Mckinney v. State

On a three-count indictment, a jury convicted appellant, Steve Charles McKinney, of the murder of Guillermo Arvizu; of the capital murder of Danielle Fleischmann Arvizu, Guillermos pregnant wife; and of the capital murder of Hayley Arvizu, the couples five-year-old daughter. The jury assessed appellants punishment at life in prison for the murder of Guillermo. The State sought the death penalty for the capital murders of Danielle and Hayley; however, because the jury found that sufficient mitigating circumstances warranted life imprisonment for the two capital murders, the trial court sentenced appellant to life in prison for both offenses. We consider (1) whether appellant is estopped, by requesting a lesser-included-offense instruction on which the jury convicted him, from asserting that the evidence is legally and factually sufficient to support his murder conviction and, if not, whether the evidence is sufficient; (2) whether the evidence is legally and factually sufficient to support appellants capital-murder convictions as a party to the offenses; (3) whether the trial court reversibly erred in instructing the jury in the abstract on causation in a manner that omitted concurrent-causation language; and (4) whether allegedly inconsistent verdicts for the murder of Guillermo and for the capital murder of Danielle require reversal. We affirm.