Martinez v. State

Decision Date15 December 2010
Docket NumberNo. AP–76,140.,AP–76,140.
Citation327 S.W.3d 727
PartiesRaymond Deleon MARTINEZ, Appellant,v.The STATE of Texas.
CourtTexas Court of Criminal Appeals

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Robert Morrow, The Woodlands, for Appellant.April Silva, Asst. D.A., Houston, Lisa C. McMinn, State's Attorney, Austin, for State.

HOLCOMB, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which KELLER, P.J., and PRICE, WOMACK, JOHNSON, KEASLER, HERVEY, and COCHRAN, JJ., joined.

Appellant was convicted of capital murder in October 1989 for an offense committed in July 1983.1 Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2). Pursuant to the jury's answers to the statutory punishment issues, the trial court sentenced appellant to death. Art. 37.071 § 2(e).2 This conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal. Martinez v. State, 867 S.W.2d 30 (Tex.Crim.App.1993). In September 2007, this Court granted habeas corpus relief, set aside appellant's death sentence, and remanded the case to the trial court for a new punishment hearing. Ex parte Martinez, 233 S.W.3d 319 (Tex.Crim.App.2007) (granting a new punishment hearing because the jury did not have a vehicle through which to give meaningful consideration to appellant's constitutionally relevant mitigating evidence).

In 2009, the trial court held a new punishment hearing before a new jury. Based on the jury's answers to the special issues set forth in Article 37.0711, sections 3(b) and 3(e), the trial court sentenced appellant to death. Art. 37.0711 § 3(g). Direct appeal to this Court is automatic. Art. 37.0711 § 3(j). After reviewing appellant's seven points of error, we find them to be without merit. Consequently, we affirm the trial court's sentence of death.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

On July 11, 1983, appellant and Antonio Riojas entered the Long Branch Saloon in Houston to “case” the establishment. The men each ordered a beer, sat at one end of the horseshoe bar, and then took a drink while looking around. They then left without finishing their beers. The next evening, the men returned to the Long Branch Saloon, ordered beers, and took a drink. They asked the bartender, Rose Hardman,3 to point out the manager. When Hardman pointed to Herman Chavis, the men left.

On July 13, the men were joined by Jackie Kirtley and once again went to the Long Branch Saloon. They ordered beer and took a drink. This time, however, they did not leave. Riojas “backed up to the [front] door” and locked it. He then drew a gun and pointed it at some patrons. Kirtley went to the “back” of the saloon, near the pool tables, and fumbled with a storage-room door. Appellant went behind the bar and told Hardman to give him the money from the register. Appellant told her that he wasn't “playing” and pushed her toward the register while pressing a gun to her ribs.

Meanwhile, Kirtley ordered a patron to “get on the floor.” When the patron didn't respond immediately, Kirtley picked up a pool cue and swung it at the patron. Chavis, who was nearby, intervened and grabbed Kirtley in a bear hug to prevent him from hitting the patron with the pool cue. The scuffle caught appellant's attention. He pushed Hardman to the floor, stepped up onto an ice chest cooler, took aim, and shot Chavis multiple times, at the same time injuring Kirtley in the chest and shoulder. Chavis died from the gunshot wounds.

Appellant, Riojas, and Kirtley fled the saloon without obtaining any cash from the register. Appellant told Mary Lou Garcia Salazar, who was waiting in the getaway car, that he “had to unload his whole—the whole—his whole gun” when he shot Chavis. Appellant gave Kirtley $40 and dropped him off at a friend's house with the understanding that Kirtley would tell anyone who asked that he had been walking down the street and had been shot by “some guy.” According to Salazar, appellant displayed no remorse.

FUTURE DANGEROUSNESS

In his first and second points of error, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury's future dangerousness determination. Art. 37.0711 § 3(b)(2). This Court has consistently declined to conduct a factual-sufficiency review in this context, and appellant's arguments do not persuade us to retreat from these holdings. Renteria v. State, 206 S.W.3d 689, 707 (Tex.Crim.App.2006); Russeau v. State, 171 S.W.3d 871, 878 n. 1 (Tex.Crim.App.2005). More importantly, appellant's factual-sufficiency point of error is ultimately premised on our decision in Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 129 (Tex.Crim.App.1996), in which we established “the proper standard of review for factual sufficiency of the elements of the offense,” and we overruled Clewis in Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893 (Tex.Crim.App.2010). We therefore overrule point of error two.

Appellant challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury's determination regarding the future dangerousness issue, particularly in light of his advanced age and his twenty-nine years of “unremarkable time in prison” society during which he exhibited only “relatively minor bad behavior.”

A jury may consider a variety of factors when determining whether a defendant will pose a continuing threat to society. Wardrip v. State, 56 S.W.3d 588, 594 & n. 7 (Tex.Crim.App.2001); Keeton v. State, 724 S.W.2d 58, 61 (Tex.Crim.App.1987). Contrary to appellant's argument that this Court must “look for all the Keeton factors,” 4 this Court has previously held that the facts of the offense alone may be sufficient to sustain the jury's finding of future dangerousness. Fuller v. State, 253 S.W.3d 220, 231–32 (Tex.Crim.App.2008); Sonnier v. State, 913 S.W.2d 511, 517 (Tex.Crim.App.1995); Kunkle v. State, 771 S.W.2d 435, 449 (Tex.Crim.App.1986). We must view all of the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's finding and determine whether, based on that evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom, a rational jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the answer to the future dangerousness issue was “yes.” Ladd v. State, 3 S.W.3d 547, 557–58 (Tex.Crim.App.1999).

In addition to the facts of this offense, the sentencing jury heard testimony regarding appellant's criminal history, gang affiliation, and behavior in prison. The jury heard that appellant was difficult to control as a child, and he was not interested in working with his family. As his father described, when the family would pick cotton in the fields, appellant would go fishing rather than help.

Appellant's lengthy history with the criminal justice system began at the age of fifteen when he was adjudicated delinquent and committed to one and one-half years detention in Gatesville State School for Boys (“Gatesville”) for statutory rape. Within just a few months of his release, appellant was adjudicated delinquent for theft and returned to Gatesville to serve seven months more. While in Gatesville, appellant tried to enlist his brother's help to escape and did attempt to escape. Within a month of his release from the juvenile system at the age of eighteen, appellant committed burglary. He was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in the Texas Department of Corrections (“TDC”).5

In 1965, appellant attempted to escape from the Brown County jail while awaiting transfer to TDC. Following his release, he committed burglary and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to Rusk State Hospital in May 1967. His sanity was deemed restored and he was released on June 30, 1969. Appellant went on to commit four robberies, two of which were armed, and theft of an automobile. He also escaped from jail. Upon his conviction for these offenses in August and September 1969, he was sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment for each of the robberies, five years for escape, and two years for theft.

The jury learned that, during this period of incarceration, appellant became an organizer and leader of the Texas Syndicate prison gang. The jury learned from a forensic neuropsychiatric evaluation, Defense Exhibit number 33, that appellant “killed those who opposed the formation of the [prison gang].” He was “chronically violent, physically and verbally, and would attack others with little provocation.” Appellant stabbed an inmate in April 1975, and two others in September 1976. In April 1978, he created a weapon constructed of a “7–inch steel rod sharpened to a point” and stabbed another inmate. “Intoxicating inhalants” were discovered in his cell, and guards found him “huffing.” Marijuana was found concealed under the mattress in appellant's cell in October 1981. Appellant was paroled in December 1982.

After his release to parole, appellant lived primarily in Fort Worth with his sister Julia Martinez Gonzales and her daughter, Laura Escoto. He warned his niece that she should be afraid of him, and he gave her and his nephew loaded guns to play with on at least one occasion. When admonished for this by Gonzales, appellant was unconcerned and laughed. He occasionally stayed with his sister Raquel DeLaCruz and her husband. Appellant bragged to DeLaCruz and his brother Johnny DeAnda 6 that he had stabbed an inmate in prison and had committed more than seventeen robberies in the Fort Worth area. He explained to DeAnda that he would lure a club-goer outside with him and then knock out and rob the person. Appellant told DeLaCruz that he was a leader in the Texas Syndicate. He also stole her car and held a gun to her head on separate occasions.

Appellant's father attempted to help him find a job, but appellant was not interested in work. Instead, he wanted to establish a methamphetamine lab or grow marijuana to generate funds for the Texas Syndicate. To begin this project, appellant obtained between ten and fifteen thousand dollars and went to California to purchase the chemicals necessary to “cook” methamphetamine. Once he obtained the chemicals, appellant shot the man who delivered them. He disposed of the man's body, kept the money, and returned to Texas.

In early 1983, appellant checked himself into a...

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