Salas-Martinez v. State

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ISAIAH KAIN SALAS-MARTINEZ, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

No. 01-23-00099-CR

Court of Appeals of Texas, First District

August 22, 2024

Do not publish.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

On Appeal from the 179th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 1799164

Panel consists of Justices Hightower, Rivas-Molloy, and Farris.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

April L. Farris, Justice

A jury convicted appellant Isaiah Kain Salas-Martinez ("Martinez")^[1] of first-degree murder, and the trial court sentenced him to twelve years' confinement.^[2] In four issues on appeal, Martinez argues that: (1) the trial court erred by including in the self-defense portion of the jury charge an instruction on Penal Code section 46.02, which he contends violated his rights under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments; (2) his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to object to inclusion of section 46.02 in the jury charge; (3) the evidence was legally insufficient to support the jury's guilty verdict; and (4) the trial court abused its discretion by denying his request to admit certain impeachment evidence. We affirm.

Background

On the evening of December 16, 2017, Amy Sovinsky and Jonathan Fernandez hosted a small party at their house.^[3] Amy and Jonathan had a baby together and lived with Amy's parents, but Amy's parents and the baby were away from home for the night. Amy and Jonathan invited a few friends, most of whom they knew from high school, to the party. Approximately ten people attended. Relevant here, Jonathan invited his cousin Michael Longoria. Michael invited his friend, Chase Harrell who attended college out of town but was home visiting his family in Houston during the winter break. Chase took his brother, Cole Harrell, the complainant. Amy invited her friend Alexis Quezada, who is Martinez's girlfriend.

Martinez was not invited to the party because he did not know anyone there.^[4] The partygoers drank alcohol and played drinking games.

By the early hours of December 17, only Amy, Jonathan, Alexis Michael, Chase, and Cole remained at Amy's house. While they socialized in the kitchen, Alexis became sick or intoxicated and went upstairs to sit in the movie room. Michael followed her upstairs to check on her. Within a few minutes after entering the movie room, Alexis said she needed to throw up. She rushed to a nearby bathroom but vomited in the hallway. Michael called downstairs from the balcony to let the others know that Alexis had vomited upstairs. Amy Jonathan, Chase, and Cole went upstairs. Jonathan cleaned up the vomit, and then he, Michael, Chase, and Cole returned downstairs to the kitchen. Amy took Alexis into a bathroom, helped her shower, gave her some clothes to wear, and helped her into Amy's bed to rest. Amy then went back downstairs and rejoined the others.

A little while later, Michael returned upstairs to check on Alexis. Alexis asked him if he had seen anybody touch or try to touch her inappropriately, but Michael said he had not and returned downstairs. Around 2:30 a.m., Amy went upstairs to check on Alexis. She found Alexis sitting in the bathroom talking to Martinez on the phone. Alexis was crying, and she told Martinez that someone had tried to touch her.

Martinez testified at trial that he was asleep at home when he received a FaceTime call from Alexis. Martinez could see her sitting in a bathtub, crying and hysterical. She asked him to pick her up from Amy's house because "[s]he had been assaulted, sexually assaulted." Amy then took the phone from Alexis and left the room. Amy and Martinez spoke with each other for several minutes, and Amy gave Martinez her address.

Upon hearing Alexis's accusation that she was sexually assaulted, Martinez decided to go to Amy's house to pick up Alexis. He got out of bed and dressed himself. Then he grabbed a shotgun and handgun. He claimed that the shotgun was unloaded. He put the handgun, which was loaded, in a holster in the waistband of his pants. He then drove over to Amy's house. On the way, he called Alexis's phone two more times, including once to get the code to enter the gate into Amy's neighborhood. Amy answered Alexis's phone both times and spoke to Martinez.

When Martinez arrived at Amy's house, Amy told Jonathan that Alexis's boyfriend was there to pick her up. She then went to the front door, opened it, and saw Martinez standing there "with a shotgun across his chest." Neither person said anything. Instead, Amy ran away from Martinez and hid in a vacant lot next door. Martinez entered the house in search of Alexis. From the front door, he proceeded to the back of the house towards the kitchen area. Jonathan, Michael, Chase, and Cole were on the back patio immediately outside the kitchen. As Martinez approached the kitchen area, Jonathan entered the kitchen through the back door. Jonathan testified that when he saw Martinez, Martinez was pointing the shotgun at his face. Michael also testified that he looked through the blinds from the back patio and saw Martinez pointing the shotgun at Jonathan's face. Martinez denied that he pointed the shotgun at Jonathan and testified that he instead asked Jonathan, "Where is she?"

Jonathan immediately pushed the barrel of the shotgun away from his face, and he and Martinez began fighting. They knocked over the kitchen table and fell to the ground, causing the shotgun to fly away from them. Martinez ended up face-down on the ground with Jonathan on his back. Hearing the commotion inside, Michael, Chase, and Cole ran into the kitchen to help Jonathan fight Martinez. While face down on the ground with the others on top of him, Martinez reached down and pulled the handgun out of his waistband. He testified that he tried holding the gun as far away as possible to keep the others from taking it. Martinez disputed pulling the trigger, but he had control of the gun when it fired three shots and jammed on a fourth attempted firing. Jonathan managed to grab the gun from Martinez and empty the bullets from the magazine. The fight was brief and ended after Jonathan obtained control of the gun.

Unbeknownst to Jonathan, Michael, and Martinez, Cole was standing only a few inches in front of the barrel of the gun when it fired, and one of the bullets had hit him. The bullet pierced Cole's heart, both lungs, and several ribs. Cole immediately quit fighting and left through the back door. Chase followed him. Realizing Cole had been shot, Chase called 911. But Cole collapsed and died as Chase stood over him, trying to remember Amy's address to give to the dispatcher. Amy overheard Chase's 911 call while hiding in the vacant lot next door, and she peeked over the fence and gave her address to the dispatcher.

Back inside, when the fight ended, Jonathan, Michael, and Martinez remained in the kitchen with Alexis, who had come downstairs at some point during the fight. Martinez picked up his shotgun off the floor and asked Jonathan to return his other gun to him. Jonathan refused. Alexis left Amy's house with Martinez, and they drove to a nearby gas station. They waited there for several hours before returning separately to Amy's house to meet with law enforcement officers.

Michael also called 911 and reported the shooting. He then drove Jonathan around the neighborhood looking for Amy, who they had not seen since the fight with Martinez. Jonathan still had possession of Martinez's gun, and he discarded the gun in some bushes near the front gate of the neighborhood. While driving in the neighborhood, Michael was stopped by the first officer responding to the 911 calls. The officer briefly spoke to Jonathan and Michael before they all returned to Amy's house. Back at Amy's house, Jonathan found that the front door was locked. He and Michael were standing on the front porch when they heard over the officer's radio that someone had been shot and killed at Amy's address.

A few hours after the shooting, Martinez returned to Amy's house with his father, and Alexis returned to Amy's house with her sister. Police officers separated everyone who had been at Amy's house during the shooting and interviewed them. Officers conducted gunshot residue tests on Martinez, Jonathan, Michael, and Chase. Police also recovered Martinez's handgun and shotgun.

Martinez was indicted for the first-degree felony offense of murder based on three theories: (1) he intentionally or knowingly caused Cole's death by shooting him with a firearm; (2) he intentionally caused serious bodily injury and committed an act clearly dangerous to human life by shooting Cole with a firearm causing Cole's death; and (3) he committed the felony offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by threatening Jonathan, Michael, Chase, Cole, and Amy with imminent bodily injury while using or exhibiting a deadly weapon, and while doing so, he committed or attempted to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life by discharging a firearm causing Cole's death. See Tex. Penal Code § 19.02(b)(1)- (3), (c); see also id. § 22.02(a)(2) (aggravated assault).

Numerous witnesses testified at trial, including Amy, Alexis, Jonathan, Michael, and Chase. Law enforcement officers who responded to the 911 calls and investigated the shooting also testified. Martinez testified in his defense.

Alexis testified that she believed Jonathan had sexually assaulted her during the party. Amy testified, however, that Jonathan could not have done so because he was downstairs with her and the others when Alexis alleged she was sexually assaulted. Martinez twice requested that the trial court permit him to impeach Amy's testimony by introducing evidence that Amy knew Jonathan had "inappropriately touched" two other women in the past. The trial court denied both...