![]() ![]() The Evidence Regarding Events Before the Murder From information on Davis’s cell phone, police developed appellant as a suspect. Davis’s cell phone was also taken from him and police also recovered a pair of latex gloves from his hiding place. Shards of glass were also recovered from this sweatshirt. For purposes of this opinion, we refer to him as “Davis,” the name which seemed to have been used more frequently during the trial. When arrested, Davis was wearing tan pants, a t-shirt with the word “cocaine” on it, and a 2 Tyrone Rufus Davis Hayes was referred to as both “Davis” and “Haynes” in the record of this trial. Davis claimed that he was homeless and had been sleeping there, but, when searched incident to arrest, he was found to be in possession of a stack of $100 bills. The suspect found hiding, Tyrone Rufus Davis Haynes,2 was handcuffed and arrested. As he passed the space, Picard saw the top of someone’s head, and he instructed the suspect to come out. Picard and his dog were returning to the San Luis to rest when Picard noticed a fenced-in air conditioning unit near the parking lot. After approximately 30 minutes of searching, Officer J. The night of the shooting, the police also used K-9 officers and their dogs to search for the suspects. Next to the fence where the handgun was recovered, police found an aloe-vera-type plant that had been stepped on leaving a shoe print. Near where the handgun was recovered, a portion of the fence had been broken in a westward direction. ![]() ![]() The sweatshirt had several shards of glass in its pockets. Further west, in a nearby neighborhood, police recovered a black sweatshirt and some gloves. In a field just to the west of the San Luis, officers found a window punch, which is often used to break car windows during a burglary. 3 Officers began searching the area in which Molis indicated the three hooded men had fled. Near one burgled car, the police recovered a makeup bag with a shoe print on it. In total, nine cars had been burglarized that night. Two fired bullets were also found and had been fired from the same handgun. The shell casings were several different brands but had all been fired from the same weapon, a Beretta. The Aftermath While in the parking lot that night, police recovered 12 shell casings in the area where Molis was shot. Molis, who had been shot ten times, died six days later. As he lay on the ground after being shot, Molis indicated to Bushek and Lozano the direction in which the three men had fled. At 10:15 p.m., Pike reported the shooting to police and called an ambulance. Pike, the other security officer, and Thomas Bushek, a police officer who had been attending a conference next door, both reached Molis at approximately the same time. As he was running downstairs, he called his manager to let him know what had happened. Lozano immediately left his vantage point and began running downstairs toward the parking lot. That man, who was wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt, backed away briefly before reaching toward his belt, pulling out a handgun, and firing multiple shots at Molis. Molis ran at one of the three men in an apparent attempt to scare him off. Lozano could see that Molis was using a flashlight and he also knew that Molis was unarmed. Molis also called Lozano, who was still watching from the sixth floor, and Lozano directed 1 See Batson v. ![]() Molis contacted another security officer, John Pike, to let him know what Lozano had seen and Pike, too, began to make his way toward the parking lot. As Lozano continued to watch from the sixth floor, a security guard, Phillip Molis, pulled his vehicle around the building toward the parking lot. Lozano called his manager and told him to alert security. As he watched, at least one of the men broke the glass on several vehicles and all three of the men began “going through the cars” in the parking lot. While Lozano was taking luggage to a room on the sixth floor of the hotel, he looked out a window on the back side of the hotel and saw three men wearing black hoodies looking in various cars in the hotel’s parking lot. BACKGROUND The Murder On the night of April 9, 2017, Brandon Lozano was working as a bellman at the San Luis Resort in Galveston, Texas. In a third issue, appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient. In two issues on appeal, appellant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his Batson1 challenges. 17-CR-3568 OPINION A jury convicted appellant, Brandon Rashard Ledford, of murder and assessed his punishment at 80 years’ confinement and a $10,000 fine. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee On Appeal from the 212th District Court Galveston County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 01-19-00967-CR - BRANDON RASHARD LEDFORD, Appellant V. Opinion issued In The Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas - NO. ![]()
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