Tristan Kade Torres v. State ( 2020 )


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  •                             NUMBER 13-18-00339-CR
    COURT OF APPEALS
    THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS
    CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG
    TRISTAN KADE TORRES,                                                        Appellant,
    v.
    THE STATE OF TEXAS,                                                          Appellee.
    On appeal from the 18th District Court
    of Johnson County, Texas.
    MEMORANDUM OPINION
    Before Chief Justice Contreras and Justices Longoria and Hinojosa
    Memorandum Opinion by Justice Hinojosa
    A jury convicted appellant Tristan Kade Torres of murder, a first-degree felony, and
    aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony. See TEX. PENAL CODE
    ANN. §§ 19.02(c), 22.02(a)(2). The trial court sentenced Torres to thirty-five years of
    incarceration in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division for the
    murder count and twenty years for the aggravated assault offense count, to run
    concurrently.
    By four issues, Torres challenges: (1) the trial court’s failure to include a culpable
    mental state in the indictment and jury charge, and whether deadly conduct can be used
    as an underlying felony for felony murder; (2) the trial court’s allowance of continued
    questioning after a witness invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination;
    (3) the prosecution’s alleged improper jury argument; and (4) the trial court’s failure to
    grant a continuance for sentencing. We affirm.
    I.      BACKGROUND 1
    A.      The Night of the Offense
    On April 22, 2017, two rival groups of teenagers met behind a movie theater in
    Johnson County, Texas, to watch a member of each group fight. The first group consisted
    of appellant Torres’s friends, including Christopher Castillo, Keon Mann, and Alexis Nevill
    (Torres was not at the fight). The second group included Dylan Brown, Colton Fugitt, Cody
    Hoffman, and twin brothers Cameron and Camden Lewis. Castillo represented the former
    group and Brown represented the latter. After the fight, both sets of teenagers went their
    separate ways.
    Later that evening, Torres met up with his friends at a local Walmart gas station.
    Torres became upset upon seeing his friend Castillo’s battered face and injuries. He then
    called Fugitt and demanded to fight him. Fugitt agreed. The groups arranged to meet
    1 This case is before this Court on transfer from the Tenth Court of Appeals in Waco pursuant to a
    docket-equalization order issued by the Supreme Court of Texas. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 73.001.
    2
    again at Mound Elementary, a local primary school. Before he left, Torres allegedly told
    his friends, “I’m going to pull up and just start shooting and leave.”
    Fugitt and his friends arrived at the school first. Fugitt got out of his truck and was
    joined by Brown and Camden Lewis. Cameron Lewis remained inside in the driver’s seat
    and Hoffman sat in the passenger seat. Approximately fifteen minutes later, Torres
    arrived in his own vehicle, and his friends Castillo, Mann, and Nevill followed in another
    truck right behind him. Torres and his friends were approximately one hundred yards
    away from the rival group. At this point, Torres grabbed a .40 caliber pistol he had inside
    of his vehicle. He rolled down his passenger window and, reaching across the passenger
    seat, shot the gun in the direction of Fugitt’s truck. One bullet struck Camden Lewis in the
    foot and another bullet fatally struck Cameron Lewis on the left side of his head.
    B.     The Indictment
    On May 4, 2017, the State indicted Torres on two counts: Count One was for
    murder and Count Two was for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Count One
    had three different paragraphs setting forth three different methods of committing murder.
    Relevant to this case, Paragraph Three listed deadly conduct as the predicate felony for
    the felony murder theory:
    Paragraph Three: And the Grand Jurors aforesaid upon their oaths do
    further present in and to said court that Tristan Kade Torres[,] on or about
    April 22, 2017[,] and before the presentment of this indictment in Johnson
    County, Texas, did then and there intentionally and knowingly commit or
    attempt to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life, to wit: shooting
    Cameron Lewis with a firearm, that caused the death of Cameron Lewis,
    and the Defendant was then and there in the course of intentionally and
    knowingly committing a felony, to wit: deadly conduct, and the death of the
    [sic] Cameron Lewis was caused while Defendant was in the course and in
    the furtherance of the commission or attempt of the felony.
    3
    See
    id. § 19.02(b)(3).
    Nearly a year later, on April 16, 2018, the State filed a motion to amend the
    indictment to change the language of “shooting Cameron Lewis with a firearm” to
    “shooting in the direction of Cameron Lewis with a firearm.” Two days later, on April 18,
    2018, the State filed yet another motion to amend, requesting that the culpable mental
    states of “intentionally or knowingly” be deleted both times they appeared in Paragraph
    Three of Count One.
    Torres objected to these motions and also filed a motion to quash the indictment.
    He argued that the predicate felony (deadly conduct) is not necessarily the same as the
    “act dangerous to human life” which caused Cameron Lewis’s death. At a hearing on the
    motions, Torres urged this argument and also contended that the State should be
    required to prove that Torres committed deadly conduct “intentionally” or “knowingly.” Not
    requiring this, he argued, allowed the State to do an end-run around a manslaughter
    charge, which only requires a “reckless” culpable mental state. See
    id. § 19.04(a).
    The
    trial court granted the State’s motions to amend the indictment and denied Torres’s
    motion to quash.
    C.    Trial
    Trial began on May 1, 2018. Several witnesses testified, including Torres’s friends
    Mann and Castillo. Mann testified that he heard Torres say, “I’m going to pull up and just
    start shooting and leave. . . That’s exactly what he said. . . . As soon as I heard Tristan
    say that he was about to shoot someone I was like, [m]an, just drop me off.”
    4
    Castillo was also called to the witness stand. Castillo was Torres’s friend who
    initially fought against Brown behind the movie theater. After he was called to the stand,
    Castillo unexpectedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. The
    judge immediately took a recess and dismissed the jurors from the courtroom. The court
    asked the State if Castillo had any pending charges arising from this incident. The State
    confirmed that that there were no pending charges. The court, out of an abundance of
    caution, appointed counsel to Castillo. Trial proceeded with the following questioning:
    STATE:        Mr. Castillo, on April 22nd, 2017, did you and Dylan Brown get
    into a fight?
    CASTILLO: I wish to use my 5th Amendment right.
    STATE:        Mr. Castillo, after that fight with Dylan Brown, did you and
    Dylan shake hands or fist bump and basically call the fight
    over?
    CASTILLO: I wish to use my 5th Amendment right.
    STATE:        And after that fight was over, did you in fact go to the Walmart
    gas station to meet up with Tristan?
    CASTILLO: I wish to use my 5th Amendment right.
    STATE:        And after you met up with Tristan, did Tristan see your face
    and that you were a little bit bloody from that fight?
    CASTILLO: I wish to use my 5th Amendment right.
    STATE:        And after Tristan saw your face, did he get mad?
    CASTILLO: I wish to use my 5th Amendment right.
    STATE:        And after Tristan got mad, did he say anything to you?
    CASTILLO: I wish to use my 5th Amendment right.
    STATE:        So did Tristan tell you that he was going to go shoot them?
    5
    CASTILLO: I wish to use my 5th Amendment right.
    STATE:        And after Tristan told you he was going to go shoot them—
    TORRES:       Your Honor, at this time I would object and ask to take the
    witness briefly on Voir Dire.
    COURT:        Okay.
    TORRES:       Mr. Garcia [sic], is there any question—Castillo. Mr. Castillo,
    excuse me. Is there any question that the prosecutor is going
    to answer—ask you that you’re not going to answer with the
    5th Amendment right of indication [sic]?
    CASTILLO: No, I’m going to use the 5th Amendment.
    TORRES:       Judge, at this point I would object to any further testimony
    under 403 of Texas Rules—and 402 of the Texas Rules of
    Evidence.
    COURT:        Response?
    STATE:        Judge, he’s not entitled to a blanket 5th Amendment right.
    He’s a witness in this case. He's not the Defendant. He’s not
    entitled to the blanket 5th Amendment right. If he doesn’t want
    to answer the question, he has to respond after each question.
    The trial court overruled the objection. The prosecution asked Castillo four more
    questions, all of which he responded to by asserting his Fifth Amendment right. Torres’s
    counsel then asked a few questions to confirm that they had never met before. The court
    then dismissed Castillo as a witness.
    After a two-day trial, a jury convicted Torres of murder and aggravated assault with
    a deadly weapon. Torres elected for the court to sentence him.
    D.    Punishment
    When the parties arrived on May 3, 2018 to begin the punishment phase, Torres’s
    6
    counsel urged a sudden oral motion for continuance. He argued that the motion was
    “based on evidence that was delivered to me in a timely manner by the prosecution
    because they only received it last night.” The evidence was apparently a statement Torres
    disclosed during a recorded phone call the night before, but the content of the statement
    was not explained on the record. Torres’s counsel further contended,
    I’m not ready and am unable to effectively represent my client in the
    sentencing phase of these proceedings. We would ask that Dr. Price and
    associates be appointed to evaluate my client and we will return to court—
    hopefully return to court after such evaluation has been completed. This
    motion is being made in the interest of justice and I believe the Court would
    believe not for delay.
    The judge, in considering the motion, stated:
    Just for the record, I have talked with all three attorneys back in my office
    about this issue. It’s too important of an issue to hurry through, to rush
    through. I want to consider everything and I want both sides to have an
    equal opportunity, fair opportunity to present their cases. I don’t like delays
    but sometimes they’re necessary.
    The judge granted the continuance and rescheduled the sentencing for May 15,
    2018. On May 15, however, Torres’s counsel moved for another continuance. He claimed
    that his expert performed a competency exam instead of the risk assessment he wanted
    and he asked the court to delay punishment again. The prosecution countered that a
    continuance had already been granted and that it was defendant’s lack of diligence in
    following up with his expert that caused this problem. The court denied the second motion
    for continuance and proceeded with the punishment phase.
    During closing argument, the State made the following argument:
    And the reason we played those recordings for you, Judge, is so you can
    understand the mind-set of Tristan. He’s been in jail for over a year now and
    he still does not accept responsibility for what he did. He still does not accept
    7
    responsibility for shooting and killing Cameron Lewis. Not once have you
    heard him say I’m sorry that Cameron’s dead. I’m sorry that I shot Cameron,
    I’m sorry that I shot Camden, because he’s not. He’s sorry that he got in
    trouble, he’s sorry he’s in jail and he’s sorry that he’s going to go to prison
    but he’s not sorry at all for killing Cameron, for shooting Camden, and for
    taking this young man away from his family.
    ....
    Judge, up to this point after spending over a year in jail not once has he
    shown any remorse. Not once has he ever shown any type of sympathy,
    any type of remorse, any type of emotion on the fact that he killed Cameron
    Lewis. And because of that, Judge, there’s—he deserves a significant
    sentence and, honestly, there’s no sentence that can be too high in this
    case.
    The trial court sentenced Torres to thirty-five years of incarceration for the murder
    count and twenty years for the aggravated assault offense count, and it ordered the
    sentences to run concurrently. Torres appealed.
    II.    THE FELONY MURDER CHARGE
    By his first issue, Torres argues that the factfinder in a felony murder prosecution
    where deadly conduct is the predicate felony should be required to determine whether
    the defendant “intentionally” or “knowingly” committed the act that caused the death of
    the individual. Here, the court granted the State’s motion to amend the indictment to
    delete the culpable mental states, and it also failed to include the culpable mental states
    in the jury charge. Torres argues that the failure to include a culpable mental state gave
    “the State free reign to use deadly conduct to get around the manslaughter exception out
    of the felony murder rule for all cases in which a firearm was knowingly discharged.”
    A.    Applicable Law and Standard of Review
    Under the felony murder doctrine, a person may be convicted of murder if he
    8
    commits or attempts to commit a felony other than manslaughter, and in the course of
    and in furtherance of the commission or attempt, he commits or attempts to commit an
    act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual. See TEX. PENAL
    CODE ANN. § 19.02(b)(3).
    In this case, the State charged Torres with deadly conduct as the predicate felony
    for felony murder. Texas Penal Code § 22.05(b) sets out the felony offense of deadly
    conduct as follows:
    A person commits an offense if he knowingly discharges a firearm at or in
    the direction of:
    (1)     one or more individuals; or
    (2)     a habitation, building, or vehicle and is reckless as to whether
    the habitation, building, or vehicle is occupied.
    Id. § 22.05(b).
    Torres claims it was error to fail to include a culpable mental state in the indictment
    or the jury charge. We review a trial court’s decision to deny a motion to quash an
    indictment under a de novo standard. Lawrence v. State, 
    240 S.W.3d 912
    , 915 (Tex.
    Crim. App. 2007). And when determining whether there was jury charge error, an
    appellate court must first determine whether error actually existed in the charge. Ngo v.
    State, 
    175 S.W.3d 738
    , 743 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005). If error is found, then we must
    determine whether it caused sufficient harm to require reversal.
    Id.
    at 744.
    The degree of
    harm required for reversal depends on whether the error was preserved. Arline v. State,
    
    721 S.W.2d 348
    , 351 (Tex. Crim. App. 1986). If no proper objection was made at trial,
    then the error requires reversal only if is so egregious and created such harm that the
    9
    appellant has not had a fair and impartial trial. Almanza v. State, 
    686 S.W.2d 157
    , 171
    (Tex. Crim. App. 1984). When there is a timely objection to an improper jury charge, we
    need only inquire if there was some harm.
    Id. B. Analysis
    Torres contends that he was guilty of manslaughter, not felony murder. 2 A person
    commits manslaughter if he recklessly causes the death of an individual. See TEX. PENAL
    CODE ANN. § 19.04(1). And a person acts recklessly when he or she is aware of but
    consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur.
    Id. § 6.03(c).
    Here, Torres suggests that his deadly conduct—shooting out of his passenger
    window—was “reckless.” See
    id. § 19.02(a).
    Consequently, given his “reckless” mental
    state, he asserts his crime should have been charged as manslaughter, which is
    specifically excluded as a predicate felony under § 19.02(b)(3). See
    id. § 19.02(b)(3).
    We note, however, that a person commits felony deadly conduct only if he acts
    “knowingly.” See
    id. § 22.05(b)(1).
    This is how the State charged Torres. See
    id. The “knowingly”
    mental state is a higher culpable mental state than the recklessness one
    required for manslaughter. See
    id. §§ 6.02(d),
    19.04(a), 22.05(b)(1). Accordingly, it was
    proper for deadly conduct to be used as the underlying felony for felony murder under
    penal code § 19.02(b)(3) in this case. See Miles v. State, 
    259 S.W.3d 240
    (Tex. App.—
    Texarkana 2008, pet. ref’d) (holding that deadly conduct was a proper underlying felony
    under the felony murder rule); Yandell v. State, 
    46 S.W.3d 357
    (Tex. App.—Austin 2001,
    pet. ref’d) (same); see also Freeland v. State, No. 05-02-01746-CR, 
    2003 WL 22456353
    ,
    2   The jury charge included manslaughter as a lesser included offense.
    10
    at *2 (Tex. App.—Dallas Oct. 30, 2003, no pet.)(mem. op., not designated for publication)
    (same).
    Furthermore, felony murder, as set out in § 19.02(b)(3), does not require a specific
    culpable mental state for the “act clearly dangerous to human life” which causes death.
    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has interpreted § 19.02(b)(3) to indicate a clear
    legislative intent to dispense with a culpable mental state. See Lomax v. State, 
    233 S.W. 3d
    302, 304 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007) (citing Aguirre v. State, 
    22 S.W.3d 463
    , 470 (Tex.
    Crim. App. 1999)). This construction is consistent with the historical purpose of the felony
    murder rule, which is to convict a person of an “unintentional” murder when he or she
    causes another person’s death during the commission of a felony. See
    id. at 305
    (citing
    Threadgill v. State, 
    146 S.W.3d 654
    , 665 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004)).
    In light of this, we conclude that the trial court did not err when it denied Torres’s
    motion to quash the indictment for failing to include a culpable mental state. See
    
    Lawrence, 240 S.W.3d at 915
    . In addition, there was no jury charge error as a culpable
    mental state for the “act clearly dangerous to human life” is not necessary for the offense
    of felony murder. See 
    Ngo, 175 S.W.3d at 743
    . Because we find no error, no harm
    analysis is required.
    Id. at 744.
    We overrule Torres’s first issue.
    III.   RIGHT AGAINST SELF-INCRIMINATION
    Torres’s third issue claims that it was “harmful error for the trial court to allow the
    State to ask fact-laden questions to a witness who validly asserted his Fifth Amendment
    right against self-incrimination in order to establish a material fact that was not proven by
    any other evidence in the record.”
    11
    A.     Applicable Law
    Both the United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution guarantee an
    accused the right not to be compelled to testify or give evidence against himself. See U.S.
    CONST. amend. V (“No person . . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a
    witness against himself . . . .”); TEX. CONST. art. I, § 10; In re Medina, 
    475 S.W.3d 291
    ,
    299 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015).
    The scope of the Fifth Amendment is comprehensive, protecting the
    individual not only against being involuntarily called as a witness against
    himself in a criminal prosecution, but also permitting him “not to answer
    official questions put to him in any other proceeding, civil or criminal, formal
    or informal, where the answers might incriminate him in future criminal
    proceedings.”
    In re 
    Medina, 475 S.W.3d at 299
    (quoting Lefkowitz v. Turley, 
    414 U.S. 70
    , 77 (1973)).
    “Trial courts are not to simply take the word of potential witnesses who claim to
    fear prosecution.” Walters v. State, 
    359 S.W.3d 212
    , 215 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011). A
    danger of “imaginary and unsubstantial character” will not support the assertion of a Fifth
    Amendment right against self-incrimination.
    Id. (citing Ohio
    v. Reiner, 
    532 U.S. 17
    , 21
    (2001)). “The privilege’s protection extends only to witnesses who have ‘reasonable
    cause to apprehend danger from a direct answer.’”
    Id. (citing Hoffman
    v. United States,
    
    341 U.S. 479
    , 486 (1951)). Furthermore, “[b]lanket assertions of the federal or state
    privilege against self-incrimination are impermissible.” In re Verbois, 
    10 S.W.3d 825
    , 828
    (Tex. App.—Waco 2000, no pet.). “Rather, the privilege must be asserted on a question-
    by-question basis.” Id.; see Stephens v. State, 
    59 S.W.3d 377
    , 380–81 (Tex. App.—
    Houston [1st Dist.] 2001, pet. ref'd) (concluding that because “each additional question
    may raise new potential for self-incrimination, . . . once the witness invokes the privilege,
    12
    the court must determine ‘whether the question present[s] a reasonable danger of further
    crimination in light of all the circumstances, including any previous disclosures’” (citing
    Rogers v. United States, 
    340 U.S. 367
    , 374 (1951))).
    B.     Analysis
    Torres’s main argument regarding this issue contends that it was error to allow the
    State to continue questioning Castillo because its questions “craft[ed] a narrative that no
    witness could actually testify to.” Specifically, Torres argued that, though the State asked
    questions such as, “So did Tristan tell you that he was going to go shoot them?”, no
    witness testified regarding Torres’s alleged intent to shoot a person. Torres’s brief
    asserted:
    None of [Torres’s] friends actually testified at trial that [Torres] stated he
    was going to Mound Elementary School because he planned to shoot
    someone. The jury only learned of this statement through the State’s line of
    questioning that conveyed the knowledge allegedly possessed by Castillo,
    without Castillo ever giving a substantive response for the jury to properly
    consider.
    We disagree. In his testimony, Keon Mann explicitly testified that Torres told him,
    “I’m going to pull up and just start shooting and leave.” Mann further clarified, “That’s
    exactly what he said. . . . As soon as I heard Tristan say that he was about to shoot
    someone I was like, [m]an, just drop me off.” Torres argues that there is a difference
    between Torres saying, “I’m going to pull up and start shooting and leave” and “I’m going
    to go shoot somebody.” This difference is negligible and it did not “craft[] a narrative that
    no witness could actually testify to.”
    Because blanket assertions of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination
    are not allowed, Castillo had to assert this right on a question-by-question basis. In re
    13
    
    Verbois, 10 S.W.3d at 828
    . We hold that it was not error for the trial court to allow the
    State to continue to question Castillo, even when it knew he would continue to assert his
    Fifth Amendment right. We overrule this issue.
    IV.     IMPROPER JURY ARGUMENT
    By his fourth issue, Torres argued the prosecution made an improper jury
    argument by allegedly commenting on Torres’s failure to testify. See U.S. CONST. amend.
    V; TEX. CONST., art. 1 § 10 (“In all criminal prosecutions the accused . . . shall not be
    compelled to give evidence against himself . . . .”); TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.08.
    Torres focuses on counsel’s statements during punishment closing argument such as,
    “Not once have you heard him say I’m sorry that Cameron’s dead. I’m sorry that I shot
    Cameron, I’m sorry that I shot Camden, because he’s not . . . . Not once has he ever
    shown any type of sympathy, any type of remorse, any type of emotion on the fact that
    he killed Cameron Lewis.” (Emphasis added).
    Torres, however, did not object to these statements during the prosecution’s
    argument. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has held that a “defendant's ‘right’ not to
    be subjected to incurable erroneous jury arguments is one of those rights that is forfeited
    by a failure to insist upon it.” Cockrell v. State, 
    933 S.W.2d 73
    , 89 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996).
    To preserve this type of error for appellate review, one must: (1) object; (2) request an
    instruction to disregard; and (3) move for a mistrial. See McFarland v. State, 
    989 S.W.2d 749
    , 751 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999)(en banc). This procedure applies to complaints
    regarding alleged improper argument, and Torres failed to follow it. See id.; 
    Cockrell, 933 S.W.2d at 89
    . We conclude this issue has not been preserved for our review and is thus
    14
    waived. See TEX. R. APP. P. 33.1.
    V.     MOTION FOR CONTINUANCE
    By his final issue, Torres claims the trial court abused its discretion when it denied
    his second motion for continuance of the punishment and sentencing phase.
    A.     Applicable Law
    “The granting or denying of a motion for continuance is within the sound discretion
    of the trial court.” Renteria v. State, 
    206 S.W.3d 689
    , 699 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (citing
    Heiselbetz v. State, 
    906 S.W.2d 500
    , 511–12 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995)). “A defendant must
    show ‘specific prejudice to his defense’ to establish that the trial court abused its discretion
    in refusing to grant a continuance.”
    Id. (quoting Hernandez
    v. State, 
    643 S.W.2d 397
    ,
    399–400 (Tex. Crim. App. 1982). A trial court abuses its discretion when it acts without
    reference to any guiding rules or principles or when its decision is so clearly wrong that it
    lies outside the zone of reasonable disagreement. Gallo v. State, 
    239 S.W.3d 757
    , 777
    (Tex. Crim. App. 2007).
    B.     Analysis
    At the outset, we note that the court granted Torres’s first motion for continuance.
    When the sentencing phase was about to begin on May 3, 2018, Torres’s counsel
    revealed that he had just received notice regarding a statement his client made. In light
    of this knowledge, Torres’s counsel requested a continuance to allow a mental health
    professional to “evaluate” his client. The type of evaluation counsel sought was not
    mentioned on the record, nor does the clerk’s record show that Torres followed up his
    request with a formal written motion requesting a certain type of evaluation. The trial court
    15
    agreed to the continuance, commenting that Torres’s apparent recorded statement
    created too “important of an issue to hurry through, to rush through.” The trial court
    granted a twelve-day continuance and ordered the parties to return on May 15, 2018.
    On the day punishment and sentencing was set to begin, however, Torres’s
    counsel moved for yet another continuance. He explained that his expert performed a
    competency evaluation instead of the risk assessment evaluation he wanted:
    I had not heard anything from Dr. Price’s office so I followed up a couple of
    days later to have a discussion with them only to find out that Dr. Reed had
    already visited my client, which I thought was odd. Being, as I said, we
    hadn't had a conversation at all about what it was she was to be doing. So,
    I found out that she had already visited with my client. We played phone
    tag. I got ahold of her after she submitted the report wherein she determined
    that my client was competent. I never said the words “competency.” It was
    never discussed. It’s not in an order, not anything I asked for, not anything
    that was intended but that’s what she did. And that's what we have paid her
    for up to this point. When we—we got together on the phone, I discussed
    what my intentions were. She reported back to me that she could see him
    to do a risk assessment by the end of the week and possibly be ready to
    testify the following week in regards to what her findings were.
    So at this point we would ask for a continuance just long enough to allow
    Dr. Reed to complete the task that was initially the intent was to request.
    The prosecution countered that a continuance had already been granted and that
    defendant’s failure to properly communicate with his expert caused this scenario. The
    State argued, “Dr. Reed is the defense’s expert and . . . it’s their responsibility to
    communicate with Dr. Reed as to what type of evaluation they want to have performed.”
    The court denied Torres’s second motion for continuance and proceeded with the
    punishment phase.
    While the record shows Torres made a statement on a recorded phone call that
    prompted his attorney to request an evaluation and the trial court to grant an initial
    16
    continuance, we do not know the substance of that statement. We also do not know, and
    Torres fails to explain, how a risk assessment would have affected punishment or
    sentencing. Accordingly, we conclude that Torres did not show “specific prejudice” as to
    how the denial of the continuance would have affected this case. See 
    Hernandez, 643 S.W.2d at 399
    –400 (denying a continuance where “no specific, serious matter has been
    raised by the appellant and the record does not otherwise show that the appellant’s
    defense was prejudiced by counsel not having more time to prepare . . .”); 
    Renteria, 206 S.W.3d at 699
    . Considering this record, we cannot conclude the trial court abused its
    discretion when it denied Torres’s second request for continuance. 
    Gallo, 239 S.W.3d at 777
    . We overrule this issue.
    V. CONCLUSION
    We affirm the trial court’s judgment.
    LETICIA HINOJOSA
    Justice
    Do not publish.
    TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
    Delivered and filed the
    2nd day of April, 2020.
    17