Bautista v. State

SONIA BAUTISTA, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

No. 08-15-00362-CR

COURT OF APPEALS EIGHTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS EL PASO, TEXAS

October 10, 2018

Appeal from the 120th District Court of El Paso County, Texas

(TC#20130D03636)

OPINION

Sonia Bautista appeals her conviction for murder. In ten issues, Appellant contends:

1. There was legally insufficient evidence to show she intended to cause serious bodily injury to the victim and committed an act clearly dangerous to human life;

2. There was legally insufficient evidence to show she committed felony murder;

3. The trial court erred in submitting a charge that would allow the jury to convict her of murder if it found she assisted in the underlying robbery, causing her egregious harm;

4. The trial court erred in submitting a charge that did not require the jury to find she assisted in performing an act clearly dangerous to human life, causing her egregious harm;

5. The trial court erred in submitting a charge that did not require the jury to find the act clearly dangerous to human life actually caused the victim's death, causing her egregious harm;

6. The trial court erred in submitting a definition on the reasonableness standard of self- defense, causing her harm;

7. The trial court erred in instructing the jury that if it found her actions did not meet the reasonableness standard of self-defense it should find against her on the issue of self-defense, causing her harm;

8. The trial court erred in including a charge on self-defense as it relates to deadly force, causing her harm;

9. The trial court erred in overruling her objection to improper jury argument by the State that the jury only needed to believe she knew her co-defendant's intended to rob the victim; and

10. The trial court erred in denying her motion for new trial because her trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for giving her the leeway to select punishment-phase witnesses.

For the following reasons, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

Jose Castanon was murdered on May 17, 2013. Castanon was a marijuana dealer, but just prior to his death had recently begun selling ecstasy pills. Castanon was described as 5'5", skinny, and was known by others as T-Rex—a nickname he had acquired because he was missing several fingers from his left hand. Castanon had known the Appellant, Sonia Bautista, since attending middle school with her, but the two were not truly acquainted with one another until Appellant began buying marijuana from him about a year before his murder. They had stopped speaking a few months before his death over an incident in which Appellant and her codefendant, Briana Garay, had arranged for Castanon to sell a large quantity of marijuana to one of Appellant's neighbors. Appellant and Garay took Castanon to the neighbor to complete the deal, but instead of paying for the drugs the neighbor beat Castanon up and stole his marijuana. Castanon accused Appellant of setting him up and threatened to hurt her and her family if he ever discovered that she had known he was going to be robbed. Thereafter, the two were on bad terms.

On the night of the murder, Appellant, Garay, and the other codefendant, Ricky Macias, went together to a nightclub. The trio left there about midnight when they went to a house party of a friend of Appellant's. They had a few drinks with the other partygoers, but Garay and Macias kept to themselves. Appellant left them alone because she thought Macias wanted to be "more than friends" with Garay and wanted some time alone to flirt with her. She continued to bring them drinks and to introduce them to others, and after about two hours the trio left the party.

As they drove away, Garay began texting Castanon to see if he would sell her ecstasy. Castanon replied that he would rather wait until the following day because he did not conduct business late at night, but Garay insisted that she would not buy them the next day—she wanted them immediately or not at all. After some back and forth, Castanon agreed to let her come by his house and buy eight doses of ecstasy, but he insisted she come alone and park in his driveway. Despite her assurances she would do so, she, Appellant, and Macias proceeded to his home and parked up the street.

While this text exchange was going on, Castanon had been at the home of his neighbor, George Najera. Castanon had moved in across the street from Najera after graduating from high school in 2011. Najera testified he was awake at that late hour because he was taking care of his sick mother, who woke up about every two hours to go to the bathroom. He had been sitting out on his front porch when Castanon saw him from across the street and walked over to chat with him. Castanon began texting while visiting with Najera and after exchanging a few text messages informed him someone would be coming by to meet with him. When Appellant, Macias, and Garay drove by and parked up the street, Castanon said "they're here," and returned home. Najera saw a male and a female exit the car and walk to Castanon's house. He remained on his porch forabout two minutes until his mother called him in. As he was walking in, he heard what sounded like a male moan and the sounds of struggling and stomping. The neighborhood dogs began barking and as he turned to look back he saw another female get out of the parked car and quickly approach Castanon's house.

As Najera was helping his mother in the bedroom he heard sounds of people running on gravel. He looked out through the window and saw what he perceived to be the shadows of people quickly leaving Castanon's house. He assisted his mother to the restroom and then quickly returned to his front window, where he saw the car the three individuals had come in speed away. Najera tried calling Castanon on the phone four or five times but never received an answer. Although he was worried, he decided against calling the police because he knew Castanon was a drug dealer and he did not want to get him into trouble. He also did not want to go check on Castanon himself because he did not want to get involved in whatever might have happened. In the light of the following day, Najera looked outside and saw Castanon's front door was wide open and the house was devoid of activity. Shortly after making this observation, two females pulled up to Castanon's and went inside. A fire truck and police squad cars arrived moments later.

One of the women whom Najera had seen walk into the house was Daniela Espino. Espino had known Castanon for about a year and a half and the two were scheduled to meet up around 2:00 p.m. that afternoon. She testified she became concerned when Castanon did not respond to her text messages that morning because they typically exchanged morning texts. When she subsequently called him and did not get an answer, she decided to go to his home to see if something had happened to him. When Espino arrived at Castanon's, she walked in to find Castanon lying on the floor with a pair of blue jeans twisted around his neck. The house was indisarray; the cabinet doors in the kitchen were hanging open and a cookie jar lay shattered on the floor. Castanon was motionless and did not respond to her calls, so she dialed 911. The operator asked her to attempt to perform CPR but when Espino pulled the jeans from Castanon's neck he spit up a white liquid and she was too disturbed to make the attempt. The 911 operator instructed her to wait outside for emergency services and she complied.

Captain Ruben Candelaria of the El Paso Fire Department responded to the 911 dispatch and arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. He entered the home and found Castanon lying on the kitchen floor with bruises all over his face and body as though he had been beaten. The room was in shambles, and it appeared to Candelaria that a struggle had taken place based on his observation of the broken ceramic pieces on the floor and open cabinets. Candelaria quickly determined Castanon was dead and cancelled the ambulance.

Detective Ray Sanchez was called to investigate Castanon's death. He testified he reviewed text messages on Castanon's cellphone and determined that his last contact had been with Macias's cellphone. He and another officer went to Macias's home, who voluntarily accompanied them to the police station. While speaking with Macias, Sanchez discovered that Appellant had been present that night and promptly went to her home to speak with her. She also agreed to go to the police station and gave a video-recorded statement.

In her recorded statement, Appellant admitted to having gone to Castanon's house with the others that night to get the ecstasy. She claimed Garay had entered the house alone to buy the pills. Shortly after Garay entered the home she heard Garay scream for help, and she rushed in to find Garay and Castanon struggling. Appellant began punching Castanon with her fists, and Castanon grabbed a pair of scissors and attempted to stab her with them. She took the scissorsaway from Castanon, and yelled for Macias. Macias promptly entered and began struggling with Castanon. Both men ended up on the floor. Appellant claimed she continued to hit Castanon but could not recall how many times because she was so "pissed" with him due to his prior threats against her. She stated that Macias wrapped the jeans around Castanon's neck while they struggled on the floor. As Macias held the jeans around Castanon's neck, Appellant smashed a ceramic cookie jar on Castanon's head. She claimed the reason the cabinet doors were left hanging open was because Macias or Garay had ransacked the home for pills after the fight.

Detective Sanchez was later able to identify the clothing that Appellant, Garay, and Macias had worn that evening by viewing the security-camera footage from the night club they had attended before the murder. A search warrant was subsequently executed at Macias's house, and police seized a black shirt, a vest, a red necktie, and a white undershirt, all of which...