Moon v. State

• Decision Date: 18 December 2013
• Docket Number: No. 01–10–00341–CR.,01–10–00341–CR.
• Parties: Cameron MOON, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

410 S.W.3d 366

Cameron MOON, Appellant

v.The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 01–10–00341–CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

Houston (1st Dist.).

July 30, 2013.

Discretionary Review Granted Dec. 18, 2013.

David Adler, Bellaire, TX, Jack G. Carnegie, Strasburger & Price, LLP, TX, Christene Wood, Houston, TX, John L. Hagan, Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs, PC, Houston, TX, for Appellant.

Mike Anderson, District Attorney–Harris County, Dan McCrory, Assistant District Attorney, Harris County, Houston, TX, for Appellee.

Panel consists of Justices JENNINGS, HIGLEY, and SHARP.

OPINION

JIM SHARP, Justice.

Charged with the delinquent conduct of homicide,¹ sixteen-year-old Cameron Moon was certified by the juvenile court to stand trial as an adult in Criminal District Court, where a jury convicted him of murder and assessed punishment at thirty years' imprisonment.

On appeal, Moon contends that (1) the juvenile court erred in waiving its jurisdiction and (2) the district court abused its discretion by denying Moon's motion to suppress the statements he made during his interrogation. We vacate the district court's judgment and dismiss the case.

I. Background

A. Evidence of the Murder

In July 2008, Deer Park Police Detective Jason Meredith arrived at a grocery store parking lot to investigate a homicide and found Christopher Seabrook dead. Seabrook's cousin, Able Garcia, told the Detective that he and Seabrook had made arrangements to buy a pound of marijuana from a seller whom Garcia knew as “JT.” Garcia arrived first, and Seabrook pulled up and parked his truck alongside Garcia's car. The two cousins sat in Garcia's car until a third vehicle, driven by Gabriel Gonzalez, arrived and parked next to Seabrook's truck.

Seabrook approached Gonzalez's car, leaned in the window, and spoke to the front seat passenger. Garcia heard the conversation grow heated, saw Seabrook lunge into the passenger side window, and then heard gunshots. Seabrook then ran from the vehicle but was fired upon by someone who jumped from the passenger side of the car. The shooter, identified by Garcia only as a white male, returned to Gonzalez's car, which sped away.

Gonzalez later returned to the parking lot and admitted to the Detective that he was the driver of the third vehicle, the shooter whom Gonzalez identified as “Crazy” had been seated next to him, and Emmanuel Hernandez was the backseat passenger. Gonzalez recounted that Seabrook pulled Crazy from the car and gunshots were fired. Gonzalez thereafter directed the police to where the shooter lived in La Porte. When recovered by the police, Seabrook's cell phone indicated that the last incoming call was from a phone owned by Moon.

The continued investigation at the parking lot led to the arrest of Hernandez for possession of marijuana and to the discovery of the pistol from which, a ballistic test confirmed, were fired three of the four bullets recovered from Seabrook's corpse.² Hernandez identified Moon, who he knew as “J.T.,” as the shooter and told the Detective that he and Moon had intended to “jack” Seabrook.³ Text messages from Moon on Hernandez's cell phone before the shooting asked if he was “ready to hit that lick” ⁴ and to bring a gun; after the shooting the texts pleaded “don't say a word” and “tell them my name is Crazy, and you don't know where I live.”

Moon later confessed to the shooting, was arrested, taken into custody and two days following the shooting, on July 20, 2008, taken to the Juvenile Detention Center.

B. Evidence of Moon's History and Background

At the juvenile court hearing on the State's motion to waive jurisdiction held December 17, 2008, Moon's maternal aunt, Jennifer Laban, testified about Moon's family life: his parents divorced when he was very young; when Moon was two-and-a-half years old, his mother gave birth to, suffocated, and threw her newborn daughter into a trash can. After she was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, Moon never saw his mother again. Moon learned of his mother's history for the first time in 2007, one year before the incident that gives rise to this case.

Moon had been charged with criminal mischief five months earlier for allegedly “keying” another student's vehicle and subsequently went to live with his maternal grandmother, Sharon Van Winkle, in La Porte. As a result of the mischief charge, Moon was compelled to enroll in an alternative school and, Laban testified, began exhibiting anxiety and panic attacks such that she and Van Winkle took Moon to see Tom Winterfeld, a counselor.

Mary Guerra, the juvenile probation officer assigned to Moon for the “keying” case, testified that Moon passed all of his classes with no reports of negative behavior at either the alternative school or the detention center's charter school. He successfully completed a program designed to address teen and family relationships, anger management and substance abuse, and was compliant, never angry, always called to check in with her, and was “very cooperative.”

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Seth Silverman ⁵ testified and submitted his psychiatric evaluation that noted:

• Moon is mild mannered, polite, and dependent, almost to the point of being fearful, easily influenced, and confused;

• It is this examiner's strong opinion that adult criminal justice programs have few constructive and, possibly, many destructive influences to offer to Moon. There is little to no programming. Therapy, and attempts at rehabilitation, if any, are clearly minimal. Numerous severe, untoward, and aggravating influences are present.

• Moon has little inclination toward violence, does not fit the mold of individuals treated and assessed who have been charged with similar offenses, and he does not appear to be a flight risk or prone to aggressive behavior; and

• Moon's thought process lacks sophistication that is indicative of immaturity.

Ulysses Galloway, a Harris County probation officer who supervised Moon in the juvenile justice center, described him as “a good kid, young man.” ⁶ He testified that, in his eleven years as a probation officer, he has seen a lot of kids come and go and “Moon is one of the best kids I have seen come through....” Galloway also testified that Moon followed his orders, attended classes, was neither aggressive nor mean-spirited, and he considered Moon amenable to treatment. Two other Harris County probation officers who supervised Moon—Warren Broadnaz and Michael Merrit—testified that their observations of Moon were exactly the same as Galloway's.

Julie Daugherty, the mother of Moon's former girlfriend, described Moon as extremely polite and respectful. Leslie Wood, Moon's childhood friend, testified that she had never seen Moon become aggressive.

On December 18, 2008, the juvenile court granted the State's motion to waive jurisdiction and transferred Moon's case to the 178th District Court. On April 19, 2010, a jury convicted Moon of murder and assessed punishment at thirty years' imprisonment. Moon timely filed this appeal.

II. Waiver of Jurisdiction

Moon's first issue contends that the juvenile court erred in waiving jurisdiction. Specifically, he argues that the juvenile court abused its discretion because (1) it failed to provide a specific statement of its reasons for waiver or to certify its fact findings; (2) it misunderstood and misapplied the factors it was required to consider in deciding whether to waive jurisdiction; (3) its finding related to Moon's sophistication and maturity was unsupported by the evidence; (4) its finding related to adequate protection of the public and likelihood of rehabilitation was unsupported by the evidence; and (5) it based its decision on factors that are not proper considerations in the waiver analysis. The State maintains that the juvenile court followed proper procedure in reaching its decision and that the evidence supported the court's findings.

A. Standard of Review

An appellate court reviews a juvenile court's decision to certify a juvenile defendant as an adult and transfer the proceedings to criminal court under an abuse of discretion standard. State v. Lopez, 196 S.W.3d 872, 874 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2006, pet. ref'd); Faisst v. State, 105 S.W.3d 8, 12 (Tex.App.-Tyler 2003, no pet.). Absent an abuse of discretion, the appellate court will not disturb a trial court's transfer and certification order. Faisst, 105 S.W.3d at 12 (citing C.M. v. State, 884 S.W.2d 562, 563 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1994, no writ)). Relevant factors to be considered when determining if the court abused its discretion include legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence. In re K.B.H., 913 S.W.2d 684, 688 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1995, no pet.).

A trial court's findings of fact are reviewed by the same standards applicable generally to legal and factual sufficiency review: if an appellate court finds the evidence factually or legally insufficient to support the juvenile court's order transferringjurisdiction of a youth to the criminal district court, it will necessarily find the juvenile judge has abused his discretion. In re G.F.O., 874 S.W.2d 729, 731–32 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1994, no writ). Under a legal sufficiency challenge, we credit evidence favorable to the challenged finding and disregard contrary evidence unless a reasonable fact finder could not reject the evidence. See City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 827 (Tex.2005); Faisst, 105 S.W.3d at 12. If there is more than a scintilla of evidence to support the finding, the no evidence challenge fails. Faisst, 105 S.W.3d at 12. Under a factual sufficiency challenge, we consider all of the evidence presented to determine if the court's finding is so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong or unjust. See id.

B. Applicable Law

In Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 16 L.Ed.2d 84 (1966), the United States Supreme Court stated that “[i]t is clear beyond dispute that the waiver...