Lofland v. State

RUSSELL ERIC LOFLAND, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

No. 13-21-00382-CR

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

February 23, 2023

Do not publish.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

On appeal from the 36th District Court of San Patricio County Texas.

Before Chief Justice Contreras and Justices Longoria and Silva

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DORI CONTRERAS, CHIEF JUSTICE

A jury convicted appellant Russell Eric Lofland of aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, and sentenced him to twenty-five years' imprisonment in the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 12.32, 29.03(a), (b). By his sole issue, appellant contends that the evidence was legally insufficient to support his conviction. We affirm.

I. Background

A grand jury indicted appellant on December 12, 2017. The indictment alleged that "on or about the 22nd day of February 2015, . . . while in the course of committing theft of property and with intent to obtain or maintain control of said property," appellant "intentionally or knowingly cause[d] serious bodily injury to Elvin Young [Jr.] by striking and hitting . . . Young in the face and head with the [appellant's] hands and feet or [an] object unknown by the grand jury." On October 5, 2021, appellant pleaded not guilty, and trial commenced. We summarize the testimony relevant to the disposition of this appeal.

A. Merry Spriggs Moreno's Testimony

Merry Spriggs Moreno, Young's sister, testified that Young was a fifty-year-old man, about five feet tall, who had suffered from various disabilities throughout his life. According to Moreno, Young also had a drinking problem and lived at home with his and Moreno's mother, Lucille Spriggs. Spriggs, Moreno noted, was displeased with Young's drinking habit, so, on occasion, Young would rent a room at the nearby Cedar Lodge Motel to "hang out with his drinking buddies, and just have a good time." Moreno last saw her brother on February 21, 2015, at Spriggs's house just as Young was preparing to head to the Cedar Lodge in his red Ford Mustang. Moreno was not familiar with appellant and did not believe Young knew him prior to that excursion to the Cedar Lodge.

Moreno testified that her brother "loved jewelry." The State offered photographs as Exhibits 2-6 depicting various pieces of jewelry, which Moreno confirmed belonged to her brother. The jewelry included: (1) two rope chains, one of which was missing a fish pendant that usually adorned Young's neck; (2) a few rings; and (3) a shrimp-shaped charm. Moreno stated that the chains' clasps appear broken in the photos. The State also offered Exhibit 7 depicting a blood-covered fish pendant, which Moreno identified as the one missing from Young's chain.

B. Officer Derrell Harvill's Testimony

In 2015, Officer Derrell Harvill was a patrol officer with the Aransas Pass Police Department (APPD). On February 22, 2015, at about 3:00 a.m., Officer Harvill was dispatched to the Cedar Lodge for a welfare check on Young, called in by Spriggs.^[1]Officer Harvill testified that he arrived at the Cedar Lodge and parked behind a red Mustang which had its engine running and "its lights on, with the doors open." Two people, later identified as appellant and his fiancé, Angel Kerns, were "loading stuff in[to] the Mustang," which was parked outside their motel room, room 16. Officer Harvill stated that he went straight to room 21, situated about twenty or thirty feet to the left of room 16, where Young was staying. Officer Harvill knocked on the door but received no answer. He attempted to enter the room, but the door was locked. Officer Harvill noticed "a lot of blood everywhere," including on the porch, deck chair, ground, and exterior wall outside of Young's room, and he testified that the blood looked fresh. Officer Harvill's body camera footage was admitted into evidence and played for the jury; it showed the bloody scene and another officer volunteering to go obtain the master key to enter Young's room.

When the officers finally opened the door to room 21, they found Young next to the bed lying face down. Officer Harvill checked for a pulse and found none. He asked his supervisor whether he should move Young to render aid, as Young's body felt warm. The officers called for emergency medical services (EMS). EMS arrived, flipped Young's body, and attempted to resuscitate him, to no avail. Photos of Young were admitted at trial. Officer Harvill testified that Young's face and head were bloodied.

At some point after finding Young's body, Officer Harvill approached appellant and Kerns and started asking them questions. Officer Harvill testified that the couple told him they helped Young into Young's motel room. At points of Officer Harvill's body camera footage, appellant can be heard stating he and Kerns found Young passed out on his porch and helped him into his room from there. At other points, appellant suggested that Young "pulled up here and said get me in the house," so appellant obliged. Officer Harvill testified that he observed no blood trail between appellant's room and Young's, nor any blood in the red Mustang, which was determined to be Young's vehicle. He agreed that the Mustang was parked in front of appellant's room even though there were available parking spots in front of Young's room. Officer Harvill noticed that appellant had blood on his arm, which appellant attributed to his lip. According to Officer Harvill, appellant's lip looked "[s]wollen like he [had] been in a fight." Given the circumstances, including appellant being "the last person to see [Young] alive," Officer Harvill detained appellant and later transported him to the police station for further questioning.

Officer Harvill testified that during booking, appellant emptied his pockets, and the pockets' contents included several blood-covered pieces of jewelry, which Officer Harvill photographed and collected as evidence. Those photographs were admitted at trial as Exhibits 2-6. Moreno confirmed that the jewelry depicted in those exhibits belonged to Young.

C. Sergeant Antonio Davila's Testimony

Antonio Davila is a sergeant in APPD. On February 22, 2015, Sergeant Davila was the on-call detective. Sergeant Davila testified that he received a call at about 4:00 a.m. that his services were required at the Cedar Lodge. Sergeant Davila arrived at the scene as EMS was leaving. He noted that Young's face looked like it had been hit with something. He and another APPD detective, Frank Kent, photographed the scene and "collect[ed] blood samples from all the areas that [they] had observed where there was blood at." Along with the blood samples, Sergeant Davila noticed and collected a gold, blood-covered fish pendant on the porch outside of Young's motel room. A picture of the pendant was admitted at trial as Exhibit 7, and Moreno confirmed that the pendant depicted was Young's. Sergeant Davila also collected Young's clothing and secured Young's Mustang.

In the Mustang, Sergeant Davila noticed some men's and women's clothing in the back seat and a large glass bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey on the floor of the front passenger side. Sergeant Davila was informed that appellant and Kerns claimed the clothing as their own and told Officer Harvill when he arrived on the scene at about 3:00 a.m. that they were using the car to go to the laundromat. Sergeant Davila had the Mustang towed back to the police station. There, he searched the vehicle and noticed the Jack Daniels bottle had blood on "the main part of the body and on the neck part of" the bottle. Save for the blood on the bottle, though, Sergeant Davila found no other blood in the Mustang.

Later on February 22, detectives Davila and Kent returned to the Cedar Lodge. While there, they found the keys to Young's room located in the grass outside the porch area of room 21, which was notable because Young's door was locked when Officer Harvill arrived to conduct the welfare check. The detectives were also approached by the motel owner, Robert Oxley, who told them that he went into appellant's room and saw "one of the coverings to the window [A/C] unit was removed." He went to check the A/C unit and "noticed a dark colored [object which] look[ed] like [a] wallet stuffed in between the A[/]C unit and where the housing was located." Oxley pointed it out to the detectives, who then collected the wallet. Contained within the wallet was Young's driver's license. Sergeant Davila also collected a bloody towel from appellant's room.

Sergeant Davila testified that the medical examiner's office called the next day to inform him that Young's autopsy was completed. Sergeant Davila went to the medical examiner's office to collect Young's personal belongings and various DNA swabs and fingernail clippings that had been taken during Young's autopsy. Sergeant Davila stated that he transported the evidence to the APPD station and turned it over to the evidence technician. Sergeant Davila also collected appellant's jeans and polo shirt from the previous night for DNA analysis.

D. Samantha Perkins's Testimony

In 2015, Samantha Perkins was the DNA supervisor and technical leader at the Corpus Christi Crime Lab. Perkins testified that she tested various pieces of evidence for DNA profiles. Perkins stated that the DNA profile collected from the blood on the jewelry was consistent with Young's. She noted that she tested DNA from two blood spots on appellant's shirt, one of which was consistent with Young's DNA, the other of which was consistent with both Young's and appellant's DNA. Perkins also tested two blood spots from appellant's jeans. A spot on one of the legs was consistent with Young's DNA, and a spot tested from ...