Court Opinion

ID: 9779452
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:51:08.396482+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:25.821680
License: Public Domain

McCormick, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. The majority disagrees with the Court of Appeals’ analysis on whether appel*21lant was entitled to a jury instruction on false imprisonment. See Schweinle v. State, 893 S.W.2d 708, 714-15 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1995). The issue in this case is whether there is some evidence in the record that would permit a jury rationally to find that appellant is guilty only of false imprisonment; or, in other words, whether there is some evidence in the record that would permit a jury rationally to find that appellant is guilty only of intentionally or knowingly restraining the victim, without her consent, so as to interfere substantially with her liberty, by moving her from one place to another or by confining her. See Rousseau v. State, 855 S.W.2d 666, 673 (Tex.Cr.App.1994); V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 20.02; V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 20.01(1).
In support of its kidnapping theories, the State presented the victim’s testimony from which the jury reasonably could have inferred that appellant’s act of restraining the victim was accompanied by a specific intent to prevent the victim’s liberation either by secreting the victim in a place where she was not likely to be found or by using or threatening to use deadly force. See, e.g., Mason v. State, 905 S.W.2d 570, 579 (Tex.Cr.App. 1995) (Clinton, J., dissenting) (to prove kidnapping, evidence need not show an actual secreting or use or threat of deadly force). The victim’s testimony raised no fact issues on whether appellant was guilty only of false imprisonment. See, e.g., Ramos v. State, 865 S.W.2d 463, 465 (Tex.Cr.App.1993).
The victim’s testimony establishes appellant’s guilt only of kidnapping because it shows appellant’s specific intent to prevent her liberation either by secreting her in a place where she was not likely to be found or by using or threatening to use deadly force. The victim’s testimony neither “refutes or negates other evidence establishing the greater offense” nor is it subject to “different interpretations” with regard to “every theory of kidnapping.” See Saunders v. State, 840 S.W.2d 390, 391 (Tex.Cr.App.1992); Schweinle, 893 S.W.2d at 715.
In addition, appellant testified and claimed he committed no offense. He testified the victim willingly went with him and he never threatened her with the gun. Appellant did not testify that he “intentionally or knowingly restrained the victim, without her consent, so as to interfere substantially with her liberty, by moving her from one place to another or by confining her.” See Sections 20.02 & 20.01(1). Appellant’s testimony raised no fact issues on whether he was guilty only of false imprisonment. See Ramos, 865 S.W.2d at 465.
The majority apparently finds the victim’s and appellant’s testimony either “refutes or negates other evidence establishing the greater offense” or is subject to “different interpretations.” The majority reasons that a rational jury could believe from the victim’s and appellant’s testimony “that the street where appellant stopped his truck” and appellant’s “house” were not places “where the complainant was not likely to be found” thereby negating appellant’s specific intent to prevent the victim’s liberation by secreting her in a place where she was not likely to be found. Assuming this is true, this evidence does not “refute or negate” appellant’s specific intent to prevent the victim’s liberation by using or threatening to use deadly force. See Schweinle, 893 S.W.2d at 715 (requiring evidence refuting “every theory of kidnapping”).
However, the majority decides “a rational jury could have believed the complainant’s testimony that she did not go freely with appellant without believing that Appellant threatened her with the gun.” However, the victim’s testimony was clear and positive that appellant threatened her with the gun. See Schweinle, 893 S.W.2d at 708 (victim testified appellant threatened her with the gun). The victim’s testimony that appellant threatened her with the gun does not “refute or negate” appellant’s specific intent to prevent her liberation by threatening to use deadly force nor is it subject to “different interpretations.”
Under the majority’s analysis, appellant would have been entitled to a jury instruction on false imprisonment even had he not testified and denied threatening the victim with the gun. However, simply because the jury could disbelieve part of the victim’s testimony is not the same as “evidence which refutes or negates other evidence establishing the *22greater offense” or evidence that is subject to “different interpretations.” See Saunders, 840 S.W.2d at 391; see also Bignall v. State, 887 S.W.2d 21, 24 (Tex.Cr.App.1994) (a defendant is entitled to an instruction on a lesser included offense if evidence from any source “affirmatively raises the issue”) (emphasis supplied). And, I do not believe this would be a close case had appellant not testified and denied threatening the victim with the gun.
This brings us to the crux of the rationale of the majority’s holding. Does appellant’s testimony denying threatening the victim with the gun entitle appellant to a jury instruction on false imprisonment? The majority relies on this testimony to conclude that a rational jury could decide appellant lacked the specific intent to prevent the complainant’s liberation by threatening to use deadly force. However, the majority merely plucks this statement out of appellant’s testimony and examines it in a vacuum without considering it in fight of the State’s or appellant’s factual theories of the case. See Ramos, 865 S.W.2d at 465.
This Court has rejected this type of approach in determining whether a defendant is entitled to a jury instruction on a lesser included offense. See id.; Godsey v. State, 719 S.W.2d 578, 584 (Tex.Cr.App.1986) (a statement made by a defendant “cannot be plucked out of the record and examined in a vacuum” in a lesser included offense analysis); see also Bignall, 887 S.W.2d at 25 (McCormick, P.J., dissenting). Viewed in the context of the entire record and appellant’s factual theory at trial that he was guilty of no offense, I would hold appellant’s statement that he did not threaten the victim with the gun failed to raise a fact issue on whether he was guilty only of false imprisonment. See Ramos, 865 S.W.2d at 465. On this record, appellant was guilty of either aggravated kidnapping or no offense at all, and no jury rationally could have concluded appellant was guilty only of false imprisonment.
Because the majority’s holding that appellant was entitled to a jury instruction on false imprisonment depends solely upon plucking a statement out of appellant’s testimony and examining it in a vacuum, I dissent. See Ramos, 865 S.W.2d at 465; Godsey, 719 S.W.2d at 584.
MANSFIELD, J., joins this dissent