Leviyas Jamail Clayton, Appellant v. the State of Texas

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas held that the evidence was legally sufficient to support Clayton’s murder conviction because the court of appeals improperly isolated individual pieces of circumstantial evidence instead of assessing their combined and cumulative force in the light most favorable to the verdict. The evidence included Clayton’s bloody fingerprints, his flight, his failure to surrender after learning of the warrant, the timing of the victim’s injuries, and inconsistencies in Clayton’s explanation. The court reversed the court of appeals’ acquittal and remanded for consideration of Clayton’s unresolved factual-sufficiency claim.