Opinion
No. 04-03-00336-CR
Delivered and Filed: February 2, 2005. DO NOT PUBLISH.
Appeal from the 227th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas, Trial Court No. 2002-CR-4781, Honorable Philip A. Kazen, Jr., Judge Presiding. Affirmed.
Sitting: Catherine STONE, Justice, Sarah B. DUNCAN, Justice, Karen ANGELINI, Justice.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Jeremiah Leos appeals the judgment convicting him of the murder of Earl Reyna and sentencing him to forty-five years confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — Institutional Division. Leos argues the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the jury's verdict, because the State's witnesses' testimony identifying Leos as Reyna's assailant is "faulty" due to the witnesses' biases, improper motives, and legal troubles. The record establishes that Reyna's wife Debra Orosco, his brother Winston Smith, and Willow Holliday — all of whom witnessed the attack — identified Leos as the assailant from photo arrays shown them by the police. Another witness, Pedro Valdez testified that, while he and Leos were both incarcerated in the Bexar County Jail, Leos asked Valdez if he and Reyna's brothers were upset with him for killing Reyna and told him "he didn't mean for it to happen." Similarly, Joe Mora testified that, while he and Leos were both incarcerated in the Bexar County Jail, he was told by Leos that he had killed Reyna. Like the Supreme Court, "[w]e are content to rely upon the good sense and judgment of American juries, for evidence with some element of untrustworthiness is customary grist for the jury mill. Juries are not so susceptible that they cannot measure intelligently the weight of identification testimony that has some questionable feature. . . ." Manson v. Braithwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 116, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 2254, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977); see also Sharp v. State, 707 S.W.2d 611, 614 (Tex.Crim.App. 1986) (holding that the jury, "being the judges of the facts and credibility of the witnesses, could choose to believe or not believe the witnesses, or any portion of their testimony"), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 872 (1998). We therefore hold the evidence is legally and factually sufficient to support the jury's verdict and affirm the trial court's judgment.