Troy Scott Burcie v. State ( 2015 )


Menu:
  •                                   COURT OF APPEALS
    EIGHTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS
    EL PASO, TEXAS
    §
    TROY SCOTT BURCIE,                                          No. 08-13-00212-CR
    §
    Appellant,                                Appeal from
    §
    v.                                                           371st District Court
    §
    THE STATE OF TEXAS,                                       of Tarrant County, Texas
    §
    Appellee.                               (TC # 1287926D)
    §
    OPINION
    This DWI case presents an issue which has percolated through the courts of appeals, and
    which now has been resolved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: can the State, consistent
    with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, take an involuntary blood sample based
    only upon the Texas implied consent statute?      TEX.TRANSP.CODE ANN. § 724.012(b)(West
    2011). Following the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recent answer to that question in State v.
    Villarreal, No. PD-0306-14, 
    2014 WL 6734178
    (Tex.Crim.App. Nov. 26, 2014, pet. granted),
    we reverse the conviction below.
    FACTUAL SUMMARY
    The underlying facts are uncontested. Appellant was indicted for felony DWI, having
    had two prior convictions. The indictment arose out of Appellant’s arrest on July 2, 2012.
    Officer Reyes of the Fort Worth Police Department initiated a traffic stop when he observed
    Appellant driving without headlights at 10:10 p.m. in the evening.1 Based on Appellant’s slurred
    speech, bloodshot eyes, and the odor of alcohol, Officer Reyes performed a field sobriety test.
    Appellant gave six of six positive clues for intoxication on the horizontal gaze nystagmus test;
    eight of eight clues on the walk and turn test; and three of seven clues on standing on one leg
    test. Appellant claimed at the time to have had “one beer with dinner.”
    The officer placed Appellant under arrest at 10:50 p.m. A pat down search turned up a
    prescription pill bottle belonging to Appellant, but which contained a non-matching medication
    identified as OxyContin. The officer transported Appellant to the City jail where a blood sample
    was requested, but refused by Appellant. A criminal history check turned up two prior DWIs.
    Based on the two prior DWIs, and Section 742 of the Transportation Code, the officer
    took Appellant to a local hospital where a blood sample was taken without his consent at 12:19
    a.m. Officer Reyes’ testimony makes clear that the Transportation Code was the single basis for
    obtaining the blood draw:
    Q. Okay. And is it your understanding that -- or tell me why you were going to
    get a blood specimen from him.
    A. Well, at that point he was -- he already had two prior convictions. He was
    arrested for DWI. So at that time we -- it’s a mandatory specimen. Even
    though he -- he did not want to provide one, we have to, by law at the time,
    get one from him, and that’s what we were doing.
    Q. Okay. And so you were following what you believed to be the law in
    requiring you to get a blood specimen?
    A. Yes, ma’am.
    Fort Worth has a procedure in place to obtain a warrant during the late night hours, but Officer
    Reyes did not utilize it because of Section 724 of the Transportation Code
    1
    This case was transferred from our sister court in Fort Worth pursuant to the Texas Supreme Court’s docket
    equalization efforts. See Tex. Gov’t Code Ann. § 73.001 (West 2013). We follow the precedents of the Fort Worth
    Court to the extent they might conflict with our own. See Tex.R.App. P. 41.3.
    2
    Appellant filed a motion to suppress the blood sample claiming that a warrantless blood
    draw violated the Fourth Amendment, particularly in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent
    decision in Missouri v. McNeely, 569 U.S. ___, 
    133 S. Ct. 1552
    , 
    185 L. Ed. 2d 696
    (2013). The
    State responded by arguing that the actual holding of McNeely was narrow and not at issue in
    this case. It further asserted that a number of exceptions to the Fourth Amendment, including an
    implied consent exception under the Transportation Code, the “special needs” exception, the
    “search incident to arrest” exception, the automobile exception, and a cumulative “non-dualistic”
    exception to the Fourth Amendment justified the officer’s actions. The trial court denied the
    motion to suppress without findings of fact or conclusions of law.
    Appellant then entered a guilty plea, reserving the ruling on the suppression motion for
    appeal. He was sentenced to two years in prison and assessed a fine. In a single issue, Appellant
    contends the trial court abused its discretion in upholding the involuntary blood draw in light of
    McNeely.    The State responds, as it did below, contending McNeely is inapplicable, and
    justifying the involuntary blood draw on several exceptions to the Fourth Amendment: implied
    consent, search incident to arrest, and the “cumulative, non-dualistic approach to exceptions and
    reasonableness.”
    ANALYSIS
    The United States Supreme Court in Schmerber v. California, 
    384 U.S. 757
    , 
    86 S. Ct. 1826
    , 
    16 L. Ed. 2d 908
    (1966) held that an involuntary blood draw could pass Fourth Amendment
    scrutiny. The court first acknowledged that taking blood from a person constituted a search and
    seizure under the Fourth Amendment.         
    Id. at 767.
      But the involuntary blood draw was
    reasonable under the exigent circumstances exception to the Fourth Amendment based on three
    facts established by the record in that case. 
    Id. at 770-71.
    First, the court acknowledged that the
    3
    percentage of alcohol in the blood begins to drop after a person stops drinking because the body
    eliminates it from the system (thus causing the destruction evidence). 
    Id. Second, there
    was
    already a delay in taking the accused to the hospital because the officer had to investigate the
    scene of the accident where the accused was found. 
    Id. Finally, the
    Court states that there was
    no time to seek out a magistrate and secure a warrant. 
    Id. Noting these
    “special facts” the court
    agreed the involuntary blood draw was appropriate. 
    Id. The court
    revisited the involuntary blood draw issue in Missouri v. McNeely where the
    State of Missouri contended that the singular fact that alcohol dissipates from the body was
    sufficient by itself to create an exigent circumstance justifying a warrantless seizure of a
    defendant’s 
    blood. 133 S. Ct. at 1560
    . A plurality of the court disagreed. It rejected a per se
    rule, instead reaffirming that whether the exigent circumstances exception is met must be judged
    on the totality of circumstances on a case by case basis. 
    Id. at 1561.
    The court also explicitly
    stated that a warrantless blood draw must fall under one of the recognized exceptions to the
    Fourth Amendment. 
    Id. at 1558.
    The Texas courts of appeals grappled with whether Missouri v. McNeely invalidated non-
    consensual blood draws taken under the Texas Transportation Code. The Code mandates blood
    draws when an officer arrests a person for DWI and the person is either involved in an accident
    involving serious injury or death, or that person has two or more prior convictions for DWI.
    TEX.TRANSP.CODE ANN. § 724.012(b).2 The courts of appeals have uniformly rejected the
    2
    Germane to this case, Section 724.012(b) provides:
    (b) A peace officer shall require the taking of a specimen of the person’s breath or blood under any of the following
    circumstances if the officer arrests the person for an offense under Chapter 49, Penal Code, involving the operation
    of a motor vehicle...and the person refuses the officer’s request to submit to the taking of a specimen voluntarily:
    .      .       .
    (3) at the time of the arrest, the officer possesses or receives reliable information from a credible source that the
    person:
    .      .       .
    4
    State’s various arguments attempting to distinguish McNeely or apply other exceptions to work
    around it. See Aviles v. State, 
    443 S.W.3d 291
    (Tex.App.--San Antonio, 2014, pet. filed);
    Sutherland v. State, 
    436 S.W.3d 28
    (Tex.App.--Amarillo 2014, pet. filed); Douds v. State, 
    434 S.W.3d 842
    (Tex.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 2014, pet. granted); Weems v. State, 
    434 S.W.3d 655
    (Tex.App.--San Antonio 2014, pet. granted); Holidy v. State, No. 06-13-00261-CR, 
    2014 WL 1722171
    (Tex.App.--Texarkana Apr. 30, 2014, pet. granted)(mem. op., not designated for
    publication).3
    Any remaining doubt about these issues was resolved by the Texas Court of Criminal
    Appeals decision in State v. Villarreal, No. PD-0306-14, 
    2014 WL 6734178
    (Tex.Crim.App.
    Nov. 26, 2014, pet. granted). In Villarreal, an officer initiated a traffic stop and in questioning
    the driver, found him to have slurred speech, red, watery eyes, and the strong smell of alcohol.
    
    Id. at *1.
    The driver refused to take the standard field sobriety tests. 
    Id. When a
    background
    check showed the driver had several prior DWI convictions, the arresting officer took the driver
    to a hospital for a blood draw, despite the driver’s non-consent. 
    Id. at *2.
    The officer viewed the
    Transportation Code as mandating the blood draw, and while he “could have” obtained a
    warrant, he believed that the statute made a warrant unnecessary. 
    Id. We view
    these facts as
    indistinguishable from Appellant’s situation.
    The trial court in Villarreal held the blood draw improper. 
    Id. at *3.
    The court of
    appeals affirmed and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals squarely confronted the State’s
    implied consent argument under the Transportation Code. 
    Id. at *6.
    It also addressed the State’s
    (B) on two or more occasions, has been previously convicted of or placed on community supervision for an offense
    under Section 49.04 [misdemeanor DWI] . . . .
    3
    We note that the trial court here heard the motion to suppress on May 31, 2013 which was little more than a month
    after McNeely was handed down, and the trial court did not have the benefit of any of the recent cases construing
    McNeely and the Transportation Code.
    5
    alternative arguments that the automobile, search incident to arrest, and special needs exceptions
    to the Fourth Amendment applied. 
    Id. at *14-15.
    Lastly the court addressed the State’s claim
    that a general Fourth Amendment balancing test could justify the involuntary blood draw. 
    Id. at *16.
    The Court rejected each of the State’s proffered basis for the blood draw, concluding:
    We hold that the provisions in the Transportation Code do not, taken by
    themselves, form a constitutionally valid alternative to the Fourth Amendment
    warrant requirement. We thus reject the State’s assertion that a warrantless,
    nonconsensual blood draw conducted pursuant to those provisions can fall under
    one of the established exceptions to the warrant requirement described above, and
    we further reject the State’s suggestion that such a search may be upheld under a
    general Fourth Amendment balancing test.
    
    Id. at *20.
    The only distinguishing feature between Villarreal and this case is that in Villarreal the
    trial court granted the motion to suppress and here the trial court denied it. Under the applicable
    standard of review, we do afford almost total deference to the trial court’s determination of the
    historical facts that the record supports. Guzman v. State, 
    955 S.W.2d 85
    , 89 (Tex.Crim.App.
    1997). When the trial court is not asked to make findings of fact and conclusions of law, we
    view the evidence in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling and assume that the trial
    court made implicit findings of fact that support its ruling as long as those findings are supported
    by the record. Carmouche v. State, 
    10 S.W.3d 323
    , 328 (Tex.Crim.App. 2000). We also afford
    the same amount of deference to a trial courts’ rulings on the application of the law to the facts--
    so called mixed questions of law and fact--if resolution of those questions turns on an evaluation
    of credibility and demeanor. 
    Guzman, 955 S.W.2d at 89
    . But we review de novo “mixed
    questions of law and fact” not falling within this category. 
    Id. In Villarreal,
    for instance, the
    Court of Criminal Appeals noted that it reviewed the trial court’s ruling de novo because the
    underlying facts were not disputed. 
    2014 WL 6734178
    at *10.
    In this case, there are also no disputed facts, at least none that would implicate any of the
    6
    Fourth Amendment exceptions raised by the State.                   Each of the exceptions to the Fourth
    Amendment that the State urges in this case were expressly rejected by the Texas Court of
    Criminal Appeals in Villarreal.4 Only the exigent circumstances exception was not at issue in
    Villarreal, 
    2014 WL 6734178
    *9. But none of the facts in this record supports the kind of
    exigent circumstances that the U.S. Supreme Court found sufficient in Schrimer. Appellant was
    detained in a traffic stop and not an accident as in Schrimer. He was transported to a hospital
    less than two hours later for the blood draw. There was no indication that a magistrate judge was
    not available to issue a warrant had Officer Reyes pursued one.
    We also note that following Villarreal, the Fort Worth Court of Appeals decided Burks v.
    State, 
    454 S.W.3d 705
    (Tex.App.--Fort Worth 2015, pet. filed) which overturned a trial court’s
    denial of a motion to suppress. The defendant in that case, as here, was pulled over for a traffic
    violation, found to have overt signs of intoxication, and was taken for an involuntary blood draw
    because he had two or more prior convictions for DWI. 
    Id. at 707.
    The officer believed the
    implied consent provisions of the Transportation Code permitted the blood draw. 
    Id. Based on
    Villarreal, the Fort Worth Court reversed the trial court order denying the motion to suppress
    and the conviction. 
    Id. at 708.
    Burks is particularly instructive to us because in this transferred
    case, we are bound to follow the precedents of the transferring court of appeals.                             See
    TEX.R.APP.P. 41.3.
    We accordingly sustain Appellant’s single issue and we reverse the trial court’s order
    denying Appellant’s motion to suppress and the trial court’s judgment of conviction, and remand
    the case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
    4
    One exception urged here, the “cumulative, non-dualistic approach to exceptions and reasonableness” appears to
    us to be the same “general Forth Amendment balancing test” rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeals in
    Villarreal. To the extent it is meant to be something different, the State’s one page presentation of that argument
    here cites no cases establishing it as distinct exception under the Fourth Amendment. All of the other exceptions
    advanced by the State are identically worded to those expressly rejected in Villarreal.
    7
    May 14, 2015
    ANN CRAWFORD McCLURE, Chief Justice
    Before McClure, C.J., Rodriguez, and Hughes, JJ.
    (Do Not Publish)
    8
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 08-13-00212-CR

Filed Date: 5/14/2015

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 10/16/2015