Appellate court denies Jeena Roberts appeal in convictions for fatal Lubbock crash – LubbockOnline.com

Justices with Texas Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo denied a 28-year-old womans appeal of her 2013 intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault convictions stemming from a guilty plea in a Lubbock court.

The justices determined in a June 28 opinion that the Lubbock trial court did not err in denying Jeena Roberts motions to suppress blood alcohol evidence and her statements to police soon after a fatal wreck. They also found that she voluntarily entered her guilty pleas to an October 2010 wreck that killed one woman and seriously injured another.

Roberts attorney, Robert Scardino Jr. of Houston, has up to 30 days to file a brief and a motion with the justices to reconsider their ruling or appeal the decision to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

He said Thursday that he was disappointed with the ruling but no decisions have been made on how to proceed.

Roberts was handed 15- and eight-year prison sentences in November 2013 in exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree felony counts of intoxicated manslaughter and intoxicated assault.

She entered her pleas after 140th District Court Judge Jim Bob Darnell denied her motions to throw out crucial evidence against her, which included blood evidence and incriminating statements she made to police soon after the crash.

In her appeal, Roberts claimed Darnell wrongly denied her July 2012 pre-trial motions to throw out the blood-alcohol analysis that indicated she had a 0.25 blood-alcohol content on Oct. 22, 2010, when she crashed her Chrysler 300 into the back of a Ford Escape in the 400 block of Marsha Sharp Freeway, killing Linda Smaltz, 52, and seriously injuring Karen Wolf, 59, who were passengers in the SUV. Roberts said her blood was taken without a warrant, which violated her Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful searches and seizures.

She said Darnell also erred in denying her request to throw out incriminating statements she made to Lubbock police officer Nicholas Knowlton as she sat handcuffed in the back of his police car because she believed she was already under arrest but was not informed of her Miranda rights.

Lastly, she said her guilty pleas were involuntary because she made them under the belief she would be permitted to appeal only to find out later she could not.

At the time of her arrest, Texas law allowed for mandatory, warrantless blood draws for intoxication offenses. On May 20, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court found the law unconstitutional.

However, the Seventh Court of Appeals justices said they could not review Roberts challenge on Constitutional grounds because her attorney at the time never challenged it on that basis during the July 2012 hearing. Instead, they said her attorney challenged the blood draw by saying the officer lacked probable cause to arrest her.

Justices also found Roberts was not under arrest when she made her incriminating statements to Knowlton on the night of the crash and,therefore, the statements would have been admissible in court had her case gone to trial. They believe she made her statements were made during an investigative detention.

Texas courts have long held that a suspects placement into the back seat of a police car does not, per se, equate to custody under Miranda, the justices wrote. Likewise, in Texas, handcuffing is not a conclusive indicator of custody for Fifth Amendment purposes, but only a relevant factor in the determination.

Records also show that after she was arrested and read her rights, Roberts waived her rights when she again admitted to the officer that she drank five beers and a shot of rum before driving that day.

Justices determined from court records that, before she entered her guilty pleas, Roberts was properly admonished by Darnell that she could not appeal.

Texas prison records show Roberts is serving her sentences at the Mountain View prison unit in Gatesville. She will be eligible to go before a parole review in 2020.

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Appellate court denies Jeena Roberts appeal in convictions for fatal Lubbock crash - LubbockOnline.com