Ramirez v. State
| Decision Date | 25 July 1990 |
| Docket Number | 04-88-00425-C,04-88-00426-CR,Nos. 04-88-00424-C,s. 04-88-00424-C |
| Parties | 65 Ed. Law Rep. 223 Inez RAMIREZ, Appellant, and Nick Carr, Appellant, and Luis Minton, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Edward A. Mallett, Houston, Gerald H. Goldstein, Goldstein, Goldstein & Hilley, Nancy B. Barohn, San Antonio, for appellants.
Rogelio F. Munoz, Dist. Atty., Uvalde, Alberto M. Ramon, Eagle Pass, for appellee.
Before BUTTS, CHAPA and PEEPLES, JJ.
Appellants were tried jointly before a jury and each was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery. The court assessed punishment for each at eight years' confinement, which was probated, and a $5,000 fine. In addition, appellant Carr was ordered to pay $18,000 restitution and appellant Minton was removed from his elected office. While the appellants raise various points of error in their separate briefs, each appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and raises other issues. Because we hold that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction in each case, we need not address appellants' other contentions.
In order to review the sufficiency of the evidence, a rather extensive discussion of the evidence adduced at trial is necessary. While we must review the sufficiency of the evidence by viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979), we believe that because of the complex facts involved, it would be helpful at this point to summarize all of the relevant evidence. In 1985, Nick Carr owned a building in Eagle Pass that was commonly referred to as the CEP building. At that time, Inez Ramirez was president of the Board of Trustees of the Eagle Pass Independent School District and Luis Minton was a county commissioner in Maverick County. Early in 1985, Carr made a proposal to sell the CEP building to the school district. On July 8, 1985, the school board met to discuss the possibility of buying this building for the purpose of consolidating the school district's offices. At that time, the district's offices were scattered around the city of Eagle Pass and there was a general consensus on the board that consolidation would be more efficient. Board members also expressed concerns that the district was wasting money on upkeep of properties it was renting and that the leases on those properties were about to expire. The board voted five to two to have a feasibility study conducted to determine if the CEP building was a suitable choice for consolidation. On July 10, 1985, Carr and Minton approached Dan Bustamonte, the superintendent of the school district. Carr asked Bustamonte if he was going to oppose the purchase, and informed him that one of the members who was opposed to the purchase would not be present for the vote. Minton relayed a message from Ramirez and another board member that they had the votes and were going to purchase the building, and that Bustamonte should not oppose the purchase. Bustamonte testified that there was nothing unusual about this meeting and that he was not pressured or coerced. A special meeting of the board was held on July 30, 1985. Three members, including Ramirez, voted for the purchase of the CEP building, and two members voted against it. Bustamonte, as superintendent, had no vote. Two board members were not present for the vote, but later testified that they would have voted against it. These members had notice of the meeting, though, and were not tricked, coerced, or bribed into not participating.
The board paid Carr $425,000 in two installments. The first payment of approximately $210,000 was made in September 1985. Most of that payment went directly to pay outstanding loans on the building, and Carr actually received approximately $36,000. The second payment of $212,500 was made in January 1986.
Between the first and second payments, Minton filed for reelection to his position as county commissioner. Approximately two weeks after the second installment was paid, and a month after Minton filed for reelection, Carr wrote a check to Ramirez (the school board member) for $1500. Several more checks were paid to Ramirez at approximately two-week intervals until a total of $11,500 had been paid. Minton was reelected in a run-off election on June 7, 1986. The last check written by Carr to Ramirez was dated June 13, 1986.
Soon thereafter, a grand jury began to investigate the purchase of the CEP building and the checks written to Ramirez by Carr. Carr, Ramirez and Minton all testified before the grand jury that the checks were contributions to Minton's reelection campaign. Minton did not report this money, however, and he never filed a final campaign report as required by law. Minton testified before the grand jury that his campaign received $11,200 from Carr, but that that figure was supplied to him by Ramirez. He testified that he, personally, received only $600 from Carr through Ramirez, all of which was spent on the campaign. He later wrote a letter to the grand jury attempting to clarify this.
On January 15, 1988, the grand jury indicted Carr, Ramirez, and Minton for conspiracy to commit bribery. The indictment alleged that appellants agreed among themselves, with the intent that bribery be committed, that Carr would confer a pecuniary benefit upon Ramirez as consideration for his vote to purchase the CEP building. Minton's apparent alleged role was to provide a cover-up for this payment by declaring that the checks given to Ramirez by Carr were actually contributions to Minton's reelection campaign.
All of the appellants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support their convictions. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, this court must determine whether, considering the evidence in the 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, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979); Little v. State, 758 S.W.2d 551, 562 (Tex.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 934, 109 S.Ct. 328, 102 L.Ed.2d 346 (1988). This is the standard of review in both direct and circumstantial evidence cases. Butler v. State, 769 S.W.2d 234, 238 (Tex.Crim.App.1989); Dickey v. State, 693 S.W.2d 386, 387 (Tex.Crim.App.1984).
In applying this standard to circumstantial evidence cases, however, we must consider whether the circumstances exclude every other reasonable hypothesis except that of the guilt of the accused. Butler v. State, 769 S.W.2d at 238 n. 1; Humason v. State, 728 S.W.2d 363, 366 (Tex.Crim.App.1987); Carlsen v. State, 654 S.W.2d 444, 449 (Tex.Crim.App.1983) (opinion on rehearing). If the evidence supports a reasonable inference other than finding the essential elements of the crime, then no trier of fact could rationally find the accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Carlsen v. State, 654 S.W.2d at 449-50; Freeman v. State, 654 S.W.2d 450, 456-57 (Tex.Crim.App.1983) (opinion on rehearing); Denby v. State, 654 S.W.2d 457, 464 (Tex.Crim.App.1983) (opinion on rehearing). Proof that amounts to only a strong suspicion or mere probability of guilt is insufficient to support a conviction. Humason v State, 728 S.W.2d at 366; Moore v. State, 640 S.W.2d 300, 302 (Tex.Crim.App.1982).
Appellants were convicted solely on circumstantial evidence. They assert that this evidence was insufficient because it failed to negate a reasonable hypothesis of innocence--that Ramirez voted for the purchase of the CEP building because he believed it was an appropriate site to consolidate the school district's offices; the series of checks written by Carr to Ramirez were contributions to Minton's campaign, for which Ramirez was an unofficial treasurer; and Minton failed to report Carr's contributions due to negligence or intimidation by the grand jury. We agree.
It is not necessary to prove all of the elements of the underlying offense in a conspiracy case. Brown v. State, 576 S.W.2d 36, 41 (Tex.Crim.App.1978); Skidmore v. State, 530 S.W.2d 316, 320 (Tex.Crim.App.1975); see also McCann v. State, 606 S.W.2d 897, 898 (Tex.Crim.App.1980) (). This is because conspiracy to commit a crime and commission of the substantive offense which is the object of the conspiracy are separate and distinct offenses. McCann v. State, 606 S.W.2d at 898; Farrington v. State, 489 S.W.2d 607, 609 (Tex.Crim.App.1972); Turner v. State, 720 S.W.2d 161, 162 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1986, pet. ref'd). Thus, in order to support a conviction for conspiracy to commit bribery, it was not necessary for the State to prove that the completed offense of bribery was committed. It was, however, necessary to prove that each appellant agreed, with the intent that a felony be committed, "that they or one or more of them engage in conduct that would constitute the offense" of bribery. TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. § 15.02(a)(1) (Vernon 1974). This agreement may be shown by circumstantial evidence. Farrington v. State, 489 S.W.2d at 609; Price v. State, 410 S.W.2d 778, 780 (Tex.Crim.App.1967); Turner v. State, 720 S.W.2d at 164; see also TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. § 15.02(b) (Vernon 1974). In addition to the necessary agreement, the State must also prove that one of the members of the conspiracy performed an overt act in pursuance of the agreement. TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 15.02(a)(2) (Vernon 1974). The required overt act need not, in itself, be a criminal act. McCann v. State, 606 S.W.2d at 898 n. 1.
The evidence in the present case, viewed in the light most favorable to the conspiracy verdict, shows that Carr had made various offers to sell the CEP building to the school district since 1982. After the board agreed to consider Carr's offer in 1985, Carr and...
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