Russeau v. State
| Decision Date | 29 June 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. AP-74466.,AP-74466. |
| Citation | 171 S.W.3d 871 |
| Parties | Gregory RUSSEAU, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Donald F. Killingsworth, Tyler, for Appellant.
Michael J. Sandlin, Assistant District Attorney, Tyler, Matthew Paul, State's Attorney, Austin, for State.
A Smith County jury found appellant guilty of capital murder under Texas Penal Code § 19.03(a)(2). Appellant's punishment was assessed at death. We will affirm in part and reverse in part.
The record reflects the following: On May 30, 2001, 75-year-old James Syvertson was murdered at his Tyler auto repair garage. Syvertson's widow testified at trial that he left for work at approximately 7:00 a.m. on the day in question and that she spoke with him on the telephone sometime that morning. She further testified that he ate lunch at a "Luby's" cafeteria every day and that he usually left the garage at about 10:45 a.m. in order to "beat the crowd." The manager of the "Luby's" cafeteria testified that he saw Syvertson at approximately 11:00 a.m. on the day in question.
Mrs. Syvertson testified that she went to Syvertson's garage sometime between 11:00 a.m. and noon. At that time, she noticed Syvertson's gray Chevrolet Corsica parked outside. The doors to the garage were locked. She knocked on the doors but got no answer, so she left.
Katie Jordan testified that she contacted Syvertson by telephone sometime between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. Syvertson told her that he could do some repair work for her employee, Bob Bruner, if he brought his car to the garage right away. When Bruner arrived at the garage between 12:20 and 12:30 p.m., the gray Corsica was parked outside, a light was on inside the garage, and a large fan was running on the side of the garage, but the doors to the garage were locked. Bruner knocked but got no answer. Bruner parked his car outside the garage and left. At 1:30 p.m., Bruner called Syvertson from his cell phone but got no answer. Bruner drove by the garage at about 2:00 p.m. The gray Corsica was still parked outside, and the light and fan were still on. Bruner returned to the garage at about 5:30 p.m. The gray Corsica was still parked outside, the light and fan were still on, and the garage doors were locked. Bruner knocked on the garage doors again but got no answer.
Mrs. Syvertson testified that she went back to the garage sometime in the afternoon and found the doors still locked. She knocked but got no answer. She went to get her daughter, who had a key to the garage. When they returned at 7:00 p.m., the gray Corsica was gone. Once inside the garage, they found Syvertson's body lying face down in a pool of blood next to a white Chevrolet Corsica. (Apparently, Syvertson was working on the white Corsica when he was murdered.) Rigor mortis had set in, and it appeared that Syvertson had been hit in the head several times with a hard object. The wallet he usually carried and the keys he usually kept clipped to his belt loop were both missing, and one of his pants pockets had been turned inside out. Several valuable tools were also missing from the garage. A bolt on an office door was broken and hanging by a single screw. Police testified that the door "looked like it had been kicked in."
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Syvertson's body testified that the manner of death was homicide and the cause of death was blunt force head injuries. Syvertson suffered multiple abrasions and lacerations to the front and back of his head. Many of the abrasions had a crescent or half-moon shape, and one had a circular outline. The blows were delivered with a blunt object that had a round, flat surface and was either fairly heavy or used with a great deal of force. The medical examiner estimated that the time of death was between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Several witnesses testified that they saw appellant in the vicinity of the garage on the day of the murder. Robert Menefee testified that appellant came to his house "sometime after lunch" and inquired about buying some illicit drugs. Terry Seaton testified that appellant arrived at his house on foot at 3:00 p.m. Appellant told Seaton that he had been getting "high" on crack cocaine and asked Seaton whether he would sell him some crack. Seaton refused to sell drugs to appellant but gave appellant a small amount of change and drove him to "some duplexes" nearby.
At about 7:30 p.m., appellant arrived at the home of his friend Lisa Tucker, who was about to leave on a date with her boyfriend, Marcus Tilley. Appellant told Tucker and Tilley that his car had broken down, and he asked for a ride to his mother's house. On the way, appellant pointed to a gray Corsica parked behind a house and told them that it was his wife's car and that it had stalled. As they approached the intersection near Syvertson's garage, they saw police, an ambulance, and crime scene tape. Tucker and Tilley wanted to drive by the garage to see what was going on, but appellant asked that they continue driving. Tilley decided to turn and drive by the garage. Before they reached appellant's mother's house, appellant had Tilley drop him off "at a house on Gaston Street." Menefee's residence was on Gaston Street.
Appellant visited Menefee's residence again that evening. They talked briefly, and appellant left on foot. Between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., appellant returned to Seaton's house and spoke to him for a few minutes, then continued down the alley on foot.
Lashundra Hall testified that she saw appellant smoking crack cocaine in Longview sometime in the afternoon or evening. She saw him again at about 3:20 a.m. the next morning, and appellant was driving a gray Corsica. He asked her where he could "get more crack and rent the car out for crack." She got into the car, but they were stopped by Longview police about ten minutes later. Police discovered title and registration documents to the gray Corsica in appellant's pocket. Syvertson's keys were in the ignition.
Fingerprint and DNA evidence recovered from the garage connected appellant to the crime. Appellant's fingerprints and a palm print were found on the white Corsica next to Syvertson's body. Syvertson's son testified that a hammer leaning against a plastic bottle on a shelf near the body was out of place. Hairs found on the bottle were consistent with appellant's DNA.
Witnesses testified that a man named Ray Charles Berry was in the vicinity of Syvertson's garage at 1:30 p.m. on the day of the murder. Berry, who lived in the neighborhood, was seen standing near Syvertson's garage at 1:30 p.m. eating lunch out of a brown paper sack. No evidence linked Berry to the crime; Berry's fingerprints did not match any of those found on the white Corsica. In a hearing outside the presence of the jury, Berry invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
In his first point of error, appellant argues that the record evidence is legally insufficient to support his conviction for capital murder. In evaluating the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
To convict appellant of capital murder, the jury was required to find beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant intentionally committed murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit robbery or burglary. Appellant argues that the evidence is legally insufficient to show murder in the course of robbery because the State failed to prove intent to rob Syvertson during or prior to his murder. However, the evidence in a capital murder prosecution need be sufficient to establish only one of the underlying felonies alleged in the indictment. Ladd v. State, 3 S.W.3d 547, 557 (Tex.Crim.App.1999); Matamoros v. State, 901 S.W.2d 470, 474 (Tex.Crim.App.1995). Thus, if the evidence in this case established burglary, we need not examine whether there was sufficient evidence to show robbery.
A person commits a burglary if, without the effective consent of the owner, he enters a habitation, or a building (or any portion of a building) not then open to the public, with intent to commit a felony, theft, or an assault. See Tex. Pen.Code § 30.02. In a prosecution for capital murder, the requirement that a felony be committed is satisfied by the murder of the victim. Matamoros, 901 S.W.2d at 474. The evidence also showed a lack of consent to enter the garage. Specifically, police officers testified that the door to the office in the garage was damaged and looked as if it had been "kicked in." Based on the evidence at trial, a rational jury could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant committed murder in the course of burglary. Point of error one is overruled.
In his second point of error, appellant contends that the evidence of intent to commit robbery or burglary was factually insufficient to support the jury's verdict. In a factual sufficiency review, we view all of the evidence in a neutral light and we will set the verdict aside only if the evidence is so weak that the verdict is clearly wrong and unjust, or the contrary evidence is so strong that the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard of proof could not have been met. Zuniga v. State, 144 S.W.3d 477, 484-85 (Tex.Crim.App.2004). A clearly wrong and unjust verdict occurs when the jury's finding "shocks the conscience" or "clearly demonstrates bias." Santellan v. State, 939 S.W.2d 155, 164 (Tex.Crim.App.1997).
Appellant offered evidence that Berry may have committed the...
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