Second Court of Appeals | Case Summaries

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued – Week of March 10, 2008

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Maxwell v. State, No. 2-05-248-CR (Mar. 13, 2008) (Livingston, J., joined by Walker and McCoy, JJ.).: Held: Trial court properly denied motion to suppress arrest on suspicion of DWI. Officer had probable cause under totality of circumstances test when evidence showed that it was 2:00 a.m. and Appellant admitted he was coming from a place that sold alcohol, Appellant admitted he had drunk some alcohol, Appellant was speeding after having used alcohol, Appellant passed officer while speeding, Appellant weaved in his own lane and failed to use turn signal when changing lanes, and Appellant refused to take field sobriety test. Failure of police to allow Appellant to obtain an additional specimen after breath test pursuant to section 724.019 of the transportation code did not warrant suppression of breath test results. Evidence was legally and factually sufficient to prove intoxication under theory of BAC over .08 even in the absence of retrograde extrapolation testimony; in addition, evidence was legally and factually sufficient to prove intoxication as a result of loss of normal use of faculties.