Wolf v. State

• Citation: 674 S.W.2d 831
• Decision Date: 14 June 1984
• Docket Number: No. 13-83-429-CR,13-83-429-CR
• Parties: Sherry WOLF, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas

Page 831

674 S.W.2d 831

Sherry WOLF, Appellant, v. STATE of Texas, Appellee.

No. 13-83-429-CR.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

Corpus Christi.

June 14, 1984.

Randy Schaffer, Houston, for appellant.

Reynaldo Cantu, Jr., Dist. Atty., Brownsville, for appellee.

Before NYE, C.J., and UTTER and YOUNG, JJ.

OPINION

UTTER, Justice.

A jury found appellant Sherry Wolf guilty of murdering George William (Billy) Staton, Jr. The jury was then waived, and the trial court assessed punishment at life in the Texas Department of Corrections.

The grounds of error concerning the sufficiency of the evidence raised by appellant require a detailed recitation of the evidence. The evidence was required to show that appellant and her husband, Paul Wolf (Wolf), and Glenn Henderson (Henderson), caused the death of Billy Staton (Staton), her former husband.

The State's key witness, Henderson, was one of the participants in the crime who, by his own admissions, beat and shot and killed Letticia Castro (Staton's girlfriend) and helped kill Staton. Much of Henderson's testimony was devoted to explaining how he became involved in the conspiracy to kill Staton: According to Henderson, he, Wolf and appellant were together on one occasion when Wolf told him that they wanted to kill Staton because he was causing trouble at the house and that they did not want him around anymore. On a second occasion, about two weeks later, Paul Wolf suggested to Henderson the possibility of Henderson's assistance in killing both Staton and Castro. Appellant was present when this suggestion was made; although Wolf was the person who requested Henderson's aid, appellant did nothing to dissuade Wolf from talking about the possibility of killing Staton. Henderson said nothing in response to the request because he thought "they were kidding."

On a third occasion about a week before the murders, Henderson was at the Wolfs' house when Wolf again requested his help in killing both Staton and Castro. Wolf explained that he and appellant had already developed most of the details of a plan but that Henderson was needed because "I'd been in the fire department, I've been around people that's already been dead." Appellant was again present during this discussion. On a fourth occasion on the Sunday before the murders, Wolf explained to Henderson that he and appellant had been out looking for a place to hide the bodies. This conversation occurred while appellant and Wolf sat together in a love seat in the Wolfs' living room. It appears from the record that Wolf did most, if not all, of the talking at this meeting but that appellant was present and made no effort to object or deny her involvement.

On the next Tuesday, Wolf, by himself, went to Henderson's house and asked whether Henderson would help. Henderson agreed "to be a friend." On Thursday, the day before the murders, Wolf, again alone, met with Henderson. Wolf said that he and appellant had devised a plan to kill Staton, and he explained to Henderson how he (Wolf) was going to use a bar to hit Staton in the head. Wolf also told Henderson where a hammer would be hidden and "what we going to use the hammer for." Other details of the plan were not told to Henderson at that time. On Friday, July 16, 1982, the day of the murders, around 6:00 p.m., Henderson was picked up by Wolf and was driven to the Wolfs' house where appellant and her small child, Melanie, were awaiting. ¹

Henderson then told the jury about the Wolfs' house. Diagrams and other visual aids were displayed to the jury for their understanding of the layout of the Wolfs' house and the location of various furniture.

Henderson further testified regarding the conspiracy as follows: According to Henderson, he sat in "the little seat" and Wolf and appellant sat in the love seat in the living room of the Wolfs' house, while Wolf went over the plan. A bar that Henderson had never seen before was leaning up against a wall, and a hammer had been hidden under some bushes outside the house. Appellant told Wolf that she was going to put clothing on the living room couch, so that, when Staton next visited the house to pick up Melanie, he would be forced to sit in a particular living room chair from where he would be unable to see his attackers, Wolf and Henderson. ² The plan called for Henderson and Wolf to dispose of the bodies and for appellant to stay at the house and clean up the blood after the murder. Appellant reaffirmed that her role was to clean up the mess in the house. Appellant never objected to the plan. Henderson could tell by the expression on appellant's face that "she was all for it."

After testifying about the plan, Henderson then gave the following testimony regarding about what actually happened on the evening of Friday, July 16, 1982: According to Henderson, Staton and Castro arrived at the Wolfs' house at about 6:55 p.m. Staton came to the door of the house, while Castro remained in the car. At that time, appellant and Melanie, the small child, were sitting on the love seat, and Henderson went into the bedroom. While the record does not actually reflect whether Henderson and Wolf were visible to Staton, Henderson and Wolf were apparently hiding because Henderson testified that they had been "sneak(ing) around" to kill Staton. After Staton had entered the house, Wolf held the bar in his hand and walked down the hall and through Melanie's bedroom and into the living room.

Henderson followed Wolf into the living room, where Wolf repeatedly hit Staton with the bar in the back of the head. Appellant went to the back bedroom with Melanie. Henderson just "stood there" and watched Wolf beat Staton. Wolf then went outside. Henderson said he waited inside a few minutes and then went outside, where he saw Wolf in "the car" choking Castro. Wolf told Henderson to get the hammer from underneath the bushes and to hit Castro on the head. Henderson did what he was told. Wolf then went into the house, and Henderson followed about a minute later. Wolf then asked him to move Staton's car to the other side of the house so that nobody would see them carrying Staton's body to the car. Henderson, however, said he was scared and would not move the car, so Wolf went out and moved the car. Wolf and Henderson then carried the body out of the house and put it in the trunk of Staton's car. Wolf then went into the house, returned with a shotgun, and departed in Staton's car. Henderson followed him in Wolf's pick-up truck. After driving awhile, the two stopped their vehicles and disposed of Castro's body in a canal. After dragging the body down into the water, Wolf told Henderson to return to the car and to get the shotgun. When Henderson returned with the gun, Wolf told him to shoot Castro, and he did. Wolf and Henderson then drove to another location where Staton's body was dumped in a canal. They then disposed of Staton's car in a different canal. Wolf and Henderson then went to Henderson's house and cleaned blood off the gun and hammer.

Henderson later turned both the hammer and shotgun over to police. Both the hammer and shotgun were introduced as State's exhibits.

Bruce Casteel, a Texas Ranger, testified he was assigned to the case involving Staton. On July 27, 1982, in the course of his investigation, he spoke with appellant at her home. Appellant told Casteel that Staton never arrived at her house on July 16, 1982, to pick up Melanie. She said that she and Wolf waited but eventually took the child to appellant's mother's house.

Ranger Casteel reported that Staton's car was located on July 29, 1982. On August 6, 1982, Casteel spoke with Wolf, who at that time had agreed to confess to the murders. Wolf claimed that he and appellant had waited for Staton but eventually decided Staton was not coming. Wolf said that appellant took the child to her mother's and that, while he was driving to McAllen to return a video camera, he spotted Staton's car, and they both returned to Wolf's house. He said Staton became agitated when told that appellant had gone to her mother's with the child. Wolf and Staton argued, and Staton then attacked Wolf with a bar, Wolf explained that he ended up beating Staton in the head. Wolf said Castro, who had been in the car, apparently heard the fight and that she came inside and attacked him. He then hit her in the head with a hammer and killed her.

On the same day as that interview, but without Wolf's help, a private investigator, who was hired by the Staton family, located Castro's body.

Wolf, however, did lead the authorities to Staton's body. The body was lying in a canal in two or three inches of water, and it was badly decomposed. A search of the body revealed a Sony cassette tape recorder taped to Staton's stomach. The cassette tape was sent to the F.B.I. laboratory in Washington, D.C. ³

Keith Sponholtz, a special agent with the F.B.I., explained to the jury how he examined the cassette tape forwarded to him by Texas authorities. As a forensic examiner in the field of magnetic tape analysis, Sponholtz explained that, when he received the tape recording, it was wound to the end of Side A and that a foreign substance, appearing to be mold, was inside the tape. Sponholtz made a "direct copy" of the tape, which is a copy made from the original without any processing, filters or any other type of adjustment to the actual recording. Sponholtz also made an "enhanced copy," which is a processed tape to make the voice information more intelligible.

Sponholtz also testified that he listened to the tape but that it was against F.B.I. policy to testify on the identity of voices because of the general unreliability of voiceprint analysis. He further explained that a voiceprint comparison could not be made on portions of the tape because its quality was so poor. Sponholtz later explained that, while no voiceprint analysis was available to link appellant to this tape, human ears might be able to identify recognizable characteristics on the...