Meadoux v. State, No. 4-08-00702-CR (Tex. App. 12/9/2009)

• Court: Texas Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Phylis J. Speedlin
• Decision Date: 09 December 2009
• Docket Number: No. 4-08-00702-CR.,4-08-00702-CR.
• Citation: Meadoux v. State, No. 4-08-00702-CR (Tex. App. 12/9/2009), No. 4-08-00702-CR. (Tex. App. Dec 09, 2009)
• Parties: CHRIS JOSHUA MEADOUX, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

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CHRIS JOSHUA MEADOUX, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

No. 4-08-00702-CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fourth District, San Antonio.

Delivered and Filed: December 9, 2009.

Appeal from the 289th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas, Trial Court No. 2007-CR-8922, Honorable Carmen Kelsey, Judge Presiding.

AFFIRMED.

Sitting: Phylis J. SPEEDLIN, Justice, Rebecca SIMMONS, Justice, Steven C. HILBIG, Justice.

OPINION

Opinion by: PHYLIS J. SPEEDLIN, Justice.

This appeal arises out of a capital murder conviction of a juvenile, Chris Meadoux, who was sixteen years old at the time of the offense, but was certified to be tried as an adult. On appeal, Meadoux raises suppression and sufficiency issues, and challenges the constitutionality of the Texas sentencing scheme that imposes a mandatory life without parole punishment on a juvenile capital murder offender. We affirm the trial court's judgment.

Factual and Procedural Background

On January 24, 2007 at approximately 3:47 p.m., firefighters responded to a call for a house fire. The fire was located in a locked bedroom on the second story. After firefighters kicked the door in and extinguished the fire, they noticed one body lying on the bed and a second body lying on the floor. The person on the bed, later determined to be Luis Martinez, had two gunshot wounds to the head and a neck laceration; his cause of death was a gunshot wound to the eye. The person on the floor, later determined to be Johnny You, was covered with a blanket, and was positioned with his hands behind his head and his feet crossed; he was taken downstairs to paramedics but it was determined that he was deceased. You had two gunshot wounds to the back of the head and a deep neck laceration; his cause of death was either a gunshot wound to the head or the neck laceration. Neither victim had any defensive wounds, and both had the drug ecstasy in their systems. Fire investigators determined the fire was intentionally set because there were two origination points, the door was closed with a towel or clothing placed at the base, the smoke detector had been removed, and burned articles of clothing were the source of the fire. Four shell casings fired from a .25 caliber gun were recovered from the bedroom; no latent prints were recovered.

The owner of the house, David Larrick, was notified by neighbors of the fire and arrived at the scene. Mr. Larrick called his wife and determined that she and their son, Charles Larrick, were together and away from the house. Charles and his mother had met with his probation officer for twenty minutes at 2:42 p.m. that afternoon. Detectives learned that Luis Martinez had been staying at the Larrick home with the Larricks' permission, but that Johnny You and another boy, Chris Meadoux, had also been staying there the last few days without the Larricks' permission; early in the morning on the day of the murders, You and Meadoux had climbed into Charles' bedroom through the window. Martinez went to sleep on the bed, while You slept on the floor and Meadoux slept on a futon. When Charles left in the afternoon to go to his probation appointment, Meadoux was awake but the other two boys were still asleep. Charles stated he kept a hunting rifle in his bedroom behind the bed, and that You had a .25 caliber handgun that he had gotten from Meadoux—who had made it known that he wanted the gun back. Both You and Meadoux were associated with gangs. A gun residue test on Charles was negative.

Detectives dispatched Officer Kyle Goodwin to Chris Meadoux's house to determine whether he was there and safe. Goodwin knocked on the door, and Meadoux opened it; as soon as he saw the uniformed officer, Meadoux tried to close the door but Goodwin put his hand in the doorway and pushed it open. Goodwin identified himself and stated he was there to check on Meadoux's welfare because something bad had happened to two of his friends. Officer Goodwin asked Meadoux if he would come down to the station to talk to the detectives, and Meadoux agreed. Because he was only sixteen years old, Goodwin informed him that he needed a parent or guardian to come along. Meadoux's adult brother, Samuel Cordier, was at home and accompanied Meadoux to the police station. Meadoux was told he was not under arrest; he was not patted down or handcuffed, and he and his brother were given the option of driving separately to the police station. They chose to ride with Officer Goodwin. Once at the police station, Meadoux and his brother waited in the lobby near an exit, and then Meadoux was questioned by two separate detectives in an interview room with the door left open much of the time.

At the police station, Meadoux gave two separate statements that were recorded on DVD. The first DVD statement lasts approximately one and one-half hours, and shows Meadoux repeatedly denying any involvement in or knowledge of the murders, but then attempting to destroy evidence after being told a gun shot residue test (GSR) would be performed on his hands; specifically, the video shows him getting a soda can out of the trash, pouring it over his hands, and rubbing them and scraping them with his teeth during a break while waiting for the GSR test. After the detective confronted him with this conduct, Meadoux continued to deny any knowledge or involvement in the offense; he left the interview room and sat with his brother in the lobby area for approximately ten minutes. Meadoux then agreed to give a second statement. The second DVD lasts approximately half an hour, and contains Meadoux's confession that he accidentally committed the murders when he and You fought over the gun and it discharged, and then he set the fire to cover it up. After his confession, Meadoux was not arrested, but was transported back home with his brother. Meadoux did not receive any Miranda warnings or the statutory warnings required for a juvenile in custody under section 51.095 of the Family Code. Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 51.095 (Vernon 2008).

In August 2007, Meadoux was arrested and certified to be tried as an adult. He was subsequently indicted for capital murder in two counts alleging alternate manner and means: (1) the murder of Luis Martinez while in the course of committing arson; and (2) the murder of Luis Martinez and Johnny You as part of the same criminal transaction. The trial court held a pre-trial hearing on Meadoux's motion to suppress his oral statements and a Jackson v. Denno¹ hearing on the voluntariness of his confession. The court ruled that Meadoux was not "in custody," and his statements were not the product of custodial interrogation and were voluntary; both statements were admitted into evidence at trial and the jury viewed both DVDs. In addition, Sergeant Thomas Matjeka testified that You could not have been shot in the back of the head accidentally as Meadoux claimed; he stated Martinez also could not have been shot in the eye as a result of the gun being dropped and firing accidentally as Meadoux claimed. Matjeka testified in his opinion, based on the trajectories and placement of the gunshot wounds, both boys were laying down at the time they were shot. The blood stain pattern on Meadoux's jeans was not consistent with his story of a struggle and accidental shooting, and Meadoux had no injuries or marks on his hands or arms indicative of a struggle. In addition, GSR particles were recovered from Meadoux's right hand, the jacket he had on at the police station, his jeans, and a shirt. The forensic scientist testified that pouring soda over and rubbing and scrapping the hands would "significantly reduce" any GSR particles. Physical evidence recovered from Meadoux's home included a cell phone belonging to Luis Martinez, a hunting rifle belonging to David Larrick, a .25 caliber handgun whose ballistics matched the recovered shell casings and wounds, and a wooden box with several knives. The blood on Meadoux's jeans was that of Luis Martinez. The medical examiner testified a pocketknife recovered from Meadoux's room could have caused the neck lacerations on the victims. The .25 caliber handgun was tested and did not fire accidentally when dropped. Several calls were made from Martinez's cell phone to Meadoux's girlfriend from 3:42 p.m. to 4:05 p.m. on the afternoon of the murders. Finally, a witness, Jennifer Kerr, testified she was driving through the neighborhood where the murders occurred at about 3:00 or 3:30 p.m. on January 24, 2007, and saw Meadoux walking away from a wooded area behind the houses. Meadoux told her his name was "Max" and he was lost and did not know how to get out of the neighborhood. Kerr gave Meadoux a ride to a nearby grocery store.

Based on this evidence, the jury returned a general verdict finding Meadoux guilty of capital murder; no lesser included offenses were included in the jury charge. Because of his minority, the trial court imposed the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 8.07(c) (Vernon Supp. 2009) (prohibiting punishment by death for a person younger than 18 years at the time of the offense); Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 37.071 § 1 (Vernon Supp. 2009) (prescribing a mandatory sentence of life without parole for defendants convicted of a non-death penalty capital felony); see also Act of May 28, 2005, 79th Leg., R.S., ch. 787, § 1, 2005 Tex. Gen. Laws 2705 (amended 2009) (current version at Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.31(a) (Vernon Supp. 2009)). Meadoux timely appealed.

On appeal, Meadoux claims that: (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his confession, and in refusing to submit a jury instruction on the voluntariness of his statement; (2) the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to establish the elements of capital murder as set out in the indictment; and (3) the Texas sentencing scheme of automatic life without parole for a juvenile convicted of capital murder constitutes...