Edwards v. State

691 S.W.3d 703

Tristan Keir EDWARDS, Appellant

v.The STATE of Texas, Appellee

NO. 14-22-00699-CR

Court of Appeals of Texas, Houston (14th Dist.).

Opinions filed May 21, 2024

On Appeal from the 239th District Court, Brazoria County, Texas, Trial Court Cause No. 85794-CR

Trey David Picard, Tom Selleck, for Appellee.

Crespin Michael Linton, Houston, for Appellant.

Panel consists of Justices Wise, Zimmerer, and Poissant

OPINION

Jerry Zimmerer, Justice

Appellant Tristan Keir Edwards appeals his conviction for capital murder. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.023(a)(8). We affirm.

Background

Appellant and Shekinah Huffin began a relationship in the spring of 2017 and moved in together two weeks later. Shekinah had a 10-year old daughter living with them. Appellant and Shekinah had a son, the complainant, on August 25, 2018. Shekinah was not working outside of the home at the time. Appellant eventually lost his job and the four of them were going to be evicted from their two-bedroom apartment as a result. With the eviction approaching, Shekinah made arrangements to move in with her parents along with her two children. Appellant, on the other hand, would live with his mother. Shekinah described their situation as stressful.

On September 18, 2018, appellant and Shekinah were smoking marijuana throughout the day. That evening appellant and the complainant went to the bedroom to take a nap. They awoke from the nap about ten in the evening and Shekinah and appellant smoked more marijuana. Shekinah then asked appellant to hand her the complainant so she could feed him. According to Shekinah appellant began making strange statements, things that did not make sense. Shekinah testified that the strange statements included they could run away, drive to California to kill Jessica, appellant’s former girlfriend and the mother of his older son. Appellant also told Shekinah to call her father so he could kill appellant.

At this point, with appellant acting strangely, Shekinah asked appellant for his cellular phone so she could call appellant’s mother to intervene to calm appellant down. Shekinah tried to call appellant’s mother and appellant took his phone back before she could make the call. Shekinah asked appellant to give the phone back to her. As appellant handed the phone to Shekinah, he grabbed the complainant from her and ran into the bathroom. Shekinah tried to call 9-1-1, but when she heard the water running in the bathroom, she entered the bathroom where she saw appellant holding the complainant’s head under the running faucet. Shekinah moved into the tub pleading with appellant to give the complainant to her, but she was unsuccessful. Shekinah then began fighting with appellant in an effort to take the complainant from him. Appellant pushed Shekinah out of the tub and he then smashed the complainant’s head into the tub. According to Shekinah, appellant continued making strange statements while he smashed the complainant’s head into the bottom of the tub. Shekinah screamed and ran out of the apartment in an effort to get away from appellant. Shekinah saw a stranger in the outside hallway. Shekinah told him that her baby had been killed and asked to use his phone to call 9-1-1. Shekinah got his phone and called 9-1-1.

Shekinah saw appellant come out of their apartment. Shekinah then went to another apartment where she slid down against the apartment’s door. Raven Crawford heard frantic and consistent knocking on her apartment’s entry door. Crawford opened the door and found Shekinah on the floor screaming.¹ Shekinah told Crawford and her roommate that her boyfriend was trying to kill her baby. They pulled a still screaming Shekinah into their apartment and the roommate closed the door with Crawford, a prison guard, remaining in the hallway. Crawford saw a calm appellant, whom she did not know, approaching her down the hallway. As appellant got closer, Crawford heard him saying random things such as "we got to get this money." Crawford told appellant to move away but he instead opened the apartment door. Crawford then grabbed appellant by his shirt and struck him, knocking him to the hallway floor. Appellant said "all right," and "I’m just playing." At this point, Shekinah said that she had another child in the apartment so Crawford let appellant go in an effort to get to the apartment and get the other child. Appellant instead ran past her into the apartment and locked the door.

Shekinah also testified about an incident several months before when she and appellant visited a waterpark. According to Shekinah, they smoked marijuana at the waterpark and appellant consumed an unknown pill. When they returned to their apartment, appellant grabbed Shekinah, shook her, and accused her of maintaining multiple social media accounts. Appellant then ran out of their apartment and Shekinah called 9-1-1. The responding police found appellant in the tub of another apartment. The police took appellant to a local hospital.

Numerous officers from the Pearland Police Department responded to Shekinah’s September 9-1-1 call. The officers forced their way into the locked apartment using a sledgehammer and found a deceased child face-down on the kitchen floor next to a pool of blood, tissue, and brain matter. The officers located Shekinah’s ten-year old daughter, removed her from the apartment, and reunited her with her mother. After breaching two more locked doors, the police officers found appellant hiding in the bathtub, laying in about two inches of water. Appellant gave the police officers the "middle finger" with both hands as they entered the bathroom. Appellant refused to get out of the bathtub so the officers physically removed him from the bathtub, handcuffed him, and then carried him out of the apartment, and eventually placed him in the back of a patrol car. While all of this was happening, appellant told the officers that he "smashed his son’s head into the pavement," asked them to shoot him, and stated that "he was either going to get life in prison or the death penalty." Appellant was transported to the police station jail where his clothing was removed, he was placed in a restraint chair, and a spit mask placed over his head.

Shortly after 3:00 a.m. on September 19, 2018, Pearland Police Lieutenant Cecil Arnold interviewed appellant at the police station. Arnold was trained and certified as a mental health peace officer by the State of Texas. The interview took place after appellant was removed from the restraint chair. Arnold gave appellant a jail coverall, blanket, food, and water, before beginning the interview. In the short time that had passed since the complainant was killed, appellant had calmed down and remained calm throughout the interview. During the interview, appellant admitted that he and Shekinah had smoked marijuana throughout the day and the marijuana was really strong. Early during the interview appellant shifted the blame away from himself, claiming that he dropped the complainant on the floor, and did not intend to hurt his infant son. Appellant also said that the incident occurred during an argument with Shekinah over his cellular phone. According to appellant, Shekinah would not give his phone back and she tried to beat him, Appellant told Arnold the fight occurred in the master bedroom and bathroom, and that Shekinah tried to "slam his head." Appellant claimed that he never got control over the complainant. Appellant stated that Shekinah dropped the complainant in the kitchen as she ran out of the apartment. When Arnold told appellant it appeared the complainant had been harmed in the bathroom, appellant responded that Shekinah had put the complainant under the water in the bathtub and had then dropped him on the bathtub and the floor during the fight. A few minutes later, appellant told Arnold that he and Shekinah both hurt the complainant. Later during the interview, appellant told Arnold that Shekinah threw the complainant down and was the one holding the complainant under the water.

Appellant contradicted himself throughout his interview with Arnold by changing his description of what happened from the beginning of the interview to the end of the interview. Despite his changing story, the video of the interview demonstrates that appellant understood Arnold’s questions and responded in an appropriate manner to Arnold’s questions. Appellant denied having any psychiatric or mental health diagnoses nor being prescribed any medications for mental illness. Additionally, nothing occurred during the interview that led Arnold to believe that appellant was impaired or having a mental health crisis. Arnold ended the interview when appellant invoked his right to counsel.

Later that same morning, at approximately 10:30 a.m., appellant told a jailer he wanted to speak with an investigator. At that time, appellant was detained in a regular cell normally used by inmates awaiting transfer to the Brazoria County Jail, not a padded cell for inmates in crisis. Sergeant James McGuire and Detective John DeSpain, both with the Pearland Police Department, responded to appellant’s interview request. Appellant told the investigators that Shekinah stabbed him in the neck with a hair pick during the fight while she held the complainant. Appellant claimed the incident began when Shekinah, holding the complainant, would not hand over his cellular phone. Appellant claimed the argument over the cellular phone became physical. When the investigators asked appellant how the complainant was hurt, he responded that Shekinah dropped the complainant while trying to get away from him. Once again, appellant was calm throughout the interview and he did not tell the investigators that, at the time of the incident, he was (1) under any mental distress; (2) experiencing any kind of delusions; or (3) hearing voices.

An autopsy was conducted on the complainant. The autopsy established that the complainant sustained blunt head and neck trauma that...