Jacobs v. State5/20/2004
During an investigation of a one-car accident, James Glenn Jacobs was discovered face down, intoxicated, and unconscious in a ditch about 200 to 400 yards from the wrecked vehicle. Jacobs appeals his conviction of felony driving while intoxicated (DWI). A jury found Jacobs guilty and assessed punishment at nine years' imprisonment. Jacobs alleges that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence medical records containing double hearsay and that the evidence was both legally and factually insufficient to support the verdict. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Admission of Medical Records
In his first point of error, Jacobs contends the trial court erred in admitting the medical records. Medical records concerning the accident were introduced under the "business records" exception to the hearsay rule. The custodian of medical records testified that she was the legal custodian of the business records in question, that the records were kept in the regular course of business, and that the information contained in the records was recorded by an employee of the hospital at or near the time of the stated events. Because Jacobs was the only person found at the scene, Jerry Cobb, an emergency medical technician with the Longview Fire Department, assumed Jacobs was the driver and informed hospital personnel that Jacobs was the driver. The medical reports, consisting of more than forty pages, provide, among numerous other entries, that " he patient is a 30 year-old intoxicated white male who is status post motor vehicle accident, driver."
A trial court's decision on the admissibility of evidence is reviewed for an abuse of discretion. Bee v. State, 974 S.W.2d 184, 187 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1998, no pet.). A trial court abuses its discretion when its decision falls outside "the zone of reasonable disagreement." Salazar v. State, 38 S.W.3d 141, 153-54 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001). The test for an abuse of discretion is not whether, in the opinion of the reviewing court, the facts present an appropriate case for the trial court's action; rather, it is a question of whether the court acted without reference to any guiding rules or principles, and the mere fact that a trial court may decide a matter within its discretionary authority differently than an appellate court does not demonstrate such an abuse. Montgomery v. State, 810 S.W.2d 372, 391 (Tex. Crim. App. 1990) (op. on reh'g).
The general rule is that hearsay statements are inadmissible. See Tex. R. Evid. 802. Hearsay is defined as "a statement, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted." See Tex. R. Evid. 801(d); Huff v. State, 897 S.W.2d 829, 838-39 (Tex. App.—Dallas 1995, pet. ref'd). However, there are numerous exceptions to the hearsay rule. See Tex. R. Evid. 803. Rule 803(6), commonly known as the "business records exception" provides that
A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity, and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make the memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness, or by affidavit that complies with Rule 902(10), unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness.
Tex. R. Evid. 803(6) (emphasis added). The purpose of the "business records" exception is to "dispense with the necessity o
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