comatose, not responding appropriately, seizing, and perhaps vomiting would have occurred almost immediately from the time of injury. Dr. Allen further testified in the vast majority of cases a child suffering from these types of head injuries would be highly symptomatic within four to six hours, with the vast majority occurring in the first hour. On cross-examination, Dr. Allen admitted he could not pin-point exactly when the incident occurred, but he restated his opinion regarding the four to six hour window of time when the symptoms most likely would have appeared.

Dr. Allen also testified to...