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[W] Landers v. State4/17/2003
Appellant, Christi Ann Landers, was charged with the felony offense of driving while intoxicated. Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 49.04(a) and 49.09(b). She pled true to the two prior DWI convictions alleged to enhance the primary offense to a felony. A jury rejected her plea of not guilty to the primary offense alleged, and she pled true to the punishment enhancement paragraph alleging a conviction for possession of cocaine, and to a conviction class for driving while her license was suspended. The jury assessed her punishment at six years' confinement. Appellant asserts seven issues on appeal. We affirm.
I. Factual Background
During the evening of September 19, 2000, a truck driven by appellant swerved and struck a roadside post in the 200 block of North Main Street in Highlands, Texas. The State's and appellant's evidence differed by two hours as to time of the accident's occurrence. The State presented evidence that appellant was operating the vehicle at approximately 9:45 P.M., and struck the post because she had lost the normal use of her physical and mental faculties from having earlier ingested drugs. Three police officers and an emergency room physician testified to her impaired mental and physical faculties that night and early the next morning.
Appellant's evidence fixed the time of the accident as two hours earlier than the State's testimony. Appellant presented evidence that her truck had recurring mechanical problems — pulling to the right, steering difficulty, acceleration problems, and a malfunctioning battery. She testified that her truck's engine repeatedly died as she drove home from work and that she struck the post because the truck's steering mechanism caused the truck to pull to the right as she attempted to restart the engine. She testified that a couple traveling in a pick-up truck behind her stopped to assist her, helped her move her pick-up truck to the side of the road, and drove her home afterward. She testified that she changed clothes at home, took the prescription medication that caused her later-observed condition, and spent time with a neighbor before the police came and returned her to the accident scene.
II. Sufficiency of the Evidence
In her first two issues, appellant contends the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she had lost the normal use of her physical and mental faculties at the time the State's sole eyewitness to her driving observed her. She asserts the eyewitness to her driving, Wayne Baxter, "failed to articulate sufficient facts" to show that she was intoxicated.
The indictment alleged appellant was intoxicated by not having the normal use of her mental and physical faculties by reason of the introduction of Benzodiazepine or a combination of drugs into her body.
A. Standards of Review
When reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S. Ct. 2781, 61 L. Ed.2d 560 (1979); Wilson v. State, 7 S.W.3d 136, 141 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999). We do not resolve conflicts of fact or assign credibility to witnesses, as it is the function of the trier of fact to accept or reject any, part, or all of any witness's testimony. See Adelman v. State, 828 S.W.2d 418, 421 (Tex. Crim. App. 1992); Lucero v. State, 915 S.W.2d 612, 614 (Tex. App.—El Paso 1996, pet. ref'd). We determine only if the explicit and implicit findings of the trier of fact are rational by viewing all the evidence in a light m
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