Ramirez v. State

• Citation: 976 S.W.2d 219
• Decision Date: 24 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. 08-96-00409-CR,08-96-00409-CR
• Parties: Jose Manuel RAMIREZ, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas

Page 219

976 S.W.2d 219

Jose Manuel RAMIREZ, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 08-96-00409-CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

El Paso.

April 24, 1998.

Discretionary Review Refused Sept. 30, 1998.

Scott Segall, Martin & Segall, El Paso, for appellant.

Jaime E. Esparaza, Dist. Atty., El Paso, for state.

Before BARAJAS, C.J., and LARSEN and CHEW, JJ.

OPINION

BARAJAS, Chief Justice.

Jose Manuel Ramirez appeals his conviction for murder. The jury found him guilty and assessed punishment at eighty (80) years' incarceration in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and a fine of $9,000.

I. SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE

On April 29, 1995, Veronica Cera held a birthday party for her cousin at 772 Lico Lane in El Paso. In attendance at the birthday party were members of the Moon City and Barrio Nuevo gangs. As the party was ending, a car driven by Victor Aguirre, the father of Veronica's three-month-old child, approached. From the passenger's side of the car, Ramirez, Appellant, leaned out of the window and shot at the party with a rifle. The car then sped away from the house. Rodrigo Ramirez, Veronica Cera's brother, lay on the ground with a gunshot wound to the neck. Rodrigo Ramirez later died from the gunshot wound.

The police were promptly notified. While Deputy Conner of the El Paso Sheriff's Department was responding to the call, he saw a grey car matching the description of the car involved in the shooting. As he began to follow the car, it sped up. During the ensuing chase, a rifle was thrown out of the car from the passenger's window. When the car was finally stopped, Appellant was removed from the passenger's seat and handcuffed. Appellant was later charged with and convicted of murder. This appeal follows.

II. DISCUSSION

In Point of Error No. One, Appellant contends that the trial court erred in charging the jury with an overly broad definition of intent. In the present case, Appellant was charged with intentional murder. The definitional section of the jury charge reads as follows:

A person acts intentionally, or with intent, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to a result of his conduct when it is his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or cause the result.

A person acts knowingly, or with knowledge, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to circumstances surrounding his conduct when he is aware of the nature of his conduct or that the circumstances exist. A person acts knowingly, or with knowledge, with respect to a result of his conduct when he is aware that his conduct is reasonably certain to cause the result.

Murder is a result oriented offense. Cook v. State, 884 S.W.2d 485, 490 (Tex.Crim.App.1994). When a defendant is charged with a result oriented crime, as in the instant case, he is entitled on request to have the abstract definitions of "intentionally and knowingly" limited to the result only language. Barcenes v. State, 940 S.W.2d 739, 743-44 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1997, pet. ref'd). Any instructional language relating to conduct is inconsequential. Id. Since Appellant was charged with a "result of conduct" offense, the trial judge erred in not limiting the culpable mental states to the result of Appellant's conduct. Cook, 884 S.W.2d at 490. We must conduct a harm analysis to determine if this error requires reversal of Appellant's conviction. In assessing harm from the inclusion of improper elements in the definitions of culpable mental states, we "may consider the degree, if any, to which the culpable mental states were limited by the application portions of the jury charge." Id.

In this case, the application paragraph specified that Appellant did intentionally and knowingly "cause" the death of an individual or "intend to cause serious bodily injury to an individual, RODRIGO RAMIREZ, intentionally or knowingly committing an act clearly dangerous to human life, to-wit: by shooting RODRIGO RAMIREZ with a firearm, thereby causing the death of said RODRIGO RAMIREZ." In Hughes v. State, 897 S.W.2d 285, 296 (Tex.Crim.App.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1112, 115 S.Ct. 1967, 131 L.Ed.2d 857 (1995), the Court of Criminal Appeals noted that although the definitions of "intentionally" and "knowingly" set forth three alternative elements of conduct, when viewed in their factual context it was apparent which conduct element applied to the offense. Id. The court concluded:

[B]ecause the facts, as applied to the law in the application paragraph, pointed the jury to the appropriate portion of the definitions, no harm resulted from the court's failure to limit the definitions of culpable mental states....

Id.; see also Patrick v. State, 906 S.W.2d 481, 491-93 (Tex.Crim.App.1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1106, 116 S.Ct. 1323, 134 L.Ed.2d 475 (1996). The same can be said of the facts in this case. Thus, the facts, as applied to the law in the application paragraph, pointed the jury to the proper result oriented culpable mental state portion of the definitions. Consequently, no harm resulted from the court's failure to limit the definitions of "intentionally" and "knowingly" to the result of Appellant's conduct. Appellant's Point of Error No. One is overruled.

A. Impeachment of State's Witness

Appellant also contends that the trial court erred in not permitting him to impeach the State's witness with the fact that the charges brought against the witness were originally dismissed. It is Appellant's belief that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses who testify against him by restricting Appellant's ability to cross-examine Eric Ortiz, a witness for the State. The trial court disallowed the jury from hearing testimony that the original charges against Eric Ortiz were dismissed.

While exposing a witness's motivation to testify against a defendant is a proper and important function of the constitutionally protected right to cross-examination, and the defendant is allowed great latitude to show any fact which would tend to establish ill feeling, bias, motive, and animus on the part of the witness testifying against him, this right does not prevent a trial court from imposing some limits on the cross-examination into the bias of a witness. McDuff v. State, 939 S.W.2d 607, 618 (Tex.Crim.App.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S.----, 118 S.Ct. 125, 139 L.Ed.2d 75 (1997). The parameters of cross-examination for a showing of witness bias rests within the sound discretion of the trial court. Id. Of course, within reason, the trial judge should allow the accused great latitude to show any relevant fact that might affect the witness's credibility. Id. (citations omitted). In this case, Appellant was permitted wide latitude in attacking the witness's motivation or bias. Defense counsel asked numerous questions about the agreement between him and the State. In addition, Mr. Ortiz admitted that he would do anything to keep from going to jail. Appellant was permitted to demonstrate the accomplice's vulnerable relationship with the State and potential motive, bias, or interest. Therefore Appellant was able to show that since the accomplice witness had entered into an agreement with the State, he was at least potentially beholden to some extent to the State. Allowing Appellant to elicit the information about the dismissal would not have shown further his vulnerable relationship with the State or his potential motive, bias, or interest. In the instant case, based upon the cross-examination that was allowed, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Appellant's proffered evidence about the State's decision to dismiss the original charges against Eric Ortiz. Appellant's Point of Error No. Two is overruled.

B. Admissibility of Third Party Confession

In Point of Error No. Three, Appellant maintains that the trial court erred by not permitting the introduction of evidence that Victor Aguirre told Officer Martin Salazar, a policeman with the Socorro Police Department, that he committed the offense. The actual testimony was, "He made the statement saying, I believe--I believe he said, I did not mean to kill him or shoot him or something like that." Previously, the same officer testified that Victor Aguirre said, "Mister, I did not want to kill him. All I did was to want to shoot him." The trial court found this evidence inadmissible because it "comes after the completion of the conspiracy. And number two, it's self-serving."

Appellant claims that the statement was admissible as a statement against interest. A statement against interest is one which at the time of its making is so far tended to subject him to criminal liability that a reasonable man in his position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true. TEX.R.CRIM. EVID. 803 (24). To be admissible a statement tending to expose the declarant to criminal liability must be corroborated by circumstances clearly indicating its trustworthiness. Id. Assuming without deciding that the testimony of Officer Salazar was improperly excluded, our examination of the record in its entirety leads us to conclude that the alleged error did not affect a substantial right of Appellant. See TEX.R.APP. P. 44.2(b); King v. State, 953 S.W.2d 266, 271 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). A substantial right is affected when the error had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict. King, 953 S.W.2d at 271. In light of the properly admitted evidence, the excluded evidence from Officer Salazar did not have a substantial or injurious influence on the jury's verdict. Id. Even if the testimony was admitted and believed by the jury, there was substantial evidence that Appellant was a party to the offense. As a party, the jury could have logically and legally convicted Appellant of murder based on the law of parties. Therefore, we cannot say that an error in this instance had a substantial effect on the jury's...