Deputy Bernal. Can you spell that. B-E-R-N-A-L, I believe. I'm sure he will spell it for us. 0 0 You may proceed. DEPUTY BERNAL, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows: DIRECT EXAMINATION BY Q. Can you introduce yourself for the ladies and gentlemen of the jury? A. I am Deputy Bernal Harris County Sheriff's Office. Q. How do you spell your last name? A. B-E-R-N-A-L. Q. How long have you been with the sheriff's department? A. About seven years. Q. What position or what assignment do you have at the sheriff's department currently? A. I'm a patrol deputy. Q. How long have you been with patrol? A. Probably about or years. Q. Okay. What are the duties of a patrol deputy? A. Just to patrol the streets and make sure prevent crimes from happening and respond to calls when people call us. Q. Do you respond to calls in regards to robberies or
aggravated robberies often? Q. What is your duties or what is your standard operating practice when you respond to a call or aggravated robbery? A. To make sure to check on the complainant or look for suspects, whatever is advised or somebody needs help with. Q. Did you ever make an arrest and find a suspect 0 shortly after the robbery took place? showup? A. I'm sorry. Do you conduct at 0 Q. Do you conduct a showup? You show that person to the complainant? Q. Was that your policy in 00? Q. Is that still your policy today? Q. Did you respond to an aggravated robbery call on August rd, 00? Q. And was that at Black Rock? Q. And is that a location in Harris County, Texas?
0 0 Q. If you take a look at the map that's on the television screen, was that the location that you were dispatched to? Q. How did you approach that scene? A. I was just advised to check inside the Walgreens; so when I came through, I came through Black Rock down Wallisville to the Walgreens there. Q. Did you have a description of the suspect you were looking for? A. Black male, black clothing. Q. Black shirt, black shorts? Q. Did you locate somebody that matched that description? A. No, sir. Q. Did you go directly to the Walgreens? Q. What did you do when you got there? A. I went back to Walgreens, just walked around the store and make sure he wasn't in there; and I asked the employees did they see somebody that matched the description, and they stated no. Q. What did you do after that? A. I was advised to go check on the complainant's family
located off of, right there south of Black Rock. And just went over and spoke with the wife and son and make sure they were okay. Q. Was the robbery supposed to have happened near their resident? Exhibit No. to the jury. Your Honor, I published State's It's been previously admitted. Yes. 0 Q. (BY MR. MULDROW) And is this an aerial view of the location right next to the other picture we were looking at a second ago? THE WITNESS: Yes, sir. 0 Q. (BY MR. MULDROW) And is the complainant's house located in that neighborhood there? Q. Did you check on his family? I checked on the wife and the son. They were both outside in the driveway. Q. Okay. Were they okay? Q. About how long did you talk to them? A. May be a minute or two, not too long. Q. Were they a witness to anything happened? A. No, sir. They didn't see anything. They were asking
me what happened. Q. After you talked to them for a minute or two, what did you do next? A. Dispatched, advised that somebody was following a white Explorer; it was possibly a suspect's vehicle. So I proceeded to the way the dispatch was giving direction. And 0 0 after I caught up with the vehicle at Uvalde and Holly Park, we were at the light for awhile, a couple of deputies caught up with us and when the light turned green, we conducted a felony stop right there. Q. Were you the one who actually stopped that white SUV? Q. Who was in the car when you stopped? A. A white male, last name Cooper. I can't remember his name. Q. You said it was over on Uvalde and Holly Park; is that correct? Q. About how far away from the location you were originally dispatched to from that location? A. Probably, I would give maybe miles or so. Q. After you stopped Mr. Cooper or Mr. Cooper's car, did you take Mr. Cooper back to the seen? Q. Were you present when he was shown to the
0 0 complainant? Q. How did that happen? A. I just went over there when I got back to the Walgreens just told them that I had him over there and somebody just took him over there and they said that was him. Q. Was Mr. Cooper in the back of your car? Q. Was he handcuffed? Q. Who brought the complainant over to your car? A. I don't recall. Q. Okay. What did they say to the complainant when they brought him over? A. What did they say? Q. Yes, sir? A. I don't recall, sir. Q. What did the complainant say when you saw Mr. Cooper, if you remember? A. I don't remember. Q. What happened after that? A. After that, I took him to our substation right there off of Wallisville and they just investigated him there. done with that. Q. Then you turned him over to the investigating I was
0 officer? Q. Once you turned him over to the investigator, did you have anymore involvement? A. No, sir. That was it. No further questions. Your witness. CROSS-EXAMINATION 0 BY MR. TRENT: Q. Deputy Bernal, good afternoon. My name is Mike Trent and I'm representing Brandon Robinson in this case. I just have a few questions for you. Steven Cooper, correct? You were the one who arrested 0 Q. And you had been kind of via dispatched briefed on all that was going on, right? Q. Who was the deputy who was, I want to say, in charge on the scene in organizing things? A. It was Ellington. Q. Deputy Ellington, right? A. Yes. Q. And was -- you said you don't recall, was it Ellington who brought Cooper over, brought the complainant over to see Cooper after you got to the scene?
0 A. I don't remember, sir. There were several deputies there. Q. You mentioned at the very beginning of your testimony that showups are still currently the policy of the Harris County Sheriff's Department, right? Q. But there has been some changes in the law and they're not really an approved form of identification under Texas law anymore, are they? Objection. Calls for a legal opinion. Objection to that question. 0 Q. (BY MR. TRENT) So are you aware of some changes in the law with respect to identifications? A. No, sir. Q. No? A. No, sir. Q. Haven't been told anything about Article 0 about the Codes of Criminal Procedure? A. No, sir, I haven't. Q. I think that you testified that you don't know whether -- are you saying that you don't know whether Mr. Victor identified Cooper or do you? A. Yes, sir, he identified him. Q. Okay.
A. But I don't remember what deputy took him over there and what was exactly was said. Q. Okay. Via showup right? MR. TRENT: No further questions. Anything from the State? Briefly, Your Honor. REDIRECT EXAMINATION 0 0 BY Q. You stated Deputy Ellington was the deputy in charge; is that correct? Q. What did he do? A. He just advised over the radio that he was bagged down on an aggravated robbery. Q. Right. A. And that's just what I got, and it happened right before I came onto work so. Q. Was he the investigator who investigated the case? A. No. Q. Was he the person who arrested Mr. Robinson? A. No, sir. No further questions. Anything further? RECROSS EXAMINATION
BY MR. TRENT: Q. You just talked about something that Deputy Ellington said over the radio, right? Q. Where is Deputy Ellington? A. Where is he at now? Objection. Relevance. Overruled. 0 Q. (BY MR. TRENT) You can answer. A. He is in the penitentiary, federal penitentiary. Q. What for? A. I'm not sure. Q. He is in prison right now? Q. And I assume he is not going to be testifying in this trial, is he, as far as you know? A. As far as I know. MR. TRENT: Pass the witness. Nothing further from the State. 0 may step down. Thank you very much, Deputy. You You may be excused. No objection. MR. TRENT: No objection. Sir. You may go about your business. You are excused from this matter. Call your next