Montes v. State

• Docket Number: 14-22-00423-CR
• Decision Date: 29 August 2023
• Parties: ELIAS MONTES, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

1

ELIAS MONTES, Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

No. 14-22-00423-CR

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fourteenth District

August 29, 2023

Do Not Publish - Tex.R.App.P. 47.2(b).

On Appeal from the 300th District Court Brazoria County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 91914-CR.

Panel consists of Bourliot, Hassan, and Poissant, Justices.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Frances Bourliot Justice.

Appellant Elias Montes appeals his murder conviction, arguing that (1) there is insufficient evidence to support his conviction, (2) the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress oral statements made before Miranda warnings were administered, (3) the trial court erred by allowing evidence of an extraneous offense, and (4) the trial court erred by admitting license plate photographs that were hearsay and unauthenticated. We affirm.

2

Background

At approximately 8:00 a.m. on October 18, 2020, Jose Rivera was driving with his son on Wickwillow Lane in Alvin, Texas. When he approached County Road 185, he saw a woman's body in the ditch alongside the road. He called 911 and remained at the scene until police arrived. Several other witnesses also reported seeing a body in a ditch near the intersection of Wickwillow Lane and County Road 185. The woman's body was later identified as Donna Wilson.

Law enforcement officers from the Brazoria County Sherriff's Office and the Alvin Police Department arrived at the scene where Wilson's body was located. Investigators secured the crime scene and observed that Wilson's body had visible gunshot wounds. Investigators located one 9-millimeter casing about three feet east of Wilson's body and another at the edge of the roadway. In addition to the casings, investigators located a LG cellular phone near Wilson's body. A search warrant was obtained to download the digital information off the cellular phone. One of the contacts was saved in the phone as "Mom." The number associated with this contact corresponded with Angelina Carrera, appellant's mother. The image files downloaded from the cellular phone contained a selfie photograph that appeared to match appellant. With this information, investigators were able to identify appellant's name.

Dr. Erin Barnhart, chief medical examiner for Galveston County, performed Wilson's autopsy on October 19. She testified to three gunshot wounds involving the neck, head, torso, and right arm. The fatal gunshot wound entered Wilson's chest and struck her right lung, diaphragm, and liver before exiting. Wilson's cause of death was confirmed as multiple gunshot wounds. Sergeant Clinton Lobpries with the Brazoria County Sherriff's Office attended the autopsy. He testified that he saw powder burns, which indicated close contact. Toxicology tests performed during the

3

autopsy indicated that methamphetamines were present in Wilson's system.

Sergeant Dominick Sanders with the Brazoria County Sherriff's Office located Wilson's next of kin. He spoke with Wilson's sister, Jamie Corder, and Wilson's boyfriend, Michael Thom. Thom turned over two cellular phones belonging to Wilson to investigators that were at his residence. Corder provided Sanders with a description of Wilson's vehicle and the VIN number. With this information, Sanders was able to search and locate the actual license plate number of Wilson's vehicle. Both Corder and Thom identified appellant as a last known contact for Wilson. Because appellant's cellular phone was found near Wilson's body and appellant's name was implicated by two different individuals as a last known contact, investigators identified appellant as a possible suspect in the murder investigation. At this point in the investigation, Wilson's vehicle and appellant's location were unknown.

During the investigation, investigators learned that Wilson left home driving her vehicle on the day of the murder. Investigators discovered that Wilson did not let other people drive her vehicle, and her vehicle was unaccounted for and presumed stolen. Before Wilson's vehicle was listed as stolen, it was first spotted on October 19 by Officer Phillip Alexander with the Sugar Land Police Department. Alexander testified that he was patrolling Highway 90 and saw a disabled vehicle. When Alexander approached the vehicle, appellant exited and stated that "he was having problems with his car." Alexander did not remember what kind of vehicle appellant was operating, but the call slip identified the vehicle as a gold Monte Carlo with license plate "KLF1904." Alexander testified that his interaction with appellant lasted about two to three minutes.

When law enforcement with the Brazoria County Sherriff's Office listed Wilson's vehicle as stolen on October 20, they were immediately notified that the

4

Houston Police Department was with the vehicle. Officer Sulei Johns with the Houston Police Department testified that he found appellant asleep in Wilson's vehicle. The Monte Carlo had three flat tires and was parked on the wrong side of a residential street. While investigating whether appellant needed assistance, Johns learned that Wilson's vehicle was reported stolen. Before appellant could be taken into custody, Johns received a call that there was an officer-involved shooting and left the scene. Sanders later arrived at the location where the vehicle was reported, but both the vehicle and appellant were gone. Investigators with the Brazoria County Sherriff's Office later learned that appellant had been released at a nearby address, and Wilson's vehicle was secured and impounded. Sanders also testified that on this same day, appellant and another individual were at a pawnshop carrying a speaker box that was taken from Wilson's vehicle. According to Sanders, the speaker box in the pawn shop surveillance video appeared to be the same speaker box seen in John's bodycam video.

Investigators obtained a search warrant and retrieved Wilson's vehicle from the tow lot. The vehicle was then towed to the Brazoria County Sherriff's Office to be searched. In the driver floorboard, investigators located a spent 9-millimeter casing that was consistent with the other two casings found near Wilson's body. Jeffrey Kelly with the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab testified that all three casings recovered by law enforcement were fired from the same unknown firearm. During the processing of the vehicle, investigators also noted that there was a gouge mark in the passenger's side door that may have been caused by a fired bullet. The interior surface of the vehicle was fairly clean, but investigators found presumptive evidence of blood splatters using BLUESTAR, a chemical compound used to detect blood residue on surfaces.

Lobpries testified that the day after getting Wilson's vehicle from the impound

5

in Houston, investigators drove around the area looking for additional video surveillance to establish a timeline of events. Investigators received information that placed appellant, Wilson, and Wilson's vehicle at a McDonald's drive-through in Alvin, Texas just before 7:00 a.m. the morning of the murder. Lobpries asserted that the McDonald's drive-through was approximately 3.3 miles from where Wilson's body was found, and it took him about four minutes to drive the route from the McDonald's to the location of Wilson's body at the posted speed limit.

Two of Wilson's acquaintances, Crystal Yauger and Cody DeSimone, told investigators that they saw appellant and Wilson at the McDonald's drive-through. Yauger and DeSimone testified about an altercation they witnessed between appellant and Wilson. Wilson exited the driver's side, and appellant exited the passenger side of Wilson's vehicle. They argued, and Wilson hit appellant once or twice. Subsequently, appellant and Wilson returned to the vehicle. Appellant was in the driver's seat, and Wilson was in the passenger's seat when Wilson's vehicle left the McDonald's parking lot. Surveillance video obtained from the McDonald's parking lot showed appellant wearing a black shirt and black pants.

During the investigation, Sanders received a phone call from Michael Maxian, a witness who claimed that his home security video may have captured the murder. Maxian lived near the crime scene at the corner of Wickwillow Lane and County Road 185. Maxian reviewed his home security cameras and took the hard drive to officers at the Brazoria County Sherriff's Office. Sanders testified that he reviewed Maxian's home surveillance video. In the video, Wilson's vehicle pulls up to the intersection of Wickwillow Lane and County Road 185 and stops. Approximately two minutes lapse before the passenger door opens. Wilson falls out the passenger side of her vehicle into the ditch. The driver then exits the vehicle, and there is a muzzle flash. The driver goes back and forth between the vehicle and ditch twice

6

before leaving the scene in Wilson's vehicle. On cross-examination, Sanders conceded that the male exiting the Monte Carlo appeared to be wearing a light-colored shirt and black pants.

On December 7, investigators interviewed appellant at the Harris County jail where he was being held on unrelated charges. Appellant told investigators that the last time he saw Wilson was in late September or early October when she gave him a ride from Houston to Santa Fe, Texas. Later in the interview, appellant told investigators that he dropped Wilson off at her "man's house," and she let him use her car. Appellant asserted that he did not take anything from the vehicle.

Appellant was later arrested and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty, and his case proceeded to a trial by jury. Appellant did not testify during the guilt-innocence phase, but his counsel challenged whether the State proved that appellant was the individual in the Maxian home surveillance video that captured the murder. Counsel emphasized the DNA found in Wilson's vehicle that belonged to an unidentified...