Court Opinion

ID: 9733124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:54:09.07191+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:38.662682
License: Public Domain

*271EVELYN V. KEYES, Justice,
concurring.
I join the opinion of the panel with the exception of the majority’s determination that evidence that appellant made a threatening telephone call from Dallas to Houston to attempt to extort money from the Praker family and that appellant was arrested while returning from attempting to steal a third car was not evidence of flight and was therefore inadmissible. I believe this evidence is plainly admissible to show the context and circumstances of appellant’s flight and thus to support the inference that appellant was conscious of his guilt of the crime with which he was charged and that he, therefore, engaged in a series of blended and interwoven acts— including these acts — to flee and to continue to flee. See Burks v. State, 876 S.W.2d 877, 903-04 (Tex.Crim.App.1994). I fear that labeling this evidence inadmissible while holding that integrally related evidence of the same type is admissible sends a mixed signal to litigants and courts and will lead to confusion. I do agree that, if it had been error to admit this evidence, the error would have been harmless.