2009-09-23 Jimenez

Murder of Clarence Smith

The murder of Clarence Smith was a fatal shooting outside the Western Lounge in Amarillo, Texas, on July 22, 1990. Smith was shot once in the chest while standing in the bar's parking lot with his fiancée, Beverly Degrate. Witnesses identified Andrew Paul Jimenez as the driver of the vehicle from which the shot was fired.

The initial prosecution did not proceed, and the case remained unresolved for nearly two decades. After investigators reopened the case and obtained additional witness evidence, a Potter County grand jury indicted Jimenez for murder in 2009.^[1] A jury convicted him in October 2011, and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.^[2] The Seventh Court of Appeals of Texas affirmed the conviction on November 26, 2012.^[3]

Background

On the night of July 21–22, 1990, Smith and Degrate went to the Western Lounge at 2905 East Amarillo Boulevard to drink, dance, play pool, and celebrate their engagement. Several friends and acquaintances were also at the bar for a birthday celebration.

Among those present was a friend of Smith known as "Big Mike." Earlier that night, Big Mike had reportedly removed three men from another bar after they harassed a female bartender. The three men later appeared at the Western Lounge and repeatedly entered through its front door and exited through the rear.

Smith and Big Mike were similar in build and were both wearing black hats. Degrate later testified that the men appeared to have difficulty determining which of them was Big Mike. While Degrate was playing pool, one of the men gestured toward the table where Smith and Big Mike were sitting and asked whether one of them was her boyfriend. When she asked which man he meant, he walked away without answering.

Shooting

Shortly after closing time, Smith and Degrate walked toward their vehicle. A car approached and stopped approximately five or six feet from them. According to Degrate, the driver indicated that Smith was his intended target. When Smith began moving toward the vehicle, Degrate tried to stop him.

The driver extended his arm through the window and fired a single shot into Smith's chest. The car then left the parking lot. Degrate described seeing three men and three women in the vehicle and said it had New Mexico license plates. Other witnesses gave differing accounts of its color, model, direction of travel, and number of occupants.

Smith bled heavily from the chest wound and collapsed. Degrate held his head in her lap while awaiting emergency responders. Police and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. Investigators and an autopsy determined that the bullet had caused a fatal injury to his heart.^[2:1]

Degrate identified Jimenez as the shooter from a photographic lineup later that morning. Mark Fox, another patron who witnessed the shooting, also selected Jimenez from a lineup. Both said they had seen him inside the Western Lounge before the shooting.

Investigation

Police prepared the photographic lineup after receiving Jimenez's name from Geronimo Martinez, a witness who knew him personally. Multiple witnesses eventually identified Jimenez as the driver and shooter, although their accounts differed on several surrounding details.

Witness evidence

The evidence later presented at trial included:

• Beverly Degrate identified Jimenez as the man who had questioned her inside the bar and later shot Smith. She acknowledged signing the 1990 lineup under her sister's name because she had an outstanding warrant for an unpaid speeding ticket.
• Mark Fox testified that he saw Jimenez fire from the driver's side of a car. By the time of trial, Fox was incarcerated and acknowledged that portions of his memory had become unclear.
• Edward Jowers heard the shot and saw a light grayish-blue Chevrolet or Pontiac leaving with New Mexico plates. He recalled four occupants but did not identify the shooter.
• Tyrone Anderson testified that he saw Jimenez driving the vehicle from which the shot was fired. Anderson admitted that he had initially avoided police because of an outstanding warrant and later gave investigators a false account naming another man as the shooter.
• David Bernal, Jimenez's former brother-in-law, testified that Jimenez contacted him shortly after the shooting, claimed to have been in an accident, and later suggested that a similar-looking man named Richard Ramos was responsible. Bernal also recalled that Jimenez had abrasions and blood on his arms and that Jimenez's wife was asking about her missing white Cutlass.
• Kevin Ward, a former cellmate of Jimenez, testified that Jimenez confessed to shooting a man in an Amarillo bar parking lot years earlier. Ward said he received no promise of favorable treatment in exchange for his testimony.

The appellate record also described evidence that Jimenez attempted to persuade Anderson to identify another person, David Martinez, as the shooter. Anderson initially repeated that account to police but later recanted it and identified Jimenez.

Vehicle evidence

Witness descriptions of the suspect vehicle were not uniform. Degrate remembered the New Mexico license plates but not the car's color and recalled six occupants. Jowers described a light grayish-blue small Chevrolet or Pontiac with four occupants. Anderson remembered a small two-door car similar to a Cutlass, also with four occupants.

Bernal testified that Jimenez claimed his wife's white Cutlass had been stolen. The following day, Jimenez's cousin and another person allegedly asked Bernal for permission to hide a light-blue car at his home. Bernal declined and did not report the incident to police at the time. Investigators did not produce registration records for the New Mexico-plated car at trial, and Jimenez was not subjected to a gunshot-residue test.

Initial case and reopening

Authorities sought to prosecute Jimenez shortly after the shooting, but the case did not proceed. Accounts of the original disposition varied: later reporting stated that a 1990 grand jury found insufficient evidence, while the district attorney said the prosecution was dismissed after witnesses began to "crater" and other evidentiary problems emerged.^[1:1][2:2]

The investigation was revisited several times. Additional evidence included Ward's 2007 statement describing Jimenez's alleged confession and renewed accounts from witnesses to the shooting.

In September 2009, a Potter County grand jury indicted Jimenez for murder. Jimenez, then 45, was already incarcerated at the William P. Clements Unit on an unrelated conviction.^[1:2]

Trial

Jimenez's trial began on October 3, 2011, in Potter County's 320th District Court, with Judge Don R. Emerson presiding. Jimenez pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution called approximately a dozen witnesses, including Degrate, other bar patrons, police officers, investigators, Bernal, and Ward. The defense focused on inconsistencies among the witnesses, their criminal histories, the passage of 21 years, the absence of gunshot-residue testing, and the lack of registration evidence tying Jimenez to the suspect vehicle.

Jimenez's attorney, Lendon E. Ray, did not call any defense witnesses during the two-day trial. On October 4, the jury of seven women and five men deliberated for nearly two hours before finding Jimenez guilty of murder.^[2:3]

Sentencing

On October 5, 2011, Judge Emerson sentenced Jimenez to 25 years in prison. During the punishment hearing, Jimenez maintained his innocence and claimed that he knew the shooter's identity. According to District Attorney Randall Sims, Jimenez said he had withheld that information because authorities would not agree to reduce the sentence he was already serving.^[2:4]

At the time, Jimenez was serving a 30-year sentence arising from a 2003 Randall County conviction for aggravated assault of a public servant with a deadly weapon.

Appeal

Jimenez appealed in Andrew Paul Jimenez v. The State of Texas, No. 07-11-00451-CR. His sole issue challenged whether the evidence was legally sufficient to establish that he was the person who shot Smith.

Jimenez emphasized the inconsistencies in the eyewitness accounts, the criminal histories of several prosecution witnesses, Anderson's admitted false statement, Ward's incorrect description of the victim's ethnicity in his 2007 account, and the absence of certain physical and vehicle evidence. The state acknowledged that some witnesses had credibility problems but argued that their testimony was sufficiently consistent on the central question of the shooter's identity.

The appellate court held that evaluating witness credibility and resolving conflicts in the evidence were functions of the jury. Although the witnesses differed on the sequence of events and details of the vehicle, several independently identified Jimenez as the shooter. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, the court concluded that a rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Jimenez shot and killed Smith.

On November 26, 2012, a panel consisting of Chief Justice Brian Quinn and Justices Mackey Hancock and Patrick Pirtle affirmed the conviction. Justice Hancock authored the memorandum opinion, which was designated "do not publish."^[3:1]

Case information

See also

References