Eladio Castro Najera v. State, 14-14-00400-CR

Najera was convicted of possessing less than one gram of cocaine.
Appellant raises two issues on appeal challenging evidentiary and jury-instruction rulings.
The State’s Exhibits 4 and 5 (an evidence envelope and three baggies of cocaine) were admitted over Najera’s chain-of-custody objection.
Narcotics personnel weighed the cocaine and the envelope was handled from seizure to storage and testing.
Officer Wilson and narcotics personnel identified the exhibits and testified to the chain of custody beginning with seal and ending with storage for testing.
The trial court denied the voluntariness instruction; Najera was convicted and sentenced to two years, probated for five years, with a $250 fine.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Chain-of-custody admissibility of exhibits 4 and 5	Najera argues improper chain-of-custody evidence.	Najera contends gaps show possible tampering.	Trial court did not abuse discretion; chain established.
Voluntariness instruction under Article 38.22	Najera seeks general voluntariness instruction.	No evidence raised voluntariness issue; instruction not required.	No error; 38.22 not triggered.

Reed v. State, 158 S.W.3d 44 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2005) (chain-of-custody gaps go to weight, not admissibility when beginning and end shown)
Easley v. State, 472 S.W.2d 128 (Tex. Crim. App. 1971) (Easley distinctions on chain-of-custody failures)
Oursbourn v. State, 259 S.W.3d 159 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008) (two-step instruction requirement for Section 6 voluntariness)
Morales v. State, 371 S.W.3d 576 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2012) (necessity to raise voluntariness before 38.22 instruction)
Creager v. State, 952 S.W.2d 852 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997) (ultimate test is whether will was overborne)
Von Byrd v. State, 569 S.W.2d 883 (Tex. Crim. App. 1978) (no voluntariness issue, so §38.22 not applicable)