Mason v. State
| Decision Date | 04 June 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 07-07-0383-CR.,07-07-0383-CR. |
| Citation | 290 S.W.3d 498 |
| Parties | Ronnie Duane MASON, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
L. Van Williamson, Amarillo, TX, for Appellant.
John L. Owen, Asst. District Atty., Amarillo, TX, for Appellee.
Before QUINN, C.J., and HANCOCK and PIRTLE, JJ.
"The greatest dangers in liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." United States Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis.1
Appellant, Ronnie Duane Mason, was convicted by a jury of capital murder. He was then sentenced by the court to an automatic life sentence, the State having waived the death penalty. Appellant's eight issues on appeal can be distilled down to a single question: Did the trial court commit reversible error by denying Appellant's pretrial motion to quash the indictment when the State concedes that the indictment was obtained as the result of a proceeding that violated articles 20.0112 and 20.043 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure4 governing grand jury proceedings? Finding both error and harm, we reverse and remand.
On June 28, 2004, the Amarillo Police Department and Emergency Medical Services responded to a 911 call concerning a baby not breathing. When Officer Kenneth Jester arrived, there were three adults present: Anthony Richards, Kresha Ryan, and Appellant. The baby the subject of the emergency call was eight-month old Iveyonna Durley. Immediately following first care response, the baby was transported by ambulance to the hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. An autopsy determined the child's death to be the result of multiple blunt force injuries.
During the initial investigation, Richards indicated to the officers that, while he was alone with the baby in his care, she had rolled off a bed and struck her head on a baby walker. Richards further indicated that Appellant and Ryan subsequently arrived and noticed the baby was not breathing, at which time Ryan called 911. Jester permitted Appellant and Ryan to leave the scene in order to locate the infant's mother at her place of work, while he turned Richards over to members of the Special Crimes Unit for further questioning. Richards was subsequently placed under arrest.
During the investigation, Richards gave two oral statements and two written statements to police indicating that, while the infant was in his care, she had fallen from the bed and struck her head on the walker. He also told police that, after Ryan arrived, he picked the infant up, shook her a little and hit her in the face while trying to awake her.
Following his arrest, Richards's mother called Sergeant Kevin Dockery, Lead Investigator for the Special Crimes Unit, and told him that Richards had lied to investigators in order to protect his cousin, the Appellant. She also told him to look at a mop handle found in the apartment. Tashana Smith, Richards's cousin, told Sergeant Dockery that Richards told her that Appellant assaulted the infant with the mop handle, kicked the infant from behind, and hit the infant in the head with his fist. Sergeant Dockery subsequently discovered Appellant's fingerprints on the mop handle and began to consider him as a suspect.
In a series of interviews with Sergeant Dockery, Appellant indicated that, on June 27th, he had disciplined the baby by spanking her bare buttocks. He also indicated that, while he was cleaning the apartment on June 28th, he accidently hit the baby in the head twice with a mop handle—once when he threw the mop across the room and a second time when he was attempting to frighten the infant into behaving. Based upon these conversations memorialized by written statements, Sergeant Dockery obtained a warrant and placed Appellant under arrest. Thereafter, Sergeant Dockery neither spoke with Appellant nor Richards until the Grand Jury met to determine whether to indict Appellant.
On January 13, 2005, after being incarcerated for more than six months, Richards met with J. Patrick Murphy, Assistant District Attorney for the Potter County District Attorney's Office. With his attorney present, Richards agreed to go before the Grand Jury that day and give his eyewitness account of the events that occurred on the day of the child's death. Before the Grand Jury, Richards recanted his earlier statements, testified he had lied to the police to protect Appellant, and he then described how Appellant was responsible for all the infant's injuries.
More specifically, during Murphy's examination of Richards, Sergeant Dockery, and Mike Crandell, a Crime Scene Investigator for the Special Crimes Unit, questioned Richards regarding a number of evidentiary details found at the crime scene that were not covered by Murphy. In several instances, Sergeant Dockery's questions were leading and suggested the answers to Richards. Sergeant Dockery also attempted to rehabilitate Richards's testimony by obtaining Richards's admission he had lied to the police and should be punished for being present but not helping the baby. Sergeant Dockery also elicited new testimony that Richards had told Appellant to stop injuring the baby and, when Richards testified that he never hit or fought Appellant to protect the baby, Sergeant Dockery bolstered his testimony by agreeing that the police "wouldn't expect [Richards] to get into a fight with [Appellant]" in order to protect the baby.
Sergeant Dockery also followed up on a Grand Juror's question related to a cell phone call which Richards claimed in his earlier statements had occurred prior to Ryan's 911 call. In his earlier written statements, Richards had indicated he was alone with the baby when she was injured and that he called Appellant's cell phone to inform him there was something the matter with the baby's breathing. Following the call, Richards indicated Appellant returned to the apartment with Ryan, discovered the baby had ceased breathing, and Ryan called 911. Before the Grand Jury, however, and in response to Sergeant Dockery's questions, Richards offered new testimony that he had lied about the call and Appellant simply returned to the apartment as expected. Finally, Sergeant Dockery further bolstered Richards's testimony with the following statement:
All I can say is I do appreciate the fact you did come and talk to us, and I appreciate the fact you stepped forward and talked to us. Hopefully you are telling us the truth. And, all I can say, is good luck to you.
That same day, following Richards's testimony, the Grand Jury indicted Appellant for capital murder.5 Two weeks later, Richards was released on ten years probation in return for a plea of guilty to injury to a child by omission.6
During the course of pretrial proceedings, Appellant filed motions for discovery of the Grand Jury transcripts and materials. In support of his request for the transcripts, he asserted that Richards was the only eyewitness to the events the morning of the baby's death and that he had recanted four earlier statements to police during his Grand Jury testimony. Appellant also asserted the Grand Jury testimony was necessary to effectively cross-examine Richards at trial. The trial court granted the motion.
After receiving the transcript of Richards's testimony, Appellant filed a motion to quash the indictment because Sergeants Dockery and Crandell were present in the Grand Jury room during Richards's testimony and questioned him before the Grand Jury. On August 20, 2007, the trial court held a pretrial hearing on Appellant's motion to quash. At the hearing, the State admitted the error but questioned whether articles 20.011 and 20.04 served any legitimate purpose. During that hearing, the State made the following statement:
Well, to be honest with you, Your honor, the secrecy of the Grand Jury has lost a lot of its impact as to why it was written as well. The question should be—and I think is, if we're allowed to have investigators in there to assist us because they know the case better than anybody when it's presented to the Grand Jury, if we're allowed to do that, the fact that they ask the questions rather than the State, doesn't make a lot of sense. The exact reasons why they have the statute is lost on the State. I don't know what the legislative history is on it.
Murphy admitted that "[police] officers have always been [in the grand jury room], as long—that's been the practice from the—from the Potter County perspective as long as I've been there." He also admitted that typically the "Special Crimes people are there," this was the "rare occasion" where they had a witness, and they had developed some changes in his testimony. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court found there was error but overruled Appellant's motion to quash after finding the State's error was harmless.
Following a six day jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of capital murder. Because the State waived the death penalty, the trial court automatically imposed a life sentence. This appeal followed.
Appellant contends the State violated articles 20.011 and 20.04 by permitting Sergeants Dockery and Crandell to attend the Grand Jury proceedings in a capacity other than as witnesses and by improperly allowing the officers to question Richards. Appellant contends the officers' presence as well as their questioning of Richards impermissibly influenced the proceedings and effectively commandeered the Grand Jurors in furtherance of law enforcement's investigation. Appellant also asserts that, unless these impermissible practices are checked, the State's violations will continue with impunity. Finally, Appellant contends the error was not harmless.
The State concedes that Appellant's indictment was obtained following a violation of articles 20.011 and 20.04. The State further concedes the trial court erred in failing to grant Appellant's ...
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Mason v. The State Of Tex.
...argued that the violations of Articles 20.011 and 20.04 were not harmless. The court of appeals agreed. Mason v. State, 290 S.W.3d 498 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 2009, pet. granted). The court conducted a harm analysis to “determine whether the violations of articles 20.011 and 20.04” affected the ......