State v. Laird

• Decision Date: 14 December 2000
• Citation: 38 S.W.3d 707
• Parties: (Tex.App.-Austin 2000) The State of Texas, Appellant v. Joe Shack Laird, Appellee NO. 03-00-00327-CR
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 707

38 S.W.3d 707 (Tex.App.-Austin 2000)

The State of Texas, Appellant v. Joe Shack Laird, Appellee

NO. 03-00-00327-CR

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

December 14, 2000

FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF BELL COUNTY, 264TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT NO. 50,088, HONORABLE MARTHA J. TRUDO, JUDGE PRESIDING

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Before Justices Jones, B. A. Smith and Patterson

Bea Ann Smith, Justice

Joe Shack Laird was indicted for intoxication manslaughter and felony failure to stop and render aid. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 49.08 (West Supp. 2000); Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 550.021 (West 1999). Before trial on the merits, Laird filed a motion to suppress the blood sample taken from him by a paramedic on the night of the offense. Laird urges that blood drawn by this paramedic, who was an emergency medical services technician, was inadmissible because section 724.017(c) of the Transportation Code specifically excludes emergency medical services personnel from the list of people qualified to draw blood in these circumstances. See Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.017(c) (West 1999). The trial court agreed and granted Laird's motion to suppress. On this appeal, the State asks us to infer that the legislature intended to exclude emergency medical services personnel from drawing blood only when they are responding to an emergency situation. We are sympathetic to the State's position and believe its version of the law may be more reasonable, but we feel constrained by the plain language of the statute to affirm the trial court's order.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On the night of May 29, 1999, Temple police officer Sean Childress was dispatched to an accident where Laird's truck had collided with a parked car on a residential street. At the scene, Childress found Laird in the driveway of a nearby residence, surrounded by concerned homeowners and guests. Childress spoke with Laird about the accident and determined that Laird had been driving the truck. Laird smelled strongly of alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated.

After making sure that Laird was uninjured, Childress inspected the vehicles involved in the collision. He found what appeared to be blood and hair on the front right side of the truck, but he could not determine its source. Childress then arrested Laird for public intoxication and took him to the city jail.

In the meantime, Temple police detective Keith Reed responded to another traffic accident where a pedestrian had been killed. The victim appeared to have been struck by a vehicle, but the vehicle had left the scene. A front license plate, however, was lying next to the victim's body. Reed then discovered that a truck with a matching rear license plate had been involved in a different accident nearby. The truck was the one that Laird had been driving. Reed immediately instructed Childress to have blood drawn from Laird because it appeared that his truck was involved in an accident which had resulted in a death. See Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.012(b) (West 1999). Neither Reed nor Childress sought a warrant for the blood extraction.

Acting on Reed's instructions, Childress took Laird from the jail to the emergency room of Scott and White Hospital to have his blood drawn. At the hospital, when Laird refused to consent to the blood sample, the emergency room physicians would not draw his blood.¹ Childress then telephoned his supervisor, Sergeant William Llewellyn, who in turn asked Reed what to do next.

Reed instructed the officers to take Laird to a nearby fire station to have a licensed paramedic take the required blood specimen. Childress drove Laird to the central fire station, and Llewellyn met them there within minutes. The paramedic on duty that night was Jeff Waggy. The two officers and Waggy tried to get Laird to voluntarily submit to giving a blood sample, but Laird steadfastly refused. Llewellyn then swept Laird's feet out from under him, and both officers pinned Laird down on the floor of the fire station and held out his arm so that Waggy could take a blood sample. The officers testified that Laird did not struggle during this procedure. Childress then drove Laird back to jail, and Laird was subsequently indicted for intoxication manslaughter and felony failure to stop and render aid. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 49.08; Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 550.021.

About six weeks before Laird was scheduled to be tried for the charged offenses he filed a motion to suppress the blood sample taken from him, urging that the specimen was obtained in violation of section 724.017 of the Transportation Code and was therefore inadmissible. See Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.017; Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 38.23(a) (West Supp. 2000) (stating that evidence obtained unlawfully shall not be admitted). The trial court granted Laird's motion to suppress, agreeing that the blood sample was taken by a person unauthorized to do so under section 724.017. The State now challenges this ruling. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 44.01(a)(5) (West Supp. 2000).

DISCUSSION

In its sole point of error, the State contends that the trial court should have denied Laird's motion to suppress. The State offers various legal theories in support of its position, all of which relate to the application and interpretation of section 724.017 of the Transportation Code. We consider each of the State's contentions in turn.

In general, an appellate court reviews a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress for abuse of discretion. In re R.J.H., 28 S.W.3d 250, 252 (Tex. App.--Austin 2000, no pet.). When presented with a pure question of law based on undisputed historical facts, however, de novo review is proper. Id. The parties in this case do not dispute the facts that formed the basis of the trial court's decision; rather, the State questions only the trial court's application of the law to those facts. We therefore review the trial court's decision de novo. See Guzman v. State, 955 S.W.2d 85, 89 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997) (holding that mixed questions of law and fact that do not turn on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor may be reviewed de novo); In re R.J.H., 28 S.W.3d at 252.

The statute in question is part of a broader statutory scheme which governs the taking of blood and breath specimens from persons who have been arrested for certain intoxication-related offenses. Section 724.017 provides in pertinent part that

(a) Only a physician, qualified technician, chemist, registered professional nurse, or licensed vocational nurse may take a blood specimen at the request or order of a peace officer under this chapter. The blood specimen must be taken in a sanitary place.

. . . .

(c) In this section, "qualified technician" does not include emergency medical services personnel.

Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.017(a), (c) (West 1999).

The State's first contention is that the provisions of chapter 724 (specifically section 724.017) do not apply to Laird because he was arrested for public intoxication and not "for an offense arising out of acts alleged to have been committed while the person was operating a motor vehicle in a public place . . . while intoxicated . . . ." Id. § 724.011(a) (West 1999). We considered this very question in Elliott v. State, 908 S.W.2d 590, 593 (Tex. App.--Austin 1995, pet. ref'd), and explicitly rejected the State's argument.² Just as in Elliott, Laird was arrested for public intoxication after he drove his truck into another vehicle. See id. at 591. The offense for which Laird was arrested arose in part out of acts allegedly committed while driving under the influence, and as we found in Elliott, chapter 724 therefore applies to his case. See id. at 593.

The State next contends that even if chapter 724 does apply in this case section 724.017 was not violated because the paramedic who drew Laird's blood was not acting as "emergency medical services personnel" at the time he took the blood sample from Laird. The State urges that section 724.017(c) is meant only to exclude medical personnel responding to an actual emergency and that any other reading of this statute leads to absurd results. "Surely," the State argues,

a paramedic employed by a hospital in the task of drawing blood at the hospital in the course of everyday treatment of patients . . . is a "qualified technician" and not excluded from the class of persons authorized to draw blood simply because he also happens to be a paramedic. That is the case here, instead of being on duty at a hospital the paramedic was on duty at a fire station.

As a matter of statutory construction, however, we cannot agree.

The starting point for statutory analysis is the text of the relevant provision. Ex parte Kuester, 21 S.W.3d 264, 266 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000). We look first to the plain meaning of the words to determine the purpose and effect of a statute. Id. Every word of a statute is presumed to have been used for a purpose, and every word excluded must also be presumed to have been excluded for a purpose. Cameron v. Terrell & Garrett, Inc., 618 S.W.2d 535, 540 (Tex. 1981). We may look beyond the text only if the language is ambiguous or would lead to an absurd result that the legislature could not possibly have intended. Ex parte Kuester, 21 S.W.3d at 266 (citing Boykin v. State, 818 S.W.2d 782, 785 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991)). Specific, unambiguous statutes are the current law and should not be construed by a court to mean something other than the plain words say. Fleming Foods of Texas, Inc. v. Rylander, 6 S.W.3d 278, 284 (Tex. 1999).

The text of section 724.017 lists several professions whose members are authorized to draw blood under the statute. Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.017(a); see Cavazos v. State, 969 S.W.2d 454, 456 (Tex. App.--Corpus Christi 1998, pet. ref'd). Paramedics are not included on this list. Cf. Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 724.017(a). The statute also includes a general category for other "qualified...