Court Opinion

ID: 9769192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:37:41.957659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:57.452206
License: Public Domain

SEERDEN, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion. I do not believe it is necessary, however, to determine as the majority does that the evidence is insuffi-*216dent to raise an issue concerning Beatrice [Beatriz] Garcia’s status as an accomplice witness.
As the majority notes, the trial court defined the term “accomplice” and instructed the jury on the law of accomplice corroboration. The majority does not note, however, that the court further instructed the jury that if it believed that Beatrice Garcia was an accomplice, then her testimony could not be used to convict appellant unless it first found independent evidence which tended to connect appellant with the commission of the offense.
In his first two points, appellant argues that Garcia was an accomplice as a matter of law and that the jury should have been so instructed. Appellant, however, did not object to the charge at trial but now claims that the trial court committed reversible error in failing to so instruct. Thus, to resolve appellant’s points, we need not decide that there is no evidence to raise an issue, but only whether the trial court committed fundamental error in not charging the jury that Garza was an accomplice as a matter of law. See Solis v. State, 792 S.W.2d 95 (Tex.Crim.App.1990); Burns v. State, 703 S.W.2d 649 (Tex.Crim.App.1985).
Given the evidence, as set out in the majority opinion, and the fact that the jury was instructed on the law of accomplice corroboration, I would simply find that appellant did not suffer egregious harm as a result of the trial court’s failure to instruct as appellant now argues. When the majority decides that the evidence does not even raise a fact issue, it decides an issue not presented and an issue beyond what we are required to address. I agree that appellant’s first two points should be overruled.
Accordingly, I concur in the court’s judgment.