Stevens v. State
| Docket Number | 03-21-00432-CR |
| Decision Date | 11 August 2023 |
| Parties | Mark James Stevens, Appellant v. The State of Texas, Appellee |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Do Not Publish
From the 428th District Court of Hays County No. CR-19-0238-D, the Honorable William R. Henry, Judge Presiding
Before Chief Justice Byrne, Justices Triana and Smith
Appellant Mark James Stevens was convicted by a jury of murder and tampering with physical evidence and sentenced to life imprisonment and ten years' confinement, respectively with the sentences to run concurrently.[1] On appeal, he contends in four issues that the trial court improperly commented on the weight of the evidence in its charge to the jury, that the evidence is legally insufficient to support the jury's finding of guilt for tampering, that the trial court erred by omitting the mandatory parole instruction in its punishment charge, and that the trial court erred by entering a deadly-weapon finding in the murder judgment. We will affirm the trial court's judgments of conviction.
This case arises from a three-way sexual tryst gone awry. On July 26, 2018, Officer Alexander Pinillo and Deputy Daisy Trevino with the Hays County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) were dispatched to a residence in Buda on a welfare call. The 911 caller, Stevens' father, had advised police that his son had possibly been in a fight the night before.
Deputy Trevino testified that Stevens' wife, Jeanette Stevens answered the front door. When Officer Pinillo asked for Stevens, Jeanette went inside and shut the door. The officers heard a loud scream, and Jeanette returned to the door followed by Stevens, who "looked confused," "kept touching his head," was "shaking" and "breathing heavily," and "kept looking back at his wife." Trevino testified that Stevens had a dried "gash" on his head and was acting strangely which caused her to call for EMS. Without being asked Stevens put on a pair of handcuffs that had been hanging on a coat rack by the door.
Trevino testified that Stevens directed the officers to the master bathroom. She noticed that the master bedroom door and locking mechanism were broken and that the doorframe was damaged. In the bedroom, "there was just blood all over," and she observed bedsheets and a bloody pillow on the floor as well as an apparently bloodstained knife on top of a wooden trunk at the foot of the bed. Two tall clothes hampers had been positioned to block access to the bathroom. She observed a man, later identified as Brandon Fontenette lying on his back on the bathroom floor with his legs beneath him and a pool of coagulated blood under his head. It appeared that Fontenette had been in the bathroom "for a good deal of time," but she saw nothing indicating that his body had been moved.
Trevino also testified that she observed a cell phone and Ziploc bag containing a wallet on the counter of the kitchen bar area. She testified that although she would consider the items to have been in plain view, she would not have been able to see them had she not been inside the home.
Officer Pinillo's testimony was largely consistent with Deputy Trevino's. He testified that when Stevens came to the front door, he was wearing only pajama bottoms and had blood on his hand and a laceration to the top of his head. He could not form complete sentences when speaking with Pinillo and appeared "quite in shock, confused," and surprised to see police. Stevens extended his hand toward Pinillo, who attempted to shake it, but Stevens pulled it back and handcuffed himself. Pinillo testified that when he asked EMS to treat Stevens' hand, Stevens stated, "That is not my blood."
Christopher Uhlaender, a firefighter-EMT with the Buda Fire Department, testified that he and Lieutenant Eric Spillar, a firefighter-paramedic, were dispatched on a call concerning a male with a laceration to his head. En route, the call was updated to add that a second male was unconscious at the scene. Uhlaender testified that Fontenette "was obvious dead-on-arrival when [they] got there" and had been deceased "for an extended amount of time." He further testified that it did not appear that Fontenette's body had been repositioned.
Uhlaender also testified that he performed a full head-to-toe injury examination of Stevens but noted only the laceration to his head. He testified that Stevens had "a lot of dried blood in the area where he said that there . . . might be a possible laceration" but that Uhlaender could not "find a laceration per se" and did not observe "any sort of injuries other than the dried blood on his scalp." On records of the call, he described Stevens as a "male patient with a laceration to the head" but noted that The records likewise stated that Stevens advised that he had been in an altercation, that he had been struck in the head by an "unknown object," and that this was "the sole source of his pain." Uhlaender testified that Stevens' injuries could be categorized as "minor or minimal."
Lieutenant Spillar testified that Fontenette had been dead for more than 30 minutes and that on body-camera footage that was admitted into evidence, he had stated that it appeared that Fontenette had been in that position for more than an hour or two. Like Uhlaender, Spillar testified that he was unable directly to observe Stevens' head wound, that the wound appeared "superficial," and that Stevens was alert and oriented. Spillar testified that he could not remember if Stevens had other injuries.
Dr. Keith Pinckard, the Chief Medical Examiner of Travis County, testified about Fontenette's autopsy. He observed several wounds on Fontenette's body, including a stab wound on his back and 13 shallow BB or pellet wounds "scattered over the body": six to the upper-left chest, one on the left side of the neck, one on the outside of the left upper-arm, four to the left side of the back and backside of the left upper-arm, and one to the front of the left forearm and wrist. Pinckard testified that there were no visible injuries to Fontenette's hands, that the pellet wounds did not appear to have been inflicted postmortem, that there was blunt trauma to Fontenette's neck, and that the stab wound caused his death. He also testified that swabs were taken of Fontenette's hands, fingernails, and penis.
Renee Luna, the supervisor for the HCSO crime scene and evidence units, testified that she responded to Stevens' home twice on July 26th-at approximately 8:30 a.m. and 4:14 p.m. During the first response, she photographed Stevens and the exterior of his home. She testified that in her report, she documented that he had dried blood on his head, small cuts and abrasions on the middle of the left side of his head, scrapes on both of his hands, abrasions on his left elbow, and a swollen and bruised right ankle. She also documented blood on his hands and foot, which he stated was not his.
She testified that she returned to Stevens' home after officers obtained a search warrant. In the master bedroom, she observed blood splatter-caused when "an event occurs that causes someone to bleed and there's some impact"-on the floor, wall, bedding, items in the room, a broken laundry hamper, and in the master bathroom. She obtained swabs of apparent bloodstains from various locations in both the master bedroom and bathroom, but none was submitted for DNA testing.
She also testified that she collected a number of items of physical evidence, including the bloodstained knife, a sheath from the top of a chest of drawers, a second knife coated in a white powder in the master bathroom sink, camo shorts believed to be Stevens', and the Ziploc bag containing Fontenette's wallet and IDs on the kitchen counter. She testified that she observed a similar bag on top of the knife in the bathroom sink, the white powder on which she believed was drywall deposited when the knife was stabbed into a patched area of sheetrock in the master bedroom. In the pocket of the camo shorts were Stevens' wallet and a set of keys later determined to belong to Fontenette.
She further testified that there were liquor bottles in the master bedroom and that a struggle had possibly occurred in the master bathroom. The shower curtain had been moved to a closed position; when it was pulled back, she observed bloodstains on the interior of the shower area. On cross-examination, she testified that she swabbed Stevens' hands, the bloodstained knife, an Airsoft gun, and the empty knife sheath.
M.C., a friend of Stevens' son, A.S., testified that he received a text from A.S. around 3:30 a.m. on July 26th, asking to come to M.C.'s house.[2] M.C. testified that there are probably five houses between his house and the Stevenses' and that it would take him 15 seconds to walk between the houses. He testified that something was going on at Stevens' home that made A.S. want to leave and that A.S. had told him that he heard his father say, "I could kill you." Although M.C. also testified that A.S. may have told him, "He said I could kill you," he testified that he had been "very clear" when speaking with officers within a week of the incident that Stevens had reportedly said, "I could kill you." M.C. testified that his memory would have been "[a] lot better" in 2018.
He further testified that he and A.S. went to Stevens' home that night, that A.S. stated that he did not want to go inside, and that they returned to M.C.'s home. M.C testified that A.S. had been told to come to his house at least twice before when Stevens was suffering from symptoms of PTSD. He testified that A.S. had described a "PTSD moment" as "sometimes picking up objects and...
To continue reading
Request your trial