Lozano v. Texas (original by judge hervey)
Annotate this CaseIn the early morning hours of September 26, 2015, Appellant Carlos Lozano shot and killed Jorge Hinojos in the parking lot outside Pockets Billiards and Fun in El Paso. Appellant went to Pockets to meet Fernanda Avila, whom he was dating at the time. According to people in the group, Appellant was in a good mood until he noticed that one of the guys at the table had been talking to Avila, at which point he got angry. Hinojos, his girlfriend Diana Ruiz, and their friend Carolina Rocha went to Pockets the same night. They arrived in Carolina’s car around midnight. While they were there, they ran into three of Carolina’s friends—David Torres, "Carlos," and "Chrystyan." At closing time, Avila went home in her own car; Appellant remained in his in the parking lot. Carolina went to the restroom, then met Hinojos and Diana outside. They walked to one of Carolina’s friend’s car to make plans for later. After meeting at Carolina’s friend’s car, Carolina continued walking to her car, distracted from texting on her phone. Appellant nearly hit Carolina in his truck. Once Appellant stopped the truck, Applicant rolled down the passenger-side window but did not say anything. Hinojos then threw a full beer can through the open passenger-side window. Diana said that the can “exploded,” spilling beer everywhere. Torres testified that he then saw Appellant get a backpack from the backseat of his truck, pull out a gun, and point it in the direction of the open passenger window. According to Torres, Hinojos did not see the gun because by the time Appellant removed the gun from his backpack, Hinojos had already begun to run around the truck to the open driver’s-side window, where he punched Appellant. Diana and Carolina said that Hinojos punched Appellant once. When Hinojos punched Appellant through the window, Appellant turned towards Hinojos and shot him three times, killing him. The question in this case was whether Appellant was egregiously harmed by erroneous self-defense instructions when he was not entitled to deadly force self-defense instructions in the first place. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals answered that question no and reversed the judgment of the court of appeals.
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