Page 31 - January February 2020 TPJ

Joe C. Tooley, Legal Digest Editor
Joe C. Tooley, Attorneys & Counselors, Rockwall, Texas
www.TooleyLaw.com 972-722-1058

TEXAS POLICE ASSOCIATION

LEGAL DIGEST

January/February 2020

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is the goal of this submission to extract those portions of relevant appellate
opinions or the syllabus of the legal reporter which bear directly upon law enforcement methods
and provide guidance for officers on an operational level. Much of the information pertaining to
these cases is lifted verbatim from the court opinion or syllabus with independent analysis inserted
as appropriate. Due to clarity for training purposes, the distinction between quotes from the
opinions and inserted analysis is not always identified and legal citations within the opinion are
often omitted. Emphasis is placed upon reported decisions from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

SEARCH & SEIZURE: SEARCH & SEIZURE – district court violated their Sixth Amendment right of
WARRANT, GOOD FAITH ; Conspiracy elements confrontation by allowing witness Holliday to invoke
the Fifth Amendment privilege… Skaggs appeals the
This case involves a direct criminal appeal by seven district court’s denial of his request for funds under the
defendants from a jury trial that resulted in each Criminal Justice Act (“CJA”) to hire an investigator.
defendant’s conviction on a single count: conspiracy to Gentry appeals the district court’s denial of his motion
possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of for acquittal. He also argues that the district court erred
methamphetamine (“meth”). The defendants—Charles in calculating the quantity of drugs attributable to him at
Ben Bounds, aka “Pretty Boy” (“Bounds”), Nicole sentencing… We AFFIRM.
Cynthia Herrera, aka “Nikki Single” (“Herrera”),
Michael Clay Heaslet (“Heaslet”), Billy Ray Skaggs Killough appeals the district court’s calculation of the
(“Skaggs”), Kevin Kyle Killough, aka “Kilo” quantity of drugs attributable to him at sentencing and
(“Killough”), Billy Fred Gentry, Jr., aka Fred Gentry the substantive reasonableness of his sentence. Because
(“Gentry”), and Trae Short aka “Twig” (“Short”)—each there was no information containing sufficient indicia
appeal a distinct set of issues ranging from pretrial of reliability to support the district court’s calculation
rulings to sentencing decisions. We hold that the district of drugs attributable to Killough, we VACATE
court erred in calculating the quantity of drugs Killough’s sentence and REMAND for resentencing.
attributable to Killough at sentencing. We AFFIRM on
all other issues. We therefore VACATE Killough’s …Skaggs preserved his challenge to the sufficiency of
the evidence by moving for acquittal… “[T]he relevant
sentence and REMAND to the district court for
question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the
resentencing.
light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier
…the district court sentenced each defendant of fact could have found the essential elements of the
separately… Heaslet and Herrera jointly assert that the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”

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