Court Opinion

ID: 9406671
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-03 04:09:59.372928+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:32.505407
License: Public Domain

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
                 OF TEXAS

                           NO. PD-0289-20

               CHARLES ROBERT RANSIER, Appellant

                                   v.

                         THE STATE OF TEXAS

        ON STATE'S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW
            FROM THE FOURTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS
                        COMAL COUNTY

     NEWELL, J., filed a dissenting opinion.

     I disagree with the Court’s conclusion that the trial court properly

denied Appellant’s request for a jury instruction on the offense of

attempted tampering with evidence.        The Court fails to view the

evidence in the light most favorable to the requested instruction.     It

focuses on evidence that establishes the greater offense of tampering
                                                             Ransier Dissenting — 2

without considering the affirmative evidence negating the greater

offense.      Applying the proper standard establishes that there was at

least some evidence from which a jury could have held a reasonable

doubt about the greater offense and found Appellant guilty of only the

offense of attempted tampering.

          When reviewing whether an appellant is entitled to an instruction

on a lesser included offense, we view the facts in the light most

favorable to the requested instruction. 1           0F   In Chavez v. State, we

considered all the evidence admitted and explained why the specific

evidence the defendant pointed to did not affirmatively rebut or negate

the evidence presented that the defendant had the intent to kill when

the victims were killed. 2 As we explained, the evidence of statements
                             1F

from a co-defendant regarding his belief had nothing to do with the

defendant’s state of mind when the murders were committed. 3                   2F

          But in this case, there was some evidence that Appellant

attempted but failed to conceal the syringe that was later found to

1
  Wade v. State, 663 S.W.3d 175, 183 (Tex. Crim. App. 2022); See also Bufkin v. State,
207 S.W.3d 779, 782 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (noting that courts reviewing the denial of a
requested instruction view the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant’s
requested instruction).

2
  Chavez v. State, 666 S.W.3d 772, 777 (Tex. Crim. App. 2023) (“None of the evidence
cited by Appellant, much of which was also cited by the court of appeals, rebuts or negates
the evidence that Appellant had the intent to kill when the victims were killed.”).

3
    Id.
                                                               Ransier Dissenting — 3

contain liquid methamphetamine. 4 In a recorded statement, Appellant
                                             3F

admitted to trying to break or conceal the syringe in question. The

DPS trooper who ultimately seized the syringe testified that from the

point he saw Appellant with the syringe in his hand until he got

Appellant to the ground, he knew where the syringe was the whole

time. 5 This provided more than a scintilla of evidence that Appellant
         4F

tried but failed to conceal the syringe. 6         5F

              That said, this is another case that highlights the difficulty with

applying the valid-rational-alternative/guilty-only test.                        As I have

argued before, this is a court-made rule that we do not apply to the

State. 7 We should get rid of it altogether.
              6F

              With these thoughts, I respectfully dissent.

Filed: June 28, 2023

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4
    Ransier v. State, 594 S.W.3d 1, 5 (Tex. App. – Houston [14th Dist.] 2019).

5
    Id. at 10.

6
  See Stahmann v. State, 602 S.W.3d 573, 580 (Tex. Crim. App. 2020) (holding that
evidence was insufficient to establish concealment when witnesses never lost sight of pill
bottle thrown over a fence by the defendant).

7
    Chavez, 666 S.W.3d at 781-82 (Newell, J., concurring).