Abel v. State

JAKE CHARLES ABEL, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS

No. 02-18-00051-CR

Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth

August 27, 2020

On Appeal from the 271st District Court Wise County, Texas

Trial Court No. CR19555

Before Gabriel, Bassel, and Womack, JJ.

Per Curiam Memorandum Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In four paragraphs, a grand jury indicted Appellant Jake Abel for intentionally or knowingly causing his girlfriend Soccorro Taylor's death by cutting her with a knife or striking her with a blunt object and for committing an act clearly dangerous to human life—cutting her with a knife or striking her with a blunt object—with the intent to cause her serious bodily injury that caused her death. An enhancement paragraph alleged that he had been convicted in 2012 for the felony offense of injury to a child. A jury convicted Jake of murdering Soccorro and assessed his punishment at life imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. The trial court sentenced him accordingly.

Jake raises five issues.¹ In three issues, he challenges the denial of his motion to suppress (issue one), the admission of alleged hearsay (issue two), and the denial of his motion for mistrial regarding the State's final closing argument in the guilt stage of trial (issue three). In the remaining two issues, which Jake argues together, he complains of cumulative error and the trial court's failure to grant a mistrial after the State's alleged repeated misconduct (issues four and five). We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND FACTS

A. Jake and Soccorro's Relationship

Jake and Soccorro's relationship was described as volatile, and Soccorro showed signs of abuse at all stages of it. Soccorro's friends and coworkers and Jake's family tried unsuccessfully to get them to break up.

In December 2014, Jake and Soccorro met at work, and by March 2015, they were in a relationship, and he had bruised her arms. Soccorro was still married to but estranged from a man who had gone to prison after abusing her on multiple occasions. Jake was living with another woman, so his relationship with Soccorro was secret at first. But in June 2015, Jake left his girlfriend, and he and Soccorro made their relationship public. Soccorro moved in with Jake, who was living in Fort Worth in a cabover camper owned by his fictive father Robert Bridges (Father). The cabover camper sat on the ground in Father's backyard. The camper had no running water, so the couple also used Father's house.

Jake lost his job in June 2015, and Soccorro lost hers the next month. Both were using methamphetamine. In July 2015, they got engaged. Friends noticed more bruising on Soccorro's arm while she tried on wedding dresses that month.

Jake gave Soccorro an engagement ring in August 2015. In September, Jake drove Soccorro to her friend Teila Boeglin's house. Boeglin testified that Soccorro "appeared like she had [had] a long night. She looked tired. She looked stressed. Her hair was a mess. . . . [H]er eyes were puffy[,] . . . her face was swelled up a little, andshe just wasn't smiling like she normally d[id]." Soccorro told Boeglin that "Jake had beat her ass the night before and tried to kill her." Specifically, Jake "had choked [Soccorro] until she blacked out[,] and . . . she thought she had died."

At some point, Father told the couple to leave, and they began staying in a friend's mobile home in Alvarado. On October 31, 2015, Soccorro called her friend Camryn Sotelo. Soccorro told Sotelo that she and Jake had been fighting and that he had been abusive. Sotelo went to get Soccorro in Alvarado and drove her back to Sotelo's home. Sotelo saw several bruises on Soccorro, including one on her eye and one on her chest. Sotelo told Soccorro not to call Jake from Sotelo's house because Sotelo was concerned about the safety of her children. But Sotelo was worried that Soccorro would call Jake anyway "[b]ecause she would go back to him every time." Sotelo took Soccorro to Boeglin's house, and they warned Soccorro that if she did not get away from Jake, they would be planning a funeral instead of a wedding.

Soccorro returned to Jake the very next day. Within the next two weeks, they moved back to Father's cabover camper in his backyard.

November 2015 entries in Soccorro's journal² show the continued tensions in her relationship with Jake:

• November 8, 2015

I love you[,] Jake Charles Abel[, and] nothing will change that! Well[,] I'm glad we're here and relaxing[,] and I want more than anything for us to have an amazing life together and [to] put the past behind us. I believe in you[,] and I don't care what anyone thinks. My life is with you[,] and I'm happy. . . . It's hard sometimes[,] but either way we can make it anywhere. Well[,] Lovee, you['re] the best[,] and everything will be alright[, n]o matter what[.]

• November 9, 2015

[H]ating life right now[.] I love you[,] Jake[,] but I'm scared!

• November 10, 2015

Well[,] feeling stressed all day[—]worried. . . . I love you Jake. I believe in you[, B]abe. I am worried though. . . . As for myself[,] never give up!

• November 13, 2015

Ready for a great life with my Lovee[,] and I'm ready for Jake Jr. I'm excited about being a mom again and for Jake to be a daddy[.]

To be continue[d.]

• November 15, 2015

Being grateful for [Father's] letting us come back to stay[,] and I'm grateful for Jake loving me. My loving man!

• November 17, 2015

I'm hurt. . . . I'll just keep praying please give me strength.

• November 20, 2015

I'm so proud of him[.] I knew and had faith in him[;] it was just killing me that he was treating me like a whore[.]

• November 25, 2015

I'm sick of him taking advantage that I'll always be there. Well[,] maybe I should stop[.]

Maybe I should go stay with [someone else] and get back on my feet[] and not worry about Jake?

I just want to be happy[. I]s that to[o] much to ask for?

• November 26, 2015 (Thanksgiving)

I feel that all he cares about is his needs[.] . . . I'm alone in the camper on Thanksgiving. This sucks. . . . I hate feeling insecure now[;] it's not a good feeling at all. . . . God[,] please watch over me[.] I need your strength!

On Thanksgiving, Jake's mother (Mother) and sister (Sister) had Thanksgiving with Father, Father's girlfriend, Father's son, and Jake at Father's house. Father's girlfriend testified that Soccorro had put the turkey in the oven but had then left.

The November difficulties recorded in Soccorro's journal culminated in a violent assault the day after Thanksgiving. On November 27, 2015, Jake borrowed Sister's car and went to White Settlement with Soccorro. Durande Smith was at a gas station when he saw a man later identified as Jake pull the car up to a gas pump near him. A woman (Soccorro) got out of the front passenger seat of the car, walked toward Smith, mouthed the words "Help me," and walked behind him. Jake came toward Smith and Soccorro, brandishing "a knife or something," and then Jake reached around Smith to grab her and dragged her by her hair to the right of Smith,yelling at her and acting like a "monster." Another bystander intervened and pointed what appeared to be a handgun at Jake, ordering him to release Soccorro. Instead of releasing Soccorro, Jake, still holding Soccorro by her hair, approached the bystander with the gun, told the man to shoot him in the head, and then beat Soccorro. The bystander hit Jake in the head with the gun, and a fight ensued. Jake overpowered the bystander, and the bystander escaped. When the police arrived, Soccorro refused to press charges, but the police decided to separate Jake and Soccorro for the night out of concern for her safety, giving her a ride elsewhere and arresting Jake for a Class C assault.

Soccorro's friend Amanda Salazar picked Soccorro up at Father's house soon after the assault. Salazar saw a large bruise on the right side of Soccorro's face. Salazar's boyfriend saw multiple bruises on Soccorro, including around her neck and on her legs. Around December 3, 2015, Soccorro was staying with her mother. Soccorro's young niece saw "bruises all over [Soccorro's] back." But Soccorro asked her not to tell anyone. By December 7, 2015, according to her journal, Soccorro was back in Father's cabover camper with Jake.

Soccorro's December 2015 journal entries continued to show her love for Jake but also demonstrated continued tensions in their relationship. Her December 7 entry noted, "Jake is watching the Mexican channel [and] getting off on it." On December 12, she wrote, "Jake isn't hi[m]self[.] All I want to do is love him[.] . . . I guess he[']s in a mood. . . . I really am hurt[.] . . . I wonder if he's trying to really justbr[eak] away from me or something[.] . . . On December 18, 2015, she wrote that she felt like he wanted his freedom or someone else. On December 19, she wrote that he was "acting weird" but that he was saying that nothing was wrong. She wrote that her "only concern [was] Jake" and that he was "in his mood[.]"

B. Soccorro's Last Day

In her final journal entry, dated December 20, 2015, Soccorro wrote,

[S]pending Sunday by myself[.] . . . Jake is here and not paying attention to me[.] . . . So fed up, I miss Jake so much. . . . I hate feeling alone & not appreciated[.] . . . Another lonely day[.] . . . I feel so out of place with him[.] . . . [M]y head hurts for trying to make him happy[.] . . . I'm in [l]imbo[.] I know I love him to death[,] but will it be this way all the time? Bye for now[.]

The couple's methamphetamine dealer delivered an "eight ball" (about three grams) of the drug in the middle of the day. Jake was in the backyard outside the camper chopping weeds with a machete, and he told the dealer to go inside the camper and wait for him. Soccorro was inside the camper, "acting kind of strange[,] . . . like she was kind of scared or . . . didn't want to be there." She apparently asked the dealer if she could go home with her, but the dealer refused. The dealer left and returned a couple of hours later with her niece. They spoke to Jake outside and then...