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Melendez v. Tex., No. 72,420 slip opinion at 2-3
(Tex. Crim. App. Oct. 7, 1998)
At the guilt/innocence stage of trial, the State
presented fifteen witnesses, including testimony from
the surviving victim, to establish the circumstances
surrounding the robbery/murder of which [Melendez] was
convicted. Their testimony, if believed, established
the following.
On the evening of September 1, 1994,
[Melendez], who was eighteen years old, visited and
drank beer with a group of friends in the driveway of a
Fort Worth residence. At approximately 11:30 p.m.,
[Melendez] stated, in a voice loud enough for most to
hear, his intention to rob “some mother fucker,” and he
walked away alone.
At that same time, in the nearby parking lot of
a self-service car wash, the two victims in
this case had parked their pick-up truck
parallel to a walk-up pay phone. They had
been there a number of minutes when one of them, Tommie Joe
Seagraves, noticed [Melendez] walking up
behind the truck. As Seagraves looked on,
he warned the truck’s driver, Michael Sanders, of
[Melendez’s] approach. [Melendez]
positioned himself about fifteen feet from
the driver’s side door.
Without any warning or even a word being spoken,
[Melendez] turned and fired one shot into the cab of
the vehicle, and it struck Seagraves in the neck.
[Melendez] then announced his first demand that Sanders
hand over all the money in the truck. As Sanders pleaded
with [Melendez] not to shoot him, he was
ordered from the vehicle, and then forced to walk
toward [Melendez] and hand over the money.
Relieved of his money, Sanders turned and
started back toward the truck where
Seagraves still sat wounded and unable to
move. Before he reached the vehicle, [Melendez] fired
again and struck Sanders in the back. In rapid
succession, [Melendez] fired three more shots and all
struck Sanders in either the back or the arm. Sanders
finally toppled forward through the open driver’s side
door and came to rest in the floorboard of the truck with
his head resting against Seagraves’ leg.
As Sanders lay dying, [Melendez] approached,
reached through the cab with the gun in his
hand, placed the muzzle next to Seagraves’
forehead, and pulled the trigger. Nothing
happened. The gun was empty, so [Melendez]
simply turned and walked back in the
direction he had come.
In the end, Seagraves received
two bullet wounds; the initial wound when [Melendez]
first approached and a second wound received from a
bullet that had passed through the decedent and struck
Seagraves’ arm. Sanders was shot four times and died within
minutes. |
