Martinez v. State

EARL W. SMITH, Justice.

Appellant Martinez was convicted of the offense of murder. Trial was to a jury, which assessed punishment at confinement in the Department of Corrections for forty-five years. Appellant’s sole ground of error on appeal is:

[T]he court’s charge is fundamentally defective, under the evidence, because the court failed to charge the jury as to the implied element of murder, i.e., that the State must prove the appellant did not cause the death of Miguel Salazar Guzman under the influence of sudden passion arising from an adequate cause beyond a reasonable doubt to be entitled…