A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice unless corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the offense committed; and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of the offense.

Under this rule, the reviewing court eliminates all of the accomplice testimony from consideration and then examines the remaining portions of the record to see if there is any evidence that tends to connect the accused with the commission of the crime. Solomon v. State, 49 S.W.3d 356, 361 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001). The corroborating evidence need not be sufficient by itself to establish guilt; there simply needs to be "other" evidence "tending to connect" the defendant to the offense. We have noted that "unlike extrajudicial confessions, testimony of an accomplice need be corroborated only as to facts 'tending to connect the defendant with the offense committed' and not as to the corpus delicti itself." Gribble v. State, 808 S.W.2d 65, 71 n.13 (Tex. Crim. App. 1990). And "[t]he non-accomplice evidence does not have to directly link appellant to the crime, nor does it alone have to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." McDuff v. State, 939 S.W.2d 607, 613 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997). There must simply be some non-accomplice evidence which tends to connect appellant to the commission of the offense alleged in the indictment. Id.

Francisco Gonzales and Debra Espinosa were accomplice witnesses for the State. Both testified that they, appellant, and Teresa Quintana planned to rob the victim, Tommy Garcia, Jr. Pursuant to the plan, Espinosa called Garcia and made arrangements for him to pick her up and drive to Clamp Street, a secluded area, for sex. As Garcia and Espinosa were parked on Clamp Street, appellant and Gonzales came up behind the car, appellant smashed one of the windows with the butt of his gun, opened the car doors and demanded that Garcia hand over his money.

Appellant had a loaded gun, and Gonzales had a gun as well, but it was "just for show" because it did not work. Gonzales and Espinosa both testified that appellant shot Garcia numerous times as he attempted to run. Appellant contends that without this testimony, the evidence does not "tend to connect" him to the offense. Following is a summary of the key non-accomplice testimony.

Several people testified that they saw Garcia wearing his gold medallion necklace on the night of the offense. The necklace was described as a "spinner" medallion on a thick gold chain. Jessica Cantu testified that she saw appellant wearing the necklace on the afternoon after the killing. She told appellant the necklace looked familiar. When Cantu saw appellant a little while later, he was no longer wearing the necklace. Cantu told Garcia's mother that she had seen appellant wearing Garcia's necklace.

Frank Russell and Robert Jimenez both testified that they were at Jimenez's house with Garcia in the late night and early morning hours of December 2 and 3, 2003, when Garcia received a phone call from Espinosa. Garcia agreed to meet Espinosa and offered to give Russell a ride home on the way. Jimenez testified that ten or fifteen minutes after Garcia and Russell left, he received a phone call from Espinosa who was crying hysterically and told him that someone had shot Garcia. Jimenez drove to Russell's and the two of them went to Clamp Street where Espinosa said the shooting had occurred. When they arrived, they saw Garcia's car with the doors open and Garcia lying face-down in the street. He appeared dead. They told police what they knew about Garcia's plans to meet Espinosa.

Gerardo Gutierrez testified that in March 2003, he was an inmate in the same area of the Bexar County Jail as appellant. Appellant told Gutierrez that he and two friends, Frank and Bita, planned to rob a person, but "it turned out wrong" when the victim took off running and appellant shot him numerous times. Appellant told Gutierrez that the female accomplice, Bita, was the one who had turned him in. He also said they would have a hard time convicting him because they did not have the weapon.

Lucinda Gonzales testified that she was the younger sister of Francisco ("Frank") Gonzales, one of the accomplice witnesses. At the time of the murder, Lucinda was living in the same house with Gonzales and his girlfriend Teresa ("Bita") Quintana, among others. Lucinda testified that on the night of the offense, appellant called numerous times looking for Gonzales, and eventually came over with his girlfriend, Debra Espinosa. Appellant and Gonzales asked to borrow Lucinda's car, and she finally agreed to let Teresa drive it. Appellant, Gonzales, and Teresa left in Lucinda's car around 9:30 p.m. that evening. Espinosa left earlier in her own car. Teresa returned around 2:30 a.m., and she told Lucinda that Gonzales had been arrested on a child-support warrant.

The following day, Lucinda saw a news report about Garcia's murder. A couple of days later, Gonzales was charged with Garcia's murder and arrested. Later that day, Lucinda covertly listened in on a phone conversation between Teresa and appellant. Lucinda described the exchange: "I heard Teresa say that, you know, what was going to happen to Frank [Gonzales]. And [appellant] said nothing, because he didn't do it, I did it, but they ain't going to know it because they ain't got any evidence. . . . He said that he - after the shooting, that he had ran through an open field and he discarded the - he had a mask, gloves, and the gun, and that he threw everything in the open field." Lucinda called the police and reported what she had heard. A few days later, Lucinda confronted appellant and called him a murderer. Appellant made a threatening gesture toward her and told her that Gonzales was going to stay locked up.

Bryan Anthony Brown testified that at the time of the offense he was fifteen and living in the same house with his aunt Lucinda, his uncle Frank Gonzales and Frank's girlfriend Teresa, and others. On the night of the offense, appellant and his girlfriend came over. Appellant had a gun and a bullet-proof vest. Appellant, his girlfriend, Gonzales, and Teresa all left in Lucinda's car. Brown found out the next day that Gonzales had been arrested. A couple of days later, Brown was riding in a car with appellant and Teresa when appellant said that he had to get out of town, that he had shot someone a bunch of times, and that he had hidden the gun and vest in a field.

The above non-accomplice testimony includes evidence that appellant was seen wearing the victim's necklace shortly after the murder, that appellant was seen with a gun and with the accomplices in the hours before the murder, that the victim made a plan just prior to his murder to meet one of the accomplices, that appellant told a fellow inmate that he and accomplices had planned a robbery, that appellant shot the victim multiple times when the victim attempted to run, that Lucinda overheard appellant admit to Teresa that he was responsible for shooting someone, and that Brown overheard a similar conversation between appellant and Teresa. This evidence is sufficient to "tend to connect" appellant with the murder and robbery. Art. 38.14. Point of error one is overruled.

In point of error two, appellant claims that the evidence is factually insufficient to support a finding that he robbed the victim or that he shot the victim. Evidence is factually insufficient when, although legally sufficient under a Jackson v. Virginia ⁽²⁾ analysis, the evidence is "so weak" that the verdict "seems clearly wrong or manifestly unjust," or the verdict is "against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence." Watson v. State, 204 S.W.3d 404, 414-15 & 417 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006).

Appellant refers to the testimony of Lucinda and Brown as "clearly unfairly biased, late in forthcoming, last hour rescuing, highly suspicious testimonies." He says that Lucinda and Brown "went into hiding" shortly after the offense and "conveniently surfaced" "in dubious support of" Gonzales's plea-bargain agreement. Appellant also suggests that Gutierrez was biased as the "ex-boyfriend of Francisco Gonzales's niece."