Background

• In April 2014 Romon J. Henderson and his half-brother Ra’an broke into 4 A Good Auction intending to steal guns and money; Romon later gave a recorded pretrial confession admitting their plan and that Ra’an fired shots at employee Shelia Johnson, who died the next day.
• After the arrest, Ra’an told his girlfriend Anticia Jackson to discard his belongings and made a gun gesture; Jackson hid Ra’an’s gun in a sewer drain and later led police to it; casings from the scene matched that gun.
• A grand jury indicted Romon for capital murder (killing while committing burglary/robbery); the State did not seek death; Romon pled not guilty and moved to suppress his confession (denied), but did not contest that denial on appeal.
• At trial Romon objected to Jackson’s testimony recounting Ra’an’s statement linking him to the gun as hearsay; the trial court overruled the objection and admitted the testimony and Romon’s recorded confession; the jury convicted and Romon received an automatic life sentence.
• On appeal Romon argued Jackson’s testimony was inadmissible hearsay (not a co-conspirator statement in furtherance and not a statement against interest); the State invoked co-conspirator and statement-against-interest exceptions.
• The court assumed, without deciding, that admitting Jackson’s testimony was error but held any error harmless because Romon’s detailed confession independently established the same facts linking both men to the burglary and the shooting.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• Mosley v. State, 983 S.W.2d 249 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998) (discusses harmless-error standard for nonconstitutional error)
• Johnson v. State, 967 S.W.2d 410 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998) (erroneous admission of hearsay is nonconstitutional error)
• King v. State, 953 S.W.2d 266 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997) (substantial-rights test for harm: whether error had substantial and injurious effect)
• Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750 (U.S. 1946) (standard for assessing prejudice from evidentiary error)
• Solomon v. State, 49 S.W.3d 356 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001) (harmless-error review and fair-assurance standard)
• Motilla v. State, 78 S.W.3d 352 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002) (reviewing record-as-a-whole in harmless-error analysis)
• Sandone v. State, 394 S.W.3d 788 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2013) (error harmless when similar facts proved by other properly admitted evidence)
• Sanders v. State, 422 S.W.3d 809 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2014) (erroneously admitted evidence harmless where other unobjected-to evidence established same facts)
• Wooten v. State, 400 S.W.3d 601 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (harm analysis can be dispositive, obviating need to decide evidentiary error)