In Gonzales v. State, ___ S.W.3d ___, 2010 WL 4229114, (Tex.App.—San Antonio Oct 27, 2010) (NO.04-09-0811-CR), the Fourth Court of Appeals in Texas upheld the conviction of a man found guilty of driving while intoxicated, even though the defendant fled the scene of a single-car collision and got home at least thirty minutes prior to the police arriving at his home where he claimed to have become intoxicated by drinking three glasses of wine.
Reviewing the case to determine whether the evidence was legally sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979), the court considered the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
The court first noted that evidence of intoxication near the time of driving was probative evidence that the defendant had been intoxicated at the time of driving. The defendant admitted that he arrived home about thirty minutes before the officers arrived, and the officers testified the defendant was intoxicated when they found him there Furthermore, the court found there was circumstantial evidence of the defendant’s intoxication at the time of the collision, specifically his involvement in a single-car collision, the lack of skid marks prior to impact, and the defendant’s flight from the scene while driving nearly seven miles on a tire rim with a shredded tire.
As to the defendant’s claim that he became intoxicated after arriving at his home, the court found the jury, as the sole arbiter of credibility, was free to consider or disregard the defendant’s testimony that his consumption of three glasses of wine after arriving at his home was the cause of his intoxication. The court concluded that while each circumstance alone might not support a finding of legal sufficiency, “the cumulative force of the incriminating circumstances” was sufficient to support the conviction.
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