Vicente Lara Martinez A/K/A Jose Antonio Martinez v. State Texas

Vicente Lara Martinez was convicted by a jury of the offenses of involuntary manslaughter--driving while intoxicated and failure to stop and render aid. The jury assessed his punishment for each of these offenses at five years imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, and a $2500 fine. The jury found that Martinez used a deadly weapon in connection with the manslaughter offense. Martinez contends in three points of error that: (1) it was error for the judgment to contain an affirmative finding of the use of a deadly weapon, because the actions that constitute the alleged use of the deadly weapon are an essential element of the offense itself; (2) the evidence is insufficient to support the finding of the use of a deadly weapon because there is no showing that he possessed any intent to utilize the vehicle as a deadly weapon; and (3) the entering of a deadly weapon finding, where the actions that were alleged to constitute the use of the deadly weapon were an essential element of the offense, violated Martinezs double jeopardy protections.