Powell v. State

• Decision Date: 12 April 2006
• Docket Number: No. PD-0726-05.,PD-0726-05.
• Parties: Michael Wayne POWELL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

194 S.W.3d 503

Michael Wayne POWELL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas.

No. PD-0726-05.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

April 12, 2006.

Rehearing Denied June 28, 2006.

William H. "Bill" Ray, Fort Worth, for Appellant.

Michael R. Casillas, Asst. Criminal District Atty., Fort Worth, Matthew Paul, State's Atty., Austin, for State.

OPINION

JOHNSON, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

A grand jury indicted appellant for burglary of a habitation. TEX. PENAL CODE § 30.02. The state presented evidence at the guilt phase of trial that, during July 2002, appellant was present at the scene of a burglary, was later found in possession of a truck observed at the scene of the crime, and was identified by the complainant as a possible participant in the burglary. A jury convicted appellant of burglary of a habitation, and the judge sentenced appellant to twenty-eight years' confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — Correctional Institutions Division.

Appellant appealed, asserting that the trial court erred because the evidence was both legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction. Powell v. State, 161 S.W.3d 212 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth). The court of appeals, relying on Jackson v. Virginia¹ and TEX. PENAL CODE §§ 7.01, 30.02, reversed the guilty verdict and found that the evidence was legally insufficient to establish appellant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt because no direct evidence linked appellant to the commission of the burglary. Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict, the court of appeals also concluded that the state's case rested largely on circumstantial evidence and that the state had failed to prove that appellant, either acting alone or as a party, entered the complainant's house without consent to commit or attempt to commit theft. Because it reversed appellant's conviction on the basis of legal insufficiency, the court of appeals did not address the factual sufficiency of the evidence in appellant's case. The state petitioned for discretionary review and we granted review on two grounds.² We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand to that court for further deliberations.

The Evidence

Testimony at the guilt phase showed that the complainant delivered lunch to her husband at work on the day of the offense and, when she returned home approximately fifteen minutes later, she found that her house had been burglarized and an unfamiliar truck was parked in the driveway. Some of the complainant's personal property was stacked near the door, and her husband's wallet was missing. As the complainant called the police from her cell phone, appellant approached her, offered to explain this seemingly suspicious situation, used verbally abusive language, and then left the scene in the unfamiliar truck without giving the promised explanation and without taking any of the stacked property. The complainant wrote down the license plate number of the truck and gave this information, as well as a physical description of appellant, to the Fort Worth police officer who responded to her call.

Shortly thereafter, in a nearby bank parking lot, other Fort Worth police officers found an unoccupied truck that matched the description provided by the complainant. Within minutes of locating the truck, Officer Michael Haley saw appellant running toward the truck. Appellant matched the physical description provided by the complainant, and he had in his hand a set of keys that was later determined to fit the ignition of the truck in the bank parking lot. According to testimony provided by one of the arresting officers, after his arrest appellant admitted that he owned the truck in question. Although at the time of his arrest appellant's shirt was a different color than the one described by the complainant, a witness for the state testified at the guilt phase that she had observed two men, one Caucasian and the other Hispanic, exchanging shirts on the sidewalk. The witness further testified that the Caucasian man matched appellant's general physical description (including the location of various tattoos), but that she was unable to positively identify appellant at trial.

The officers searched appellant's truck and found a letter addressed to appellant, as well as a pawn ticket with the name "Pete Perez" on it. As the officers drove to the complainant's house, they found the missing wallet, which had been discarded on the side of the road along the path that appellant had followed when he left the complainant's home. Police officers returned to the complainant's home with appellant, and the complainant identified appellant as the man who had accosted her. Testimony also revealed that the brother of the complainant's sister-in-law is named Pete Perez and that he plead guilty to the same burglary charged in this case.

Sufficiency of Evidence

The inquiry on review of the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction is whether, after viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318-19, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Ross v. State, 133 S.W.3d 618, 620 (Tex.Crim. App.2004). The same standard of review applies to cases involving direct or circumstantial evidence. Burden v. State, 55 S.W.3d 608, 613 (Tex.Crim.App.2001). Ordinarily, to hold evidence legally sufficient to sustain a conviction for burglary of a habitation, the evidence must demonstrate that: (1) an individual enters a habitation; (2) without the effective consent of the owner; (3) in order to commit or attempt to commit a felony, theft, or assault. TEX. PENAL CODE § 30.02(a)(3).

However, pursuant to TEX. PENAL CODE §§ 7.01,³ and 7.02,⁴ the law in Texas allows individuals to be charged as a party to an offense and to be held criminally responsible for the conduct of another when that individual acts in concert with another person in committing an offense. Circumstantial evidence alone may be used to prove that a person is a party to an offense. Beardsley v. State, 738 S.W.2d 681, 684 (Tex.Crim.App.1987) (citing Wygal v. State, 555 S.W.2d 465 (Tex.Crim. App.1977)). Furthermore, a person can be convicted as a party even if the indictment does not explicitly charge him as a party. Marable v. State, 85 S.W.3d 287, 288 (Tex. Crim.App.2002).⁵ The state suggests, in its first ground for review, that the court of appeals's reading of TEX. PENAL CODE § 7.01 erroneously requires appellant to actually enter the complainant's house before he can be found guilty of burglary of a habitation under the law of parties.⁶

Generally, courts should interpret a statute according to its plain language. Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782, 785 (Tex.Crim.App.1991). The statutory language of TEX. PENAL CODE § 7.01 is silent on the applicability of the law of parties as it pertains to burglary offenses. However, this Court has held previously that an individual may be guilty of burglary of a habitation even though he does not personally enter the burglarized premises if he is acting together with another in the commission of the offense. Clark v. State, 543 S.W.2d 125, 127 (Tex.Crim.App.1976) (citing Smith v. State, 496 S.W.2d 564 (Tex.Crim.App.1973)). The court of appeals appears to have incorporated an additional requirement — that appellant is required to actually enter the complainant's house in order to be found guilty of burglary of a habitation under the law of parties. This interpretation is supported by neither the statutory language of TEX. PENAL CODE § 7.01 nor the case law of this Court. We therefore sustain the state's first ground for review.

Intertwined with this analysis is the state's second ground for review, in which the state contends that the court of appeals failed to consider all circumstantial evidence, including appellant's consciousness of guilt and the overall cumulative weight of the evidence, in a light most favorable to the verdict. In determining whether an individual is a party to an offense and, therefore, subject to criminal responsibility, a reviewing court may consider the events before, during,...