COURT OF APPEALS

	SECOND DISTRICT OF TEXAS

	FORT WORTH

	NO. 2-02-301-CR

RODERICK SHERROD JOHNSON	APPELLANT

	V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS	STATE

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	FROM THE 371ST DISTRICT COURT OF TARRANT COUNTY

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	MEMORANDUM OPINION1

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	Appellant Roderick Sherrod Johnson appeals from his conviction for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.  Appellant pled not guilty.  The jury found him guilty, and the trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment.  Appellant’s sole point on appeal is that the evidence was factually insufficient to support his conviction.

	On April 28, 2000, Mouhammad Moosa was working at a convenience store in Arlington.  [RR3 28, 33]  Approximately fifteen minutes before the 10:00 p.m. closing time, a person entered the store, grabbed him, and put a knife to his neck.  [RR3 49]  No other customers were in the store at that time.  [RR3 53]  After forcing Moosa to open the cash register, the assailant took the money out of it, stabbed Moosa, cutting his throat, head, and stomach, and left the store.  [RR3 63-65; 67]  When police arrived, Moosa was covered in blood and was in shock, but he was still alive.  [RRIV 32]

	After a detective found Appellant’s fingerprints on the counter, he created a photographic lineup that included Appellant’s photo.  [RR4 67-72]  On May 1, 2000, Moosa identified Appellant from the lineup in a solid, certain manner.  [RR4 73-75]  Moosa also identified Appellant at trial as the assailant.  [RR3 84-85]

	Other evidence was presented at trial.  Moosa testified that Appellant had been in the store on other occasions, and he recognized Appellant as a past customer.  [RR3 46-48]  Crime scene technicians determined that the location and position of Appellant’s fingerprints indicated that he had most likely made the prints while standing behind the counter in the clerk’s area.  [RR4 109-19; 173-98]  Moosa testified that, except for during the robbery, he had never allowed Appellant behind the counter in the clerk’s area.  [RR3 95-96]

	Appellant lived almost directly behind the store.  [RR3 46-48]  Appellant’s aunt, Audrey Malone, testified that he had been wearing two plain, white t-shirts that night when she sent him to the store just before 10:00 p.m. to get change for a $20twenty-dollar bill.  [RR5 41]   Malone said that when Appellant returned six or seven minutes later, he said the store was already closed, he was still wearing the t- shirts, and he did not appear to have been involved in any type of struggle.  [RR5 42-44]  

	Several days after the incident, one of Appellant’s neighbors discovered a broken knife and a bloody, plain white t-shirt in a dumpster located a short distance from the store.  [RR4 208-211] Police determined that the blood on the knife and t- shirt was Moosa’s.  [RR4 228-236]  Although recovering DNA from sweat or skin cells inside the shirt is a possible method for determining  who had worn the shirt, no other DNA was found on it.  [RR4 236-37]  The record does not reflect if any DNA besides Moosa’s was found on the knoife.  A fence was located near the dumpster, and the fence had a hole in it that ran between Appellant’s home and the store.  [RR4 236-37]  Residents of the neighborhood used the hole as a shortcut to the store.  [RR4 212-14; RR5 48]

	Several defense witnesses testified that Appellant traveled to Mississippi on April 29, 2000 to attend his grandmother’s funeral.  [RR5 40, RR5 12; RR4 75]  Appellant returned on May 2, 2000.  [RR5 33]  Appellant’s girlfriend, who was with him when he was arrested on May 2, testified that he was  shocked at being arrested.  [RR5 33]  

	In reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, we are to view all the evidence in a neutral light, favoring neither party.  Johnson v. State, 23 S.W.3d 1, 7 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000); Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 129 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996).  In our review, we consider the most important evidence that the aAappellant claims undermines the jury’s verdict.  Sims v. State, No.  1328.--1____________, slip op. at 1-2, 2003 WL 1060179, at *1 (Tex. Crim. App. Mar. 12, 2003).  Here, Appellant indicates that the most important evidence as to factual insufficiency includes witnesses’ testimony that he went out of town to a funeral the day after the attack and returned shortly thereafter, arguing that “[a] person guilty of the offenses charged in this case would not have returned so soon to the scene of the crime”; Malone’s testimony regarding his apparel and physical appearance; the poor physical and cognitive state Moosa was in when police arrived; the fact that many fingerprints were found, and only one set was Appellant’s, coupled with the fact that he was a regular customer in the store; and Appellant’s shock at being arrested.  	

	Evidence is factually insufficient if it is so weak as to be clearly wrong and manifestly unjust or the adverse finding is against the great weight and preponderance of the available evidence.  Johnson, 23 S.W.3d at 11.  Therefore, we must determine whether a neutral review of all the evidence, both for and against the finding, demonstrates that the proof of guilt is so obviously weak as to undermine confidence in the verdict or the proof of guilt, although adequate if taken alone, is greatly outweighed by contrary proof.  Id.  In performing this review, we are to give due deference to the fact finders’’s determinations.  Id. at 8-9; Clewis, 922 S.W.2d at 136.  Consequently, we may find the evidence factually insufficient only where necessary to prevent manifest injustice.  Johnson, 23 S.W.3d at 9, 12; Cain v. State, 958 S.W.2d 404, 407 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997).

	In the case before us, we have made a complete and detailed examination of all the relevant evidence and have determined the evidence is sufficient and that manifest injustice has not occurred.  We therefore defer to the fact finder’s’ decision.  See Johnson, 23 S.W.3d at 09, 12.

	We overrule Appellant’s point and affirm the trial court’s judgment.

									DIXON W. HOLMAN

									JUSTICE

PANEL B:	HOLMAN, GARDNER, and WALKER, JJ.

DO NOT PUBLISH

Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b)

[dddDDELIVERED:  Month  April 3, 2, day, 2003