Page 25 - July August 2020 TPA Journal

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

TEXAS POLICE ASSOCIATION

LEGAL DIGEST

July/August 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.

ELEMENTS - TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE

Karl Dean Stahmann, Appellant, was involved in We will affirm the judgment of the court of
an automobile accident, after appeals.
which he threw a bottle of promethazine, a
Around 4:30 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. on July 1, 2012,
controlled substance, over a nearby wire fence
Noberto Gonzalez was driving with his family
before law enforcement arrived. The bottle landed
from New Braunfels towards Marble Falls on
two to three feet past the fence in plain view. He
Highway 46 near Canyon Lake when he was
was convicted of third-degree felony tampering
involved in an automobile accident. Stahmann
with physical evidence and was sentenced to 10
was driving in the opposite direction when he
years’ confinement and fined $5,000. The judge
stopped to turn left across the highway into a gated
suspended his sentence and placed him on
community. As Stahmann turned left, Gonzalez’s
community supervision for 10 years. Stahmann
SUV broadsided Stahmann’s van. Gonzalez said
appealed, arguing in part that the evidence was
that Stahmann appeared to be looking down and
insufficient to prove that he destroyed, altered, or
did not notice his approaching SUV. There is no
concealed the prescription bottle. The court of
dispute that Stahmann did not use his turn signal
appeals agreed that the evidence was insufficient,
or that he did not yield the right of way. Ronnie
but instead of rendering an acquittal, it reformed
Ballard and Michael Freeman, two bystanders,
the judgment to show that Stahmann was
were driving home together when they happened
convicted of the lesser-included offense of
upon the car accident and stopped to render aid.
attempted tampering with physical evidence, a
Ballard and Freeman were the first to approach
state-jail felony.
July/August 2020 www.texaspoliceassociation.com • (512) 458-3140 21