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Klock v. State5/13/2004
A jury found appellant, Valin Thomas Klock, and his co-defendants, Eric Vaughn Schultze and Scott Alan Zunker, guilty of the first degree felony of aggravated sexual assault and assessed punishment of 22 years in prison for appellant, 30 years for Schultze, and 15 years for Zunker. The jury also found appellant guilty of sexual assault and sentenced him to a concurrent term of 10 years in prison on the second count.
In seven points of error, appellant contend that the trial court erred in (1) denying appellant's request for a severance; (2) admitting a videotape of the death of appellant's roommate, John Hickman, at the punishment stage of trial; (3) excluding evidence concerning prison conditions; (4) denying his request to instruct the jury, at the punishment stage, about the elements of an extraneous offenses; (5) denying appellant's motion for mistrial; and (6) overruling appellant's objection during the State's final argument during punishment. We affirm.
Factual and Procedural Background
On November 19, 2000, College Station Police Department Detective Chad Harkrider was called to investigate the alcohol-related death of John Hickman at 3311 Bahia in College Station. When he arrived at the scene and discovered there were numerous people to interview, he contacted College Station Police Department Sergeant Chuck Fleeger for assistance. Appellant and Schultze were two of the people interviewed in connection with Hickman's death. During the course of the investigation, Detective Harkrider received an anonymous tip that there was a videotape of Hickman made on the night that he died.
On March 27, 2001, Jana French, a friend of appellant, provided the College Station Police Department with a videotape that she had obtained from appellant. Fleeger watched the videotape and discovered that, in addition to depicting Hickman the night that he died, 18 minutes and 45 seconds of the tape showed three men sexually assaulting an unconscious female. Fleeger recognized appellant and Schultze as two of the three assailants because he had recently interviewed them in connection with Hickman's death. He later determined the identities of the complainant and the third assailant, Zunker.
The sexual assault began with Zunker and Schultze entering a room where appellant was having sexual intercourse with the complainant, who appeared to be unconscious and physically unable to resist. Schultze, while manning the video camera said, "in her fucking cunt," and Zunker attempted to insert a baseball in the complainant's vagina. Zunker manned the video camera while Schultze inserted the handle of a toilet plunger in the complainant's vagina. Schultze told Zunker, "Make sure you get this on tape." When the plunger handle was inserted in the complainant's vagina, she moaned and said, "Ow. Stop," and continued to struggle. The three men laughed throughout the entire sexual assault. At one point, Zunker lit a cigarette and burned the complainant's vagina with the lit cigarette. Zunker then, mockingly, said, "Ow. That's got to hurt," and he proceeded to flick ashes onto the complainant's buttocks. Zunker and appellant also inserted a screwdriver and other objects into the complainant's vagina. The men continued to laugh as they performed these various acts on the unconscious complainant, with Schultze declaring, "this is fucking hilarious" at one point during the assaults.
Police Officers arrested appellant, Schultze, and Zunker the day after Sergeant Fleeger received the videotape. Also on that day, police officers searched the house at 3311 Bahia and found a video camera and a camera bag that contained another videotape. This second videotape showed Sc
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