1994 Riddle Appeal

Riddle v. State, 888 S.W.2d 1 (Tex.Crim.App. 1994). (Direct Appeal)

Defendant was convicted in the 47th Judicial District Court, Potter County, David L. Gleason, J., of capital murder and was sentenced to death. On automatic death penalty review, the Court of Criminal Appeals, McCormick, P.J., held that: (1) trial court did not err in denying defendant's challenges for cause to veniremembers who allegedly could not distinguish between terms intentionally and deliberately; (2) hypotheticals used to illustrate terms intentional and deliberate were not improper; (3) evidence did not warrant instruction on self-defense; and (4) punishment charge was not improper. Affirmed. Clinton, J., filed concurring opinion in which Miller and Baird, JJ., joined.

McCORMICK, Presiding Judge.
Appellant was convicted by a jury in Potter County of capital murder pursuant to V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Section 19.03(a)(2) After the jury answered the special issues in the affirmative, the trial court imposed the death penalty. Article 37.071(b), V.A.C.C.P. In an automatic, direct appeal to this Court, appellant raises sixteen points of error. We shall affirm.

At trial, appellant testified he and the victim had known each other for several years. On October 9, 1988, appellant and a friend drove to the victim's home to see if he wanted to go drinking. Appellant testified he carried a tire iron so he could pry the screen off the kitchen window to gain entry, but found a door unlocked. Appellant entered the victim's house through an unlocked door and found him "drunk, passed out" in the bedroom.

Appellant woke the victim and began to talk to him. The victim told appellant he wanted to have a homosexual relationship with him. As appellant got up to leave, the victim grabbed appellant by the arm, pulled appellant on top of him, put his lips on appellant's ear, and put one hand on appellant's butt. Appellant hit the victim "on the top" of his head with the tire iron. Appellant testified that after he struck the first blow, appellant got out of the bed and the victim "raised his hands up, grabbed his head and started moaning." Appellant testified he inflicted more blows to the victim, and the more he hit him the madder he got. The victim was struck in the head at least fifteen times. As appellant left the house, he took the victim's wallet and his car.

The forensic pathologist, who conducted the victim's autopsy, testified the victim's blood-alcohol level was .29% which showed the victim was extremely intoxicated to the degree that his motor and sensory functions were "totally out." The pathologist further testified the cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma, and the fatal blow was one which struck the victim "behind the left ear in the mastoid area and compressed the spinal cord." The pathologist also testified the first blow was not the fatal blow.