Torres v. State
Texas Court of Appeals
2000 WL 31838694 (2002)
- Written by Kelli Lanski, JD
Facts
Juan Torres (defendant) worked at a McDonald’s restaurant in Houston, Texas. One night, Torres, his brother, and a coworker decided to rob the restaurant. They broke into the building and attempted to break into the safe inside the restaurant’s office. Using a blowtorch, among other methods, they opened the safe but found it contained an inner-safe. They could not open the inner-safe and decided to leave. As they left, Torres set fire to the office cabinets. Firefighters were called to the scene and searched the restaurant to make sure no one was trapped inside. Two firefighters suffered asphyxia due to smoke inhalation and died. Torres was charged and convicted of felony murder and arson. On appeal, he argued that the evidence could not sustain his conviction because the state did not show that arson, the underlying felony, represented an act that was clearly dangerous to human life.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Alcala, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
