Esquivel v. State

CLAUDIA KRISTINE ESQUIVEL, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

NO. 01-16-00301-CR

Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas

September 7, 2017

On Appeal from the 212th District Court Galveston County, Texas

Trial Court Case No. 14CR1878

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Claudia Kristine Esquivel was charged with murder. See TEX. PENAL CODE § 19.02(b). The indictment included three different legal theories to support a murder conviction, including felony murder. The trial court submitted a jury charge that included all three grounds for a murder conviction. The jury convicted Esquivel of murder with a deadly weapon and assessed punishment at 27 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Esquivel filed a motion for new trial alleging that her trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel. The trial court denied her motion.

On appeal, Esquivel contends that the trial court erred by submitting to the jury an invalid legal theory of felony murder. She also argues that her trial counsel was ineffective.

Because the jury charge did not contain an invalid theory of felony murder, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Esquivel's motion for new trial alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Background

Claudia Kristine Esquivel lived with her boyfriend, Christopher Chapa, in Galveston County. Early one morning, Esquivel's mother called 911, and she reported that Chapa was beating up her daughter. Police officers responded to the 911 call within minutes and arrived at the house shared by Esquivel and Chapa. Initially, the officers knocked on the door to the residence, but nobody answered. The officers entered the house and found Chapa on the ground with his head against the wall. Chapa was "agonal breathing," which is characteristic of a "body dying," and he was bleeding from a gunshot wound to his head. The officers alsofound a 9mm semiautomatic pistol with its magazine missing next to Chapa. The officers found the magazine and a large knife in a laundry basket in another room. The officers also found a bullet that had been shot into the drywall in a room in the house.

Paramedics arrived, stabilized Chapa, and transported him to the hospital. Eventually, he died as a result of the gunshot wound to his head. In connection with Chapa's death, police located and detained Esquivel.

During Esquivel's detention, the police swabbed her hands for gunshot residue and blood. She gave two video-recorded statements to the police. According to her statements, she and Chapa had been fighting throughout the day before the shooting. At some point during the evening, they argued because Chapa said things to Esquivel's son that she did not like. When Chapa returned to the house at about 2 a.m., he and Esquivel resumed their argument.

According to Esquivel, Chapa got very angry and began cursing, calling her names, and insulting her son. Esquivel's son was asleep in the next room. Esquivel also stated that Chapa slammed things and pushed her around. Eventually, Esquivel told Chapa to leave, and he continued pushing her and began grabbing his things. She then grabbed Chapa's gun off of a desk and "used it" by pointing it at him and motioning for him to leave the house. She said she removed the magazine. She also said that she did not think the gun was "charged," meaning she did notthink there was a bullet in the chamber. Chapa then started "coming towards" her, and "apparently there was still one bullet in the chamber." During "a scuffle," in which they were "wrestling and fighting," she said the trigger did "get pulled" and "it caught him." In other words, the gun fired. Esquivel stated that she tried to help Chapa. She left the house with her son and called her parents. Esquivel told the police that she had shot the gun at a shooting range prior to the incident.

After further investigation, a grand jury indicted Esquivel for the murder of Chapa. The indictment included three paragraphs containing three different legal theories under which Esquivel could be found guilty of murdering Chapa, including that she committed felony murder by committing an act clearly dangerous to human life, "pointing a handgun" at Chapa, which caused his death during the commission of aggravated assault.

At a trial before a jury, the State introduced the video-recorded statements that Esquivel gave to the police. The State also called several witnesses to testify, including several forensic scientists who analyzed evidence recovered during the investigation, a detective who investigated the shooting, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Chapa's body, and a firearms instructor who taught a firearms course to Esquivel prior to the shooting.

The forensic scientists analyzed several pieces of evidence recovered during the investigation, including the gunshot residue swabs taken of Esquivel's handsand the gun found at the scene. One of them testified that Esquivel "either fired a weapon, came in close proximity of a weapon being fired, or touched a surface." Another forensic scientist testified that the gun recovered at the scene functioned correctly, had a trigger pull of approximately 8 5/12 pounds, and the bullet found at the scene had been shot from that gun. He also testified that the gun's safety features included an imprinted warning that it was capable of being fired with the magazine removed, as well as a "loaded chamber window" that could be used to see whether it had a cartridge in the chamber.

The medical examiner who conducted Chapa's autopsy testified that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head. He also testified that the entrance wound was toward the rear of Chapa's head, and the exit wound was in his forehead. Further, he testified that he found no gun powder, "muzzle imprint," or "stippling" on Chapa's body. Based on the lack of this evidence, he concluded that the shot was "fired at some distance," at least 12 to 15 inches from the head.

One of the detectives who investigated the shooting identified several inconsistencies between Esquivel's statements and the results of the investigation. For example, the angle of the gunshot wound was inconsistent with Esquivel's statement that Chapa was coming toward her and they were wrestling at the time he was shot. She noted that Chapa did not have any defensive wounds on his body.The detective also testified that pointing a gun at someone is an act clearly dangerous to human life.

Finally, the State called a firearms instructor to testify. The instructor taught a firearms course that is required to become a police officer in Galveston. Esquivel had attended and passed the course. Everyone in the class was informed of firearm safety rules, including that a firearm always should be treated as if it were loaded. In addition, the instructor noted that Esquivel would have unloaded and "cleared" a gun during the course.

Prior to closing arguments, the trial court held a charge conference. Esquivel's trial counsel, Greg Russell, did not object to the charge, nor did he request that the court include defensive instructions on self-defense, mistake of fact, or voluntary conduct. Following the charge conference, the trial court read the charge to the jury. The jury charge contained the three legal theories contained in the indictment by which Esquivel could be found guilty of murder. Included among these three theories was the theory that she committed felony murder by committing an act clearly dangerous to human life, by "pointing a handgun" at Chapa, during the commission of aggravated assault, which caused Chapa's death.

The jury found Esquivel guilty of murder.

During the punishment phase of trial, the State called only one witness to testify, Chapa's mother. In contrast, Russell called five witnesses, includingEsquivel. The four witnesses who testified on Esquivel's behalf included her mother and father, a high school teacher, and a friend. Through these witnesses Russell elicited positive testimony about Esquivel including that she was a good mother, daughter, and friend. Russell also introduced several photographs of Esquivel and her son. Russell did not ask the trial court to give a defensive instruction on sudden passion in the punishment jury charge. The jury assessed punishment at 27 years in prison.

Following the punishment phase and represented by new counsel, Esquivel moved for a new trial alleging that her trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance during both the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of trial. The trial court held a hearing on the motion. During the hearing, Esquivel introduced 27 affidavits from people who averred that they would have testified on her behalf during the punishment phase of trial. In addition, Esquivel's new counsel questioned Russell about his strategy and actions during trial. Russell testified that his primary strategy at the guilt-innocence stage of trial was to obtain a conviction for a lesser-included offense. Specifically, he attempted to demonstrate that Esquivel did not have the intent to murder Chapa, and therefore she lacked the requisite culpable mental state to be found guilty of murder. Russell based this strategy on Esquivel's statement that the shooting was accidental. Russell also testified that his strategy at the punishment stage of trial was to show a "broad picture" of Esquivel to the juryby calling her friends and family. After the hearing, the trial court denied the motion for new trial.

Esquivel appealed.

Analysis

Esquivel raises five issues challenging the trial court's judgment. In her first three issues, she contends that she suffered egregious harm because the jury charge included an invalid basis to convict her of felony murder. In her remaining two issues, she contends that her trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel during both the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of trial.

I. Jury charge

Esquivel challenges...