Black v. State

TERRANCE DEERING BLACK, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

No. 08-12-00338-CR

COURT OF APPEALS EIGHTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS EL PASO, TEXAS

September 23, 2015

Appeal from 296th District Court of Collin County, Texas

(TC # 296-81761-2012)

OPINION

Terrance Deering Black appeals his conviction of capital murder. A jury found Appellant guilty, and because the State did not seek the death penalty, the trial court automatically sentenced Appellant to life imprisonment. We affirm.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

Susan Loper began dating Appellant in the Spring of 2006. She was married at the time to Craig Loper and they had a young son, but the marriage became strained because Craig worked out of town for extended periods. The Lopers divorced in 2007. Appellant and Susan dated for approximately a year on a steady basis and then off-and-on until late 2009. She became pregnant with Appellant's child in May 2009, and opted for an abortion. They broke up permanently in August 2009.

Susan met Jayson Hayes through eHarmony in January 2010 and they began dating thefollowing month. Appellant became aware of the relationship and he took flowers to Susan's mother, Katherine Miller, for her birthday in May 2010. Appellant told Miller that he knew about Jayson and Jayson "had baggage." Miller described Appellant as "very agitated" and obsessive when he was talking to her about Susan. Appellant also told Miller that he did not understand why Susan liked "bad guys" and he expressed his belief that he, Susan, and her son would make such a nice family. Susan continued to date Jayson until her death in April 2011.

Susan taught Pilates at the Gleneagles County Club in Plano. She had been teaching there for sixteen years, but had decided just a few months prior to her death to move her Pilates studio to a different location and start her own business. Her last scheduled day to teach at Gleneagles was April 19, 2011. Susan's mother and father stayed at her home during the work week to care for her eight-year-old son. Miller recalled that Susan kept a strict schedule during the work week. Her routine included leaving the house every morning between 5:15 and 5:30, stopping at Starbuck's for coffee, and arriving at the Pilates studio around 6. When Miller arose on the morning of April 19, 2011, Susan was already gone and Miller assumed that she had left for work at the usual time.

Terry Kennedy had a standing appointment with Susan at 6:15 a.m., but when she arrived at the studio, Susan's car was not in the parking lot and the studio's lights were off. Kennedy was surprised because Susan never missed her appointments. Susan did not respond to Kennedy's text message.

A short time later, Cruz Hernandez, who worked in housekeeping at Gleneagles, found a purse on the ground by the backdoor of the Pilates studio. The purse's straps were caught in thedoor. Hernandez notified his supervisor, Egobio Mendoza, about the purse and Mendoza collected the purse and turned it over to Human Resources. Neither man looked inside of the purse.

At approximately 10 a.m., other Pilates clients arrived at the studio for class, but Susan was not present and the lights were still turned off. Another Gleneagles employee stopped by and turned on the lights. One of the women, Laura Curran, noticed that a room divider had fallen over onto a piece of equipment, a plant had been knocked over, and other items were on the floor. The women notified the club's general manager who asked the receptionist to look inside of the purse found earlier that morning. When they realized it was Susan's purse, the general manager called the police.

Officer Joel Scott was the first police officer at arrive at Gleneagles. He saw that a room divider and plant had been knocked over and a Starbucks coffee cup had been spilled onto the floor. He also saw blood on the floor along with an unfired round of ammunition. Scott made these observations from a distance because he did not want to walk through the crime scene. Based on his observations, Scott called his supervisor and requested backup. Several officers arrived, including Detective Scott Epperson.

After waiting for the crime scene investigators to finish with their tasks, Epperson examined the crime scene. Like Officer Scott, he observed that the area around Susan's desk was in disarray and it appeared that there had been a struggle. He found blood and two unfired nine millimeter cartridges on the floor. Epperson found a significant amount of blood on the driveway in front of the building, a small amount of blood outside the back door to the Pilatesstudio, a small amount of blood in the Pilates studio, and another unfired nine millimeter cartridge in the bushes outside of the building's front door. Epperson also noticed a Starbucks cup on the floor which had a time-stamped receipt on it showing it had been purchased at 5:45 that morning.¹ After learning that Susan's purse and cell phone had not been taken, but her car keys and SUV were missing, Epperson concluded that this was not a robbery. Based on the evidence, he instead believed that Susan had been "violently kidnapped" at around 6 a.m. and injured in the course of the kidnapping. Epperson was able to narrow the time of the offense to 6 a.m. because Susan had purchased coffee at Starbucks at 5:45 a.m., and Susan and her SUV were missing from the facility at 6:15 a.m. when Susan's first client arrived.

Detective Bruce Pfahning called Susan's current boyfriend, Jayson Hayes. When Pfahning told him that Susan was missing, Jayson initially did not believe the detective. Jayson at first said that everyone loved Susan, but he then identified Appellant as someone who did not like her. In Pfahning's opinion, Jayson was extremely cooperative and his response was consistent with someone who had just gotten bad news about a girlfriend.

Detectives Epperson and Pfahning went to Susan's home to speak with her parents. Craig Loper and two of Susan's friends, Melanie Malone and Julie Mitchell, were also present at the house and Jayson arrived later. Detective Epperson spoke with Jayson, and consistent with Pfahning's earlier assessment, he observed that Jayson was cooperative and willing to answer his questions. Based on statements made by nearly everyone present, Appellant became a focus of the investigation into Susan's disappearance. The detectives went to Appellant's residence inFrisco but he was not at home.

Detective Fred Garcia reviewed security video recordings from Gleneagles Country Club. The video quality is poor and the area is poorly lit, but the video depicts a vehicle pulling into the parking lot at approximately 5:55 a.m. and parking off-camera.² Moments later, a person can be seen walking towards the Pilates studio but the image is obscured by trees and foliage. At around 6 a.m., a person can be seen walking toward the area where the vehicle parked and seconds later, a white SUV with its headlights illuminated pulled up to the driveway by the Pilates studio.³ At 6:01 a.m., the driver exits the vehicle, leaves the driver's side door open, and walks around the front of the SUV toward the Pilates studio. Less than a minute later, a person is seen walking from the rear of the SUV to the driver's door which is still open. The same person walks back around the rear of the vehicle and is obscured from view for about one minute before walking around the front of the car and getting in the driver's seat and closing the door. The vehicle drives away at approximately 6:02. Blood was found on the circular drive near the location where the SUV had stopped. After reviewing this video evidence as well as the other evidence in the case, the detectives believed that Susan had been abducted by one perpetrator.

Susan had a "Tolltag" for her white Toyota RAV4 and records related to her account assisted the investigators in their search for Susan and her SUV. The Tolltag records showed that her SUV entered the Dallas North Tollway on April 19, 2011 at 6:12 a.m. at the Parker Road entrance traveling northbound. The car exited the tollroad at 6:16 at the Lebanon exit in Frisco,which is where Appellant lived. At 6:36 a.m., Susan's SUV re-entered the tollroad at the Lebanon entrance traveling southbound. Two minutes later, the SUV exited the tollroad just prior to the Parker Road exit, but it re-entered the tollroad at Parker Road. The records did not show any other transactions. This meant that the SUV exited the tollroad at a free exit. The detectives knew from the Tolltag records that Susan's SUV had most likely exited the tollroad in the vicinity of the Country Club, so they focused their search for Susan's SUV in that area. A patrol officer found Susan's locked car in the parking lot of an apartment complex less than one mile from the Country Club. Based on the video and Tolltag evidence, the investigators concluded that Susan's abductor had parked his own vehicle in this area, walked to the Gleneagles Country Club and abducted Susan, and then later returned in her vehicle to pick up his own vehicle.

Detective Pfahning found blood and hair on the SUV's right-front passenger window. He also saw a large amount of blood in both the front and back seats, as well as a bloody handprint on the outside of the SUV. There were no distinguishable fingerprints on that handprint which led Pfahning to conclude that the person who left the print had been wearing a latex glove.⁴ Green vegetation was found in the SUV's front grill, the right-front floor mat, and the right-front front running board.

Detective Epperson obtained a search warrant for Appellant's home and officers executed the warrant at 5:30 a.m. on April 20, 2011. Appellant was not at home, the house was clean and orderly, and officers found no blood evidence. They also did not find a nine-millimeter gun orbullets.

The police then focused their search for Susan in Frisco near Lebanon Road because the Tolltag records showed that Susan's SUV exited there. Officer Joel...