Reid v. State

• Decision Date: 24 February 1998
• Docket Number: No. 07-96-0245-CR,07-96-0245-CR
• Citation: 964 S.W.2d 723
• Parties: Tanya Thaxton REID, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 723

964 S.W.2d 723

Tanya Thaxton REID, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 07-96-0245-CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

Amarillo.

Feb. 24, 1998.

E. Dean Roper, Amarillo, for appellant.

Roland Saul, Criminal District Attorney, Hereford, for appellee.

Before BOYD, C.J., and DODSON and QUINN, JJ.

BOYD, Chief Justice.

In eight points of error, appellant Tanya Thaxton Reid contends her conviction of murder and the consequent jury-assessed punishment of 40 years confinement in the Institutional Division of the Department of Criminal Justice must be reversed. In the first four of those points, she argues the trial court abused its discretion in admitting testimony regarding Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy because 1) it is not relevant and not scientific knowledge, 2) it is not relevant and would not assist the trier of fact, 3) the probative value of the evidence is substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect, and 4) it is impermissible character evidence under Rule 404(a) of the Texas Rules of Criminal Evidence. In her next four points, she posits the trial court abused its discretion in admitting 5) evidence of extraneous offenses allegedly committed by appellant against Morgan Reid, her child, 6) evidence of extraneous offenses allegedly committed by appellant against Robert Matthew Reid (Matthew), another of her children, 7) evidence that Matthew was removed from her custody in a prior judicial proceeding, and 8) in admitting expert testimony regarding Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy to prove appellant committed the extraneous offenses against Matthew and Morgan and, as well, to prove that appellant committed the charged offense. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Because the questions presented by this appeal are primarily legal, and the factual record is lengthy, other than a background statement, we will refer to the factual evidence as it becomes necessary to a proper discussion of appellant's challenges. Parenthetically, there is a paucity of cases which have considered and discussed Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Indeed, as the result of research by the parties, and independent research by this court, we have found only two cases in which even peripheral reference was made to the syndrome. In Olivier v State, 850 S.W.2d 742 (Tex.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1993, pet. ref'd), the court referred to uncontroverted medical testimony that the appellant suffered from Munchausen's Syndrome and from schizo-defective disorder in holding that a trial jury verdict that implicitly rejected an insanity defense was manifestly unjust because it ignored that uncontroverted testimony. Id. at 748-49. In its opinion, without extensive discussion, the court assumed the validity of the diagnosis of Munchausen's Syndrome. However, it did not touch upon or discuss the extension of that diagnosis known as Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy. In Crocker v. State, 573 S.W.2d 190 (Tex.Crim.App.1978), again without extensive discussion, the court merely referred to medical testimony in which reference was made to Munchausen's Syndrome and an explanation for the name given to that condition. Id. at 200. In neither of these cases were the questions, with which we are presented, raised and discussed.

As background, suffice it to say that on February 7, 1984, Deaf Smith County Emergency (EMS) personnel were summoned to the home of Tanya and Raymond Reid because their infant daughter, Morgan Reid, had suffered an apnea ² episode. When the EMS personnel arrived, appellant was attempting to resuscitate Morgan. After an initial visit to the hospital in Hereford, Morgan was taken to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful and, after it was learned the child was brain dead, she was removed from the ventilator and she died some fourteen hours later. After an autopsy, her cause of death was determined, and is shown on her death certificate, as brain death secondary to cardiorespiratory arrest of undetermined etiology.

The Reids also had another child, Robert Matthew Reid, who had apnea episodes beginning in 1985 and continuing until March of 1988. In March 1988 in Des Moines, Iowa, by court order, Matthew was adjudicated a child in need of assistance, removed from the Reid home, and placed in foster care. After that time, Matthew suffered no further apnea episodes.

In our discussion, as did the parties, we will refer to Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy by its initials, i.e., MSBP. Appellant's challenges present four basic questions to be decided by us. The first is whether MSBP has attained a sufficient degree of scientific reliability to be admissible in a proper case. A subset of that question, assuming the diagnosis is sufficiently reliable to be received into evidence, is whether it is relevant in this particular case. The second question, assuming affirmative answers to the first question and its subset, is whether, in this case, the probative value of the MSBP testimony is exceeded by its prejudicial effect. The third question is whether the trial court erred in admitting evidence of extraneous offenses allegedly committed by appellant against Matthew and Morgan, as well as admitting expert MSBP testimony to establish appellant committed these extraneous offenses and, by extension, that she committed the offense charged. The fourth question is if the trial court reversibly erred in admitting evidence that custody of Matthew, Morgan's brother, was removed from appellant in a prior judicial proceeding.

Texas Rule of Criminal Evidence 702 provides:

If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise.

Prior to the adoption of Rule 702, ³ the standard for admissibility of expert testimony as to scientific evidence was whether the subject matter "had gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs." See Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C.Cir.1923); Zani v. State, 758 S.W.2d 233 (Tex.Crim.App.1988). However Rule 702 has now superseded that standard. Jordan v. State, 928 S.W.2d 550, 553 (Tex.Crim.App.1996), citing Kelly v. State, 824 S.W.2d 568 (Tex.Crim.App.1992).

The seminal case in interpreting the threshold requirements for admissibility of expert testimony under Rule 702 is Kelly v. State, supra. In Kelly, the court held that to be admissible under the rule, proffered scientific expert testimony must be "sufficiently reliable and relevant to help the jury in reaching accurate results." Kelly v. State, 824 S.W.2d at 572. In order to meet that reliability standard, the evidence must meet three criteria: a) the underlying scientific theory must be valid; b) the technique applying the theory must be valid; and c) the technique must have been properly applied on the occasion in question. ⁴ Id. at 573. In its analysis, the Kelly court applied Rule 104(a) and (c), in conjunction with Rule 702, and determined that prior to its receipt into evidence, the proponent must satisfy the trial court in a preliminary hearing outside the presence of the jury, that the expert testimony meets all three criteria. Id. at 573. In doing so, the Kelly court also listed several non-exclusive factors that might affect a determination as to whether those criteria had been met. Those non-exclusive factors are: 1) the extent to which the underlying scientific theory and technique are accepted as valid by the relevant scientific community, if such a community can be ascertained; 2) the qualifications of the expert(s) testifying; 3) the existence of literature supporting or rejecting the underlying scientific theory and technique; 4) the potential rate of error of the technique; 5) the availability of other experts to test and evaluate the technique; 6) the clarity with which the underlying scientific theory and technique can be explained to the court; and 7) the experience and skill of the person(s) who applied the technique on the occasion in question. Id.; see also Jordan, 928 S.W.2d at 554-55. In discussing the Kelly "reliability" test, the Jordan court opined that it was upon that inquiry that the trial courts could weed out so-called "junk science" and, in doing so, trial judges are called upon to serve as "gatekeepers." Jordan, 928 S.W.2d at 555.

Needless to say, the careful trial judge held the requisite pretrial hearing before making his determination that the MSBP testimony was admissible. At the preliminary hearing, the State's expert witness was Dr. Thomas Bennett, the Iowa State Medical Examiner. Because of the importance of his testimony in determining whether the trial court properly decided to admit MSBP testimony, it is necessary to recount relevant portions of that testimony. Appellant does not challenge Dr. Bennett's expertise in the field of pathology and child abuse, therefore it is not necessary in this opinion to address his qualifications. Dr. Bennett described MSBP as a "fairly recently" developed term for "a medical diagnosis that has been accepted to encompass, what we found is some rather unexplainable otherwise signs and symptoms" in children. He said he had seen "probably" a dozen or more cases over the years and he has consulted on "numerable others, numerous others."

Dr. Bennett noted that he had personally performed around 4,000 autopsies over the years, and reviewed "thousands" by virtue of his responsibilities as the state medical examiner, and even others on a consultive basis. Additionally, Dr. Bennett had testified as an expert on MSBP in four or five cases and, basically, had been an expert in almost every case that has been presented in Iowa. Dr. Bennett defined MSBP as "a series of unexplained incongruous signs and symptoms the child presents with but after you do further testing or remove them...