Antonio Lee Williams, Appellant v. the State of Texas

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed appellant's capital murder conviction and death sentence for the August 2006 shooting deaths of Yolanda Styles and Vincent Williams outside a Houston apartment complex. The court held the evidence legally and factually sufficient to establish both murders occurred during the same criminal transaction, rejecting the argument that an asserted mid-episode shift to self-defense broke the continuity of events. It upheld admission of evidence of the Harris and Ball murders because the defense opened the door by questioning a witness about them, rejected the ensuing ineffective-assistance claim as sound trial strategy, overruled three Batson points (one unpreserved), found the challenged crime-scene and autopsy photographs admissible under Rule 403, and rejected all constitutional attacks on the Texas death-penalty scheme as previously decided. Keasler, J., concurred in point of error one and otherwise joined; Johnson, J., concurred in the result.