Farmer v. State

TYLER FARMER, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

No. 13-20-00107-CR

Court of Appeals of Texas, Thirteenth District, Corpus Christi-Edinburg

December 1, 2022

Do not publish. Tex.R.App.P. 47.2(b).

On appeal from the 148th District Court of Nueces County, Texas.

Before Chief Justice Contreras and Justices Longoria and Tijerina

MEMORANDUM OPINION

NORA L. LONGORIA JUSTICE

Appellant Tyler Farmer appeals his conviction of felony murder, a first-degree felony for which he was sentenced to thirty-nine years' imprisonment. See Tex. Penal Code Ann § 19.02(b)(3). By four issues, Farmer contends (1) his Sixth Amendment rights were violated by his trial counsel's "continuous statements to the jury that Farmer was guilty of aggravated assault," (2) the indictment and jury charge were invalid, (3) he received ineffective assistance of counsel, and (4) the trial court erred by not including an instruction regarding accomplice witness testimony. We affirm.

I. Background

The indictment alleged that on or about November 18, 2017 Farmer, acting alone or together with Gavin Escoto, James Lockhart, and/or Kayla Valdez, committed or attempted to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life, "namely shooting a firearm at or in the direction of a group of people, that caused the death of one of those people, namely Gilbert Sierra"; that Farmer "was then and there in the course of intentionally and knowingly committing a felony, namely [a]ggravated [a]ssault"; and that Sierra's death was caused "while [Farmer] was in the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempt of said felony." See id.

At trial, Jesus Cruz testified he and Farmer had a contentious history involving Farmer's then-girlfriend, Valdez. According to Cruz, when he and Valdez worked together, Valdez was in an altercation with another co-worker, and Cruz posted a meme on Facebook indicating that Valdez had lost the fight. Cruz stated that Farmer called him and said he wanted to fight because of the Facebook post. Months later, Cruz encountered Farmer and Valdez at a store, and he and Farmer argued. They continued their argument on Facebook, challenging each other to a fight in the parking lot of a restaurant. They met at the parking lot and engaged in a fist fight, which Sierra, Cruz's cousin, shared to Facebook via live stream. According to Cruz, he and Farmer decided the following day that they would meet up to fight again, this time at an elementary school in Corpus Christi.

Cruz testified that he arrived at the school's basketball court between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. with his cousin, Sierra. They were joined by another cousin, Brandy Tapia, and three others. Cruz stated that the group waited nearly two hours for Farmer. Eventually, Cruz received a message that Farmer was on his way to the school. Shortly thereafter, Cruz heard approximately six to eight gunshots, and he then heard Sierra saying that he had been shot. Sierra was holding his chest and "crawling" away from the direction of the shots. When the shooting stopped, Cruz went to help his cousin and called 911. Cruz stated he and the others were attempting to help Sierra by applying pressure to the wound while waiting for medics to respond. Cruz stated that because it was dark at the time, he was only able to see "flashes" of the gunshots, and he could not see who fired the shots. He said neither he nor anyone with him had a firearm at the time. On cross-examination, Cruz admitted he felt guilt and remorse over the incident because he had set up the fight with Farmer.

Tapia testified that Sierra had called her and told her there was going to be a fight, and she decided to go to the elementary school that night to support Cruz and to be there in case Valdez tried to join the fight. She explained that when the shots were fired, she dropped to the ground, "hit [her] chin and fell sideways." At that point, she saw Sierra grab his stomach and "dive" to the ground. She later found out that Sierra had been shot, and she called 911. She used two shirts from her friends to apply pressure to Sierra's wound and contain the bleeding until the medics arrived. While she believed that no one that was on the basketball court had a gun, she stated on cross-examination that she could not be certain.

Several officers from the Corpus Christi Police Department responded to the scene. The officers separated witnesses and took statements, secured the scene, and searched the area for shell casings. Three casings were found from a .40-caliber weapon. Based on information provided by witnesses, officers went to Farmer's apartment to question him regarding the shooting. Upon the officers' arrival, no one was present at the apartment, so they left and returned approximately forty minutes later. When the officers returned, they could hear voices in the apartment, and they surrounded the location. Two officers then knocked on Farmer's door, announced their presence, and identified themselves as police officers.

Officer Andrew Gebauer testified that, after knocking on Farmer's door, he and Officer John Paul Ghezzi were notified that Farmer and three others-later identified as Escoto, Lockhart, and Valdez-were attempting to flee using the balcony. Gebauer located Farmer on a neighbor's balcony and Escoto, Lockhart, and Valdez on Farmer's balcony. At that point, according to Gebauer, Farmer attempted to "run away through the neighbor's apartment." Gebauer chased Farmer, who was stopped in the doorway of the neighbor's apartment by another officer. Gebauer stated that Farmer was not arrested pursuant to a warrant; instead, Gebauer testified that Farmer had violated several laws in his presence, including escaping from custody, evading arrest, and criminal trespass.

Ghezzi testified that, after Farmer, Escoto, Lockhart, and Valdez attempted to evade the officers at the apartment, the four individuals were brought to the police station. According to Ghezzi, as he and other officers were escorting the four individuals out of the apartment, he noticed there was "an ammo box that had several firearms and ammunition in it" on the floor of the bedroom connected to the balcony.

Detective Edward Alvarado testified that when he first interviewed Farmer at the police station, Farmer claimed not to know anything about the shooting. Several days later, when Alvarado went to the jail to obtain a DNA sample from Farmer pursuant to a search warrant, Farmer asked to speak with Alvarado privately. Alvarado brought the DNA sample to the police station and returned to the jail, where he interviewed Farmer a second time. A video recording of the interview was entered into evidence and played for the jury. During the interview, Farmer stated that after "the idea sprung up to shoot to scare" the people at the basketball court, he shot a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol into the air, Escoto shot a nine-millimeter Hi-Point at the ground, and Lockhart shot a Ruger at a "fat dude." They each shot two to three times. Farmer later said he shot into the ground in front of him.

Katherine Pina, a crime scene investigator, testified she went to the hospital where Sierra was taken and photographed his body and possessions. She was then dispatched to the apartment where Farmer was found. She was advised that a search warrant was being executed, and she went to the apartment to process the scene. Four firearms, "close to" 100 rounds of ammunition, casings, shotgun shells, and firecrackers were located in the apartment and examined for fingerprints. Pina testified that she "swabbed" each firearm to collect DNA, which was then sent to a lab for testing.

Another crime scene investigator, Abby Sharp, testified that she processed the scene at the elementary school basketball court. She observed and collected the three .40-caliber casings located by police, and she created a sketch to show where the casings were found in relation to the basketball court and where Sierra was shot. Sharp also photographed the scene, which included discarded bloody clothing and a bloody "trail" on the basketball court. Sharp later tested Farmer for gunshot residue, which the parties stipulated yielded positive results. Sharp stated that a gunshot residue test must be performed within "a four-hour window of when the gun was possibly fired" or it will not be accepted for testing at the crime lab.

Medical examiner Ray Fernandez, M.D., testified that he examined Sierra's body and that the cause of death was a bullet wound to the lung and heart, lodging in the back chest wall. Sharp collected a "DNA spot card," "some hair samples," "a bullet, [and] two copper jacket[]s" from Fernandez after the autopsy was performed. The bullet and casings were processed for fingerprints, which came back negative, and then submitted for firearms analysis.

Carolyn Martinez, a firearm and tool mark examiner, testified that she test-fired the weapons found in Farmer's apartment and "compared the known samples from these firearms to the questioned samples that [she] received from [the] crime scene investigator." Martinez opined that the fragments of bullet extracted from Sierra were fired from the .40-caliber Smith & Wesson gun found in Farmer's apartment. The parties stipulated that DNA recovered from this gun "belongs to [Farmer]."

Lockhart testified that he and Farmer worked together in the morning and met up later that evening at the apartment. Lockhart knew that Farmer got "into an argument on social media" and that a fight was planned. He said he wanted to attend the fight to support Farmer if needed. According to Lockhart Valdez was driving the truck, Farmer was in the front passenger's seat, Lockhart was sitting behind Valdez, and Escoto was sitting behind Farmer. Lockhart...