Court Opinion

ID: 9771269
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:38:17.664133+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:27.923818
License: Public Domain

*310KAPLAN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I refuse to follow the majority’s strained analysis and myopic review of the record in order to reach the desired result that appellant suffered no harm in this case.
John Howard Abdnor shot and killed Janice Ballew. The only issue at trial involved appellant's sanity at the time the offense was committed. The majority concedes that this issue was heavily disputed. The trial court erred in failing to give a limiting instruction on the use of extraneous offense evidence. We must therefore determine whether this error harmed appellant in light of his insanity defense. I conclude that appellant suffered some harm.
RELEVANT TESTIMONY
Lowell Bryan Parsons testified for the State. He told the jury about a telephone conversation with appellant two days before Janice Ballew was murdered. Parsons said that appellant was “mad as hell” that he and Ballew had broken up. He quoted appellant as saying, “[t]hat b_ really screwed up this time ... if she walked through that door right now, I’d blow her head off. I’d just blow her right up against the wall.”
On cross-examination, appellant’s counsel impeached Parsons with a prior inconsistent statement made just days before trial. Parsons admitted that he told the prosecutor that he had lied about the telephone conversation with appellant.
The State attempted to rehabilitate Parsons on re-direct. Parsons testified that he recanted his previous statement about the telephone conversation because he was afraid of appellant. Specifically, Parsons said that “[appellant] had previously pulled a knife on me.” He also stated that Mike Durand told him that “[appellant] had called and said he was going to take a .45 and bring it over to blow my head off.”
The prosecutor called the jury’s attention to this extraneous offense testimony during closing argument. He also argued that “[Parsons] told you that the defendant knew the difference between right and wrong, and could conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, if he wanted to. He just wouldn’t.”
HARM ANALYSIS
1.Preservation of Error
Appellant objected to Parsons’ testimony. He also requested a limiting instruction on the use of this extraneous offense evidence. Specifically, appellant asked the trial court to instruct the jury “that the testimony is admitted only for the purposes of how it affects the credibility of the witness, and it’s not to be considered for any purpose whatsoever as to whether or not the defendant is guilty of the offense charged.” The trial court refused to give a limiting instruction at trial or in the jury charge. Appellant timely objected to the charge.
2.Applicable Law
We must reverse the trial court’s judgment if the error in the charge was calculated to injure the rights of appellant. Tex. Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 36.19 (Vernon 1981); Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157, 171 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). We examine the entire record to determine whether appellant suffered some harm as a result of this error. Arline v. State, 721 S.W.2d 348, 352 (Tex.Crim.App.1986). The actual degree of harm must be assessed in light of (1) the entire jury charge; (2) the state of the evidence, including the contested issues and weight of probative evidence; (3) the argument of counsel; and (4) any other information revealed by the record as a whole. Almanza, 686 S.W.2d at 171. If an appellant properly preserves error in a jury charge, any harm requires reversal. Gibson v. State, 726 S.W.2d 129, 133 (Tex.Crim.App.1987) (emphasis in original).
3.Application of Law to the Facts
I cannot conclude that the trial court's failure to give a limiting instruction in this case was harmless error. First, there is a greater prejudicial effect from the admission of criminal extraneous conduct than noncriminal conduct. Plante v. State, 692 S.W.2d 487, 490 n. 3 (Tex.Crim.App.1985). Parsons’ testimony that appellant threatened him with a knife and gun on two *311previous occasions constituted criminal extraneous conduct. See Abdnor v. State, 808 S.W.2d 476, 479 (Tex.Crim.App.1991) (Baird, J., concurring and dissenting).
Second, appellant raised the affirmative defense of insanity. This issue was hotly contested at trial. Parsons’ testimony about appellant’s prior threats and violent behavior was necessary to explain the reasons he recanted the statement given to the prosecutor. However, the jury could also infer that because appellant did not actually harm Parsons, he knew the difference between right and wrong. See Abdnor, 808 S.W.2d at 479. The prosecutor mentioned the extraneous offense involving the knife during closing argument, but did not limit the argument to Parsons’ credibility. Instead, the prosecutor reminded the jury of Parsons’ earlier testimony that appellant could conform his behavior to the requirements of the law if he wanted to.
The majority’s quantitative analysis of the record is misplaced. It matters little that Parsons’ testimony concerning the extraneous offenses takes up a relatively small part of the record. The evidence came from a witness whose testimony was pivotal to the State’s claim that appellant was not insane. While other witnesses may have been able to testify about appellant’s cognitive abilities, Parsons was the only witness who testified at any length about appellant’s state of mind at the time of the offense. The jury would likely place more emphasis on Parsons’ testimony than similar evidence from other sources.
The killing was both senseless and brutal. The evidence is clear that appellant committed the offense. However, the trial court’s refusal to include a limiting instruction in the charge enabled the jury to determine that appellant was sane at the time of the shooting because he had previously threatened but not harmed Parsons. I would hold that appellant suffered some harm. Abdnor, 808 S.W.2d at 479.
I would reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the ease for a new trial.