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James Edward Owens v. State
Citation: Not availableDocket: 03-91-00035-CR
Court: Court of Appeals of Texas; December 17, 1991; Texas; State Appellate Court
Original Court Document: View Document
Edward Lewis, Jr. was convicted of robbery and sentenced to fifteen years in prison along with a $5,000 fine. He raised twenty-one points of error on appeal, challenging the trial court's decision to deny his motion to suppress, the admission of several pieces of evidence, and the lack of a jury instruction regarding a pretextual arrest. The court found that the police had identified Lewis as a robbery suspect based on a witness's note of his license plate. Although witnesses could not identify him from an older lineup photo, police traced his car and found he had taken a taxi from a repair shop. They arrested him on an outstanding misdemeanor theft warrant, searched a motel room, and seized various items. Witnesses later identified Lewis as the robber after viewing recent lineup photos from the arrest. Specifically, Lewis argued that the admission of certain exhibits was erroneous due to claims of a pretextual arrest and illegal entry. However, many of these objections were waived as they were not raised during trial. The court ruled that the admission of other exhibits was cumulative and harmless since similar evidence had already been presented. Furthermore, one exhibit was not admitted due to the trial court sustaining Lewis's objection, which meant he did not preserve the error for appeal. Ultimately, the court affirmed the trial court's decisions and overruled all of Lewis's points of error. Appellant challenges the admission of exhibits 37, 42, and 44 and the overruling of his motion to suppress, arguing they stemmed from a pretextual arrest. However, this argument is deemed meritless, as the court has determined that the pretext-arrest doctrine no longer applies under the federal constitution, affirming that an objectively reasonable arrest renders the officers' intent irrelevant. The appellant was lawfully arrested under an outstanding theft warrant, and the investigation's context does not invalidate this arrest. Furthermore, the appellant argues that the exhibits were obtained from an illegal entry due to the absence of a search warrant for the hotel room he occupied. This argument is also rejected, as established case law indicates that the appellant lacks standing to contest the search's validity without demonstrating a legitimate expectation of privacy in the area searched. Additionally, the appellant contends the jury should have been instructed on pretextual arrest, but he failed to request such an instruction during the trial. The standards for assessing trial errors indicate that without a proper objection, reversal requires egregious harm, which is not present since the arrest was lawful. Consequently, all points of error raised by the appellant are overruled, and the judgment of conviction is affirmed.