Martinez v. State
| Decision Date | 07 August 2014 |
| Docket Number | NO. 02-13-00236-CR,02-13-00236-CR |
| Parties | CARLOS MARTINEZ APPELLANT v. THE STATE OF TEXAS STATE |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
FROM THE 362ND DISTRICT COURT OF DENTON COUNTY
Appellant Carlos Martinez appeals his conviction for delivery of a controlled substance causing serious bodily injury to a child.2 In two issues,Martinez argues (1) that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing the State to introduce the results of a urinalysis test performed on the minor complainant, S.C., when she was admitted into the hospital after an apparent overdose of heroin, and (2) that there is insufficient evidence to prove that the substance he delivered to S.C. was heroin. We will affirm.
This case arose after two or three adult men picked up S.C. and her sister, C.C., near a McDonald's in Lake Dallas and took them to a nearby apartment in Lewisville. At the time, S.C. was fourteen years old and C.C. was fifteen. After a night of smoking marijuana and snorting a significant amount of a combination of heroin and Tylenol PM, emergency personnel eventually CareFlited S.C. to Medical City Children's Hospital in Dallas, where after receiving extensive medical treatment and remaining in a coma for days, S.C. awoke. The State indicted Martinez for the offense of delivery of a controlled substance, to-wit: heroin.
At trial, S.C. testified that on the evening of July 18, 2011, she and C.C. went to the McDonald's attempting to get a ride to Lewisville. When their ride did not show, the two girls began walking home. As they walked home, Jonathan Watson and Jessie Manzanares picked them up and drove them to an apartment in Lewisville. S.C. averred that when they arrived at the apartment around 9:30 p.m., Martinez, Julian Candelas and his girlfriend, Chelsea Sherwin, and another male whom S.C. was not familiar with were already there. Shortly after theirarrival, "[e]verybody" started smoking marijuana. S.C. testified that Martinez then retrieved "a plate of heroin [and] put[] it on the table." S.C. said that she knew it was heroin because she "had seen [heroin] before." She also said that her sister told her that it was heroin. S.C. described the heroin as "brownish." After Martinez placed the plate on the table, S.C. testified that he began making "lines" of "cheese," a mixture of heroin and Tylenol PM. S.C. described how Martinez utilized a credit card to make the lines "so [she] could snort it" by using a rolled-up dollar bill as a straw. By S.C.'s account, Martinez snorted a line, and then Manzanares snorted a line. S.C. said that she could not recall whether Martinez or Manzanares asked her if she wanted to snort a line herself, but when asked, she said "yes," Martinez prepared a line for her, and then she snorted it. In short order, S.C. said that "they did another line, and then [she] did another line." S.C. averred that Martinez prepared both lines of cheese that she remembers snorting. After snorting the two lines, S.C. said that she went to the restroom and then didn't remember anything after that until waking up in the hospital days later.
Sherwin testified that she, Candelas, Manzanares, and Martinez all went to the apartment on the evening of July 18, 2011. Sherwin said that Watson and Manzanares went to pick up S.C. and C.C., but she said that she and Candelas stayed at the apartment. Sherwin said that she and Candelas mostly remained in the bedroom while everyone else stayed in the living room. At one point in the evening, Sherwin said that as she went through the living room on her way to the kitchen, she saw a plate of "cheese" or heroin. Sherwin admitted that she wasquite familiar with heroin because Candelas was a user and had been using his own personal heroin in the bedroom that evening. Sherwin explained how she had witnessed Candelas multiple times prepare and snort cheese by making a line of it and snorting it through a "straw [or rolled-up] dollar bill." According to Sherwin, the plate of cheese she saw that night was "with" Martinez and S.C., who was sitting with him. Sherwin said that the plate of cheese, which she described as "[d]ark brown or tan" was "on their laps." Sherwin testified that she knew that S.C. was "high" on cheese because she had seen Candelas under the influence numerous times.
Sherwin went back to the bedroom, but later that night she went back through the living room again and could tell that there was less cheese on the plate than earlier. She asked Martinez whether S.C. was all right because S.C. appeared "really high" to Sherwin. Sherwin said that Martinez said, "That's how it makes you feel." Sherwin averred that she interpreted Martinez's statement to mean that S.C. was simply high on heroin. Sherwin then retired to the bedroom for the night.
Early the next morning, Martinez and Manzanares woke Sherwin and Candelas to inquire whether they wanted food from McDonald's. After Martinez and Manzanares returned with breakfast, Sherwin said that S.C. "wouldn't wake up." Sherwin said that C.C. started "freaking out" because S.C. would not awaken. Upon hearing the commotion, Sherwin went into the living room and said that S.C. looked "bluish, purplish." Sherwin believed that S.C. was dead.After some of the guys attempted to awaken S.C. by soaking her with water, C.C. called 9-1-1 using someone else's phone. By Sherwin's account, she, Candelas, C.C., and S.C. stayed at the apartment awaiting emergency personnel, but everyone else left prior to their arrival because they were scared.
Steve Mason, a firefighter and paramedic for the City of Lewisville, arrived at the apartment as a first responder on the morning of July 19, 2011. Mason said that when he arrived, S.C. was unconscious, soaking wet, and "propped up" in the apartment's living room. Mason said that dispatch initially informed him that a person at the scene was simply unconscious, but "as we arrived, it was changed to an overdose." Mason described S.C. as being "unconscious, having [a] difficult time breathing, [and experiencing] snoring respirations." He added that S.C. was "not alert whatsoever." Sherwin said that he and other emergency personnel placed S.C. in an ambulance and intubated her. By Mason's account, he administered the drug Narcan to S.C.
Mason described Narcan as a drug used to override the effects of an opiate overdose, including heroin. Mason said that his initial treatment of S.C. was based on his training of gathering information at the scene when he arrived and that he perceived S.C. to be suffering an opiate overdose.
Manzanares testified that on July 18, 2011, he purchased heroin for himself, Candelas, and Martinez. Manzanares said that later that evening, he and some of the other guys went and picked up S.C. and C.C. and brought them back to the apartment. Manzanares said that he had done heroin numeroustimes and that he typically mixed the heroin with sleeping pills, like Tylenol PM, to form "cheese" and then snorted it. He averred that this is the manner in which people at the apartment that evening were ingesting heroin. Much like other eyewitnesses who testified, Manzanares described how he and the others would snort lines of cheese that had been formed by using a credit card and also how the substance was snorted by using either a straw or rolled-up dollar bill.
According to Manzanares, he could not remember anyone other than himself, Candelas, and Martinez doing heroin that night, but when confronted with his statement to investigating officers, Manzanares acknowledged telling the investigating officers that Martinez gave heroin to S.C. Manzanares also admitted that he told the officers that Martinez possessed twice as much heroin as he or Candelas had that night. Much like Sherwin had stated, Manzanares averred that the next morning, after he retrieved breakfast, S.C. would not wake up and appeared blue in color. He testified that C.C. had used his phone to call 9-1-1 but that he left with Martinez before emergency responders arrived.
C.C. testified at trial as well. C.C. said that on July 18, 2011, Manzanares and another man met her and S.C. near McDonald's and drove them back to the apartment. According to C.C., after they arrived, everyone started smoking marijuana. Then, some of the guys began to prepare cheese. Much like other witnesses, C.C. explained how she had witnessed some of the guys mixing heroin with Tylenol PM and then preparing lines of the compound and snorting it. C.C. said that Martinez offered some of the cheese to S.C. and that S.C. partookby snorting it as the others had done. C.C. said that S.C. initially snorted two to three lines but that as the night went on, S.C. continued to snort more lines, eventually snorting upwards of sixteen lines. Like other witnesses, C.C. retold how the next morning S.C. was unresponsive, purple in color, and making strange snoring sounds. C.C. testified that when she called 9-1-1, almost everyone left, including Martinez. When the paramedics arrived, C.C. informed them that S.C. had been snorting the compound of heroin and Tylenol PM.
The State also called two nurses involved in taking urine samples from S.C. once she was admitted into emergency care. During the nurses' testimony, the State introduced a lab report produced from a urinalysis machine, which indicated that S.C. had ingested opiates prior to her arrival at the hospital. The State also called two physicians who treated S.C. after her transport to the Lewisville Medical Center and eventual CareFlite to Medical City Children's Hospital in Dallas. The physicians' testimony is largely irrelevant to Martinez's issues on appeal, but the thrust of their testimony is that S.C. was within minutes of dying when C.C. called 9-1-1.
A jury convicted Martinez of the delivery of a controlled substance to a child. The jury also found true the charge's paragraph that Martinez caused serious bodily injury to...
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