Court Opinion

ID: 9596663
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:52:00.724932+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:33.011605
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Justice McCORMICK (Retired).
The majority concludes that the evidence in this case is sufficient to support the conviction. Because I do not believe the evidence to be legally sufficient, I file this dissenting opinion.
Appellant, Marcos Zavala, was convicted of driving while intoxicated in a trial before the court. Following a finding of guilty, the trial court assessed punishment at 180 days in jail probated for one year, a $800.00 fine, and 24 hours of community service. In two points of error, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction. More particularly, he complains that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant was intoxicated at the time he operated a motor vehicle in that the evidence failed to establish any specific hour of the day appellant operated the vehicle.
Appellant entered a plea of not guilty to an information alleging that while intoxicated by not having the normal use of his mental and physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol into his body, he operated a motor vehicle in a public place. The State first called Pedro Perales as a witness. He testified that the appellant was married to his cousin and that sometime in late September or early October prior to an accident in November, he transferred possession of a black Mustang to the appellant.
Officer Kristin Gibbs of the Houston Police Department testified that at 3:40 a.m. on November 29, 1998, she was dispatched to an accident scene on the Southwest Freeway, and that she arrived on the scene at 3:48 a.m. She first encountered an off duty police officer who directed her to appellant who was standing 15 to 20 feet away. She testified that appellant admitted driving a black Mustang that was parked on the side of the road with its right front quarter panel torn off and all four tires flat. Appellant told Officer Gibbs that he was attempting to enter the freeway when he was run off the road and struck a traffic control device that controlled entry to the freeway from the entrance ramp.
Officer Gibbs further testified that the black Mustang was about one-tenth of a mile from where the impact with the traffic control device occurred, and that the front panel of the vehicle was still connected to the vehicle by a cable and that the panel had been drug along the ground from the point of impact. She also testified that she smelled alcohol on appellant who admitted to having had one drink at around 11:00 p.m. the night before. She performed an H.G.N.2 test on the appellant and concluded he was intoxicated and placed him under arrest at 3:55 a.m. She then transported appellant to the intoxication center where appellant refused a breath test, was administered another H.G.N. test, and was videotaped.
Officer Gibbs further testified that she saw no one else at the scene, she didn’t know what time the accident took place, she didn’t know if the keys were in the Mustang, no one told her they saw appellant drive the vehicle, and she saw no alcoholic beverage containers at or around *142the scene. Assuming, arguendo, that appellant was intoxicated at 3:55 a.m., and later at 5:00 a.m. at the intoxication center, is the evidence sufficient to show that appellant operated the black Mustang while intoxicated? •
As an appellate court called upon to review the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we must examine all of the evidence in the record in order to determine if any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.3 This standard is applied to both direct and circumstantial evidence cases.4 If there is evidence that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and the trier of fact believes that evidence, the appellate court does not reverse the judgment on sufficiency of the evidence grounds.5 Any inconsistencies in the evidence are resolved in favor of the judgment.6 This Court must not sit as a thirteenth juror and disregard or reweigh the evidence.7
At the outset, we are confronted with the evidentiary effect of appellant’s extrajudicial statement to Officer Gibbs that he was driving the black Mustang. The rule is that proof of the corpus delicti may not be made by an extrajudicial confession alone, but proof of the corpus delicti need not be made independent of the extrajudicial confession. If there is some evidence corroborating the confession, the confession may be used to aid in the establishment of the corpus delicti,8
The corpus delicti of driving while intoxicated is that someone drove or operated a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated.9 In Folk v. State,10 a case very similar to the one before us, the defendant argued that the corpus delicti was not proved because there was no evidence other than his extrajudicial statement tending to prove that he was driving the car. The court correctly noted:
This argument confuses the evidence necessary to prove the guilt of a defendant with that necessary to prove the corpus delicti. Provided there is other evidence that a crime was committed, the identity of the defendant as the perpetrator may rest alone with his confession. Thomas v. State, 458 S.W.2d 817 (1970). In support of his argument, appellant cites Coleman v. State, 704 S.W.2d 511 (1986, pet ref'd), and Hanson v. State, 781 S.W.2d 445 (1989, pet.granted). To the extent that these opinions suggest that the defendant’s identity as the perpetrator is part of the *143corpus delicti and must be supported by evidence other than an extrajudicial confession, we decline to follow them.
Following Folk, supra, the evidence is sufficient to show that appellant was driving the black Mustang. But this is not the end of our inquiry, even though the evidence is sufficient to show appellant was intoxicated at the time of his arrest. The question remains whether appellant drove while he was intoxicated. We answered this question in Sinast v. State:11
In the instant case there was no evidence that the engine of the vehicle was still hot, see Johnson v. State, 517 S.W.2d 536 (Tex.Crim.App.1975), or that the car was still smoking, see Green v. State, 640 S.W.2d 645 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist] 1982, no pet.). Absent any evidence in the record fixing the time of the accident, the evidence is insufficient to show that appellant drove at the time he was intoxicated.12
As in Sinast, there is no evidence in the record before us to show when the appellant drove the black Mustang. Contrary to the assertions made by the majority, the appellant at no time stated he had drunk alcohol prior to the accident.
There being absolutely no evidence of the time of the offense, the evidence is legally insufficient to show that appellant drove at the time he was intoxicated. The judgment of the trial court should be reversed, and this cause remanded to the trial court with instructions that a judgment of acquittal be entered.
Because the majority fails to do so, I respectfully dissent.

. Horizontal gaze nystagmus.

. Criner v. State, 860 S.W.2d 84 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), and Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

. Chambers v. State, 805 S.W.2d 459 (Tex.Crim.App.1991).

. Moreno v. State, 755 S.W.2d 866 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).

. Matson v. State, 819 S.W.2d 839 (Tex.Crim.App.1991).

. Moreno, supra, at 867.

. Selfv. State, 513 S.W.2d 832 (Tex.Crim.App.1974). The Court in Self seemed to question the continued viability of the rule: "A traditional distrust for the reliability of extrajudicial confessions has caused most jurisdictions to require their corroboration. This earlier distrust may now be dissipating because of the greater reliability that may be attributed to confessions as a result of the application of recent decisions such as Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964).” Self v. State, 513 S.W.2d 832, 836-37 (Tex.Crim.App.1974).

. Threet v. State, 157 Tex.Crim. 497, 250 S.W.2d 200 (1952).

. 797 S.W.2d 141 (Tex.App.-Austin 1990, pet. ref'd).

. 688 S.W.2d 631 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 1985).

. Id. at 632.