Affirmed and Memorandum Opinion filed August 25, 2015.

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals

NO. 14-14-00391-CR 

NO. 14-14-00392-CR

HOWARD MARTIN HARRIS, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 212th District Court

Galveston County, Texas

Trial Court Cause Nos. 14CR0154 &12CR1863

M E M O R A N D U M O P I N I O N

Appellant Howard Martin Harris appeals his convictions for aggravated 

sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping, challenging the trial court’s order 

denying his motion to suppress a videotaped statement used by the State at his trial. 

Appellant claims that the statement was obtained as a result of an illegal 

warrantless arrest and thus should have been suppressed. See Reed v. State, 809 
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S.W.2d 940, 944 (Tex. App.—Dallas 1991, no pet.) (stating that the use of 

evidence obtained through an illegal arrest is forbidden). We hold the trial court 

did not err in denying the motion to suppress because the warrantless arrest of 

appellant was not illegal given the officer’s belief that an assault had occurred and

genuine concern for the complainant’s safety. See McClatchy v. State, 758 S.W.2d 

328, 330 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1988, pet. ref’d). We therefore affirm 

the judgments of the trial court. 

BACKGROUND

According to testimony at the evidentiary hearing on appellant’s motion to 

suppress, the complainant went to clean appellant’s home on the night of July 11, 

2012. When the complainant arrived, appellant threw her on the bed and began 

striking her repeatedly with his belt and fists. Appellant cut off the complainant’s 

bra with a hunting knife. Appellant then pulled off the complainant’s pants and 

forced her to spread her legs. Appellant threatened her and stated that the police 

would find her in a ditch if she did not comply. Appellant then penetrated the 

complainant’s vagina with his fingers, causing her extreme pain. 

Eventually, appellant set the hunting knife down and the complainant picked 

it up. Wielding the knife, the complainant successfully escaped the house and

made her way to her truck that was parked outside. Appellant followed her outside 

and stated that if she did not give him his knife back, he would come through the 

truck window. The complainant threw down the knife and drove directly to a 

nearby police station. 

When she arrived, the complainant spoke with Deputies Hunt and 

Ostermayer of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office. The deputies observed that 

the complainant was distraught and had marks all over her body that she claimed 

were the result of appellant’s beatings. The complainant told Hunt what happened 
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to her and stated that her friend, appellant, was responsible for her injuries. Hunt 

communicated this information to his supervisor, Sergeant Brent Cooley. At this 

point, both Hunt and Cooley believed that they had probable cause to arrest 

appellant for assault.

Cooley and Corporal Keele, another officer on duty, travelled to appellant’s 

home and knocked on his door. Cooley testified that he called Corporal Keele to 

assist him in the interest of officer safety based on the complainant’s allegation that 

appellant had used a weapon in assaulting her. Appellant answered the door, and 

Cooley and Keele explained why they were there. Keele testified that he 

handcuffed appellant for investigative detention. He and Cooley then asked 

appellant if they could speak in his home because it was hot and there were 

mosquitoes outside. Appellant allowed the officers inside. 

Keele read appellant his Miranda rights.1 Cooley then asked if appellant 

would be willing to speak with them regarding the allegations made against him by 

the complainant. Appellant affirmed that he understood his rights and then gave 

oral consent to speak with the officers and written consent for the officers to search 

his home and vehicle for the hunting knife described by the complainant. The 

officers were unable to locate the hunting knife the complainant alleged appellant 

had used in the assault. 

At the conclusion of the search, Cooley called the assistant district attorney 

on duty for guidance on the case. The assistant district attorney confirmed 

Cooley’s suspicions that probable cause existed to arrest appellant for assault 

causing bodily injury. The officers then arrested appellant for assault causing 

bodily injury. The officers had not obtained an arrest warrant prior to placing 

appellant under arrest. The officers brought appellant back to the sheriff’s station,

 

1 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
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where Detective Balchunas interviewed him. The entire interview was videotaped. 

Appellant filed a pre-trial motion to suppress his statement to Detective 

Balchunas, alleging it was the fruit of an illegal arrest. At this hearing, Cooley, 

Hunt, and Keele each testified that they believed that there was a threat of future 

harm to the complainant. The trial court ruled that appellant’s warrantless arrest 

was legal and denied the motion to suppress the statement. The trial court 

articulated the following reason:

The thing that is persuasive to the court is that there was a threat.

You're going to end up in the ditch, words to the effect [sic], if you go 

to the police, or whatever. Well, she's at the police. There was a knife 

used. How she got away, whether she had a knife to use to get away 

is -- there some testimony of that, but there is physical damage on the 

victim. There is [sic] pictures of a bra that has been raggedly severed, 

and I believe that the police could and should take into consideration 

the future threat to the victim. 

The trial court later signed findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Appellant pled not guilty and went to trial on both charges. Appellant’s 

video statement was played for the jury during the trial. After the video was 

played, appellant decided to accept a plea agreement. He pled guilty to both 

aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping and pled true to a deadly 

weapon enhancement to the latter charge. The trial court accepted the plea,

admonished appellant, and sentenced him to twenty years’ imprisonment on each 

count with the sentences to run concurrently in accordance with the plea 

agreement.

Appellant filed motions for new trial in both cases, which the trial court 

denied. These appeals followed.
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ANALYSIS

In a single issue in each appeal, appellant contends the trial court abused its 

discretion when it denied his motion to suppress because his video statement was 

obtained through an illegal warrantless arrest. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 

38.23(a) (West 2015).

I. Standard of review and applicable law

We review the trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress under a bifurcated 

standard. Douds v. State, 434 S.W.3d 842, 846 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 

2014, pet. granted) (en banc). We afford almost total deference to the trial court's 

determinations of historical facts that the record supports, especially those based 

on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor. State v. Elias, 339 S.W.3d 667, 673 

(Tex. Crim. App. 2011). We afford the same amount of deference to the trial 

court’s rulings on mixed questions of law and fact when the resolution of those 

ultimate questions turns on evaluations of credibility and demeanor. Id. When 

those rulings do not turn on credibility and demeanor evaluations, we review them

de novo. Id. We will uphold the trial court’s ruling if it is correct under any 

theory of law applicable to the case. Estrada v. State, 154 S.W.3d 604, 607 (Tex.

Crim. App. 2005).

II. The trial court did not err in denying appellant’s motion to suppress.

A. A danger of further bodily injury authorizes a warrantless arrest.

[A]ll arrests and searches without valid warrants are unreasonable 

unless shown to be within one of the exceptions to the rule that an 

arrest or a search must rest upon a valid warrant. A valid exception 

must exist and the burden is on the State to show that a warrantless

arrest or search comes within some exception to the above general 

rule of exclusion.

Wilson v. State, 621 S.W.2d 799, 803-04 (Tex. Crim. App. [Panel Op.] 1981). 
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Such an exception exists in this case. In Texas, warrantless arrests are 

authorized in limited situations primarily set out in the Code of Criminal 

Procedure. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. arts. 14.01–14.03 (West 2015); Swain 

v. State, 181 S.W.3d 359, 366 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005). Article 14.03(a)(2) 

provides that a police officer may arrest a person without a warrant if the officer 

has probable cause to believe: that the person committed an assault resulting in

bodily injury, and that there is danger of further bodily injury to the victim. Tex.

Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 14.03(a)(2). 

Appellant contends that it is also settled law that a warrantless arrest violates 

the Fourth Amendment when there is no showing that seeking a warrant would 

have been impracticable. The risk of future harm to the victim, however, is itself 

an impracticable circumstance that legitimizes an otherwise-illegal warrantless 

arrest. Randolph v. State, 152 S.W.3d 764, 771–73 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2004, no 

pet.) (concluding exigent circumstances include risk of danger to victim).2

In sum, under the Fourth Amendment and Texas law, a warrantless arrest is 

not illegal when the arresting officers have probable cause to believe that an assault 

causing bodily injury occurred and that there is a danger of further bodily injury. It

is uncontested that the arresting deputies had probable cause to believe that 

appellant had committed an assault causing bodily injury. Thus, whether 

appellant’s arrest was illegal (and his resulting statement should be suppressed) 

hinges on whether the arresting officers had probable cause at the time of the arrest

to believe that there was a danger of further bodily injury to the victim. 

 

2 We do not address whether the arrest occurred in a constitutionally protected area 

because appellant has not argued, either in the trial court or this court, that the arrest was illegal 

for that reason. In any event, there is some evidence that appellant was handcuffed for officer 

safety and that appellant consented to the deputies entering his home before he was arrested.
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B. The record supports the trial court’s findings and its conclusion 

that the officers had probable cause to believe there was a danger 

of further bodily injury. 

The trial court made findings of fact that the deputies were concerned for

further violence to the complainant due to: the nature of the assault and the injuries 

she suffered; appellant’s alleged use of a weapon in the assault and to threaten the 

complainant; appellant’s relationship with the complainant and his act of following 

the complainant to her truck, which could allow him to locate the complainant in 

the future; and defendant’s departure from the apartment shortly after the 

complainant fled, which supported a reasonable inference that he was looking for 

the complainant. Based on these facts, the trial court concluded that the deputies

had probable cause to believe that there was a danger of further bodily injury to the 

complainant. 

The trial court’s factual findings are supported by the evidence from the 

hearing on appellant’s motion to suppress, which is summarized in the background 

section above. In addition, the record reflects that Cooley, Hunt, and Keele each

testified that they had strong concerns about a threat of future harm to the 

complainant. We conclude that, when viewed under the appropriate standard of 

review, the evidence from the suppression hearing supports the trial court’s 

conclusion that the deputies had probable cause to believe that there was a danger 

of further bodily injury to the complainant. See McClatchy, 758 S.W.2d at 330 

(concluding that although suspect was no longer in same location as victim, 

officers had sufficient facts on which to base belief that suspect might return to 

harm victim). We therefore hold that the trial court did not err when it denied 

appellant’s motion to suppress, and we overrule appellant’s single issue in each

appeal.
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CONCLUSION

Having overruled appellant’s issues on appeal, we affirm the trial court’s 

judgments.

/s/ J. Brett Busby

Justice

Panel consists of Chief Justice Frost and Justices Jamison and Busby.

Do Not Publish — TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).