Ganesan v. State

45 S.W.3d 197 (2001)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D is an engineer who had designed a computer chip to market in partnership with a Swiss corporation. One month after D's wife, Vallabhaneni filed for divorce, D liquidated his brokerage account and ordered that the proceeds, over one million dollars, be wired to a Swiss bank account. The wife was faster and obtained a restraining order. The money was deposited with the court. D filed for bankruptcy. Vallabhaneni was scheduled to be deposed in the bankruptcy proceeding in November 1998. The alleged solicitations for the murders of Vallabhaneni and Wright took place in September and October 1998. In 1997, D talked about that if his product died one of them would be dead. D said he will kill himself or her or both of them. Vallabhaneni recorded the conversation. D dismissed his remarks during the telephone conversation as nothing more than hyperbole and notes that the conversation took place twenty months before the alleged solicitation. D was arrested in May 1997 for violating a protective order. In jail, met Hammonds, who was awaiting his release on bail following an arrest for theft. Hammonds testified that D told him 'about how his wife and the system and the judge had destroyed his life and his business and how he was losing everything.' D asked, 'Do you know of anyone, or can you take care of my wife for me?' When Hammonds replied, 'Excuse me?' D said, 'You know what I mean.' Hammonds thought he was 'being set up by the cops.' Hammonds gave D a telephone number. D called a few weeks later and asked if he 'remembered the conversation in the cell that we had.' Appellant added, 'I need to talk to you about this again. We need to talk about this.' Hammonds suggested that they meet at the courthouse. Hammonds contacted the police. Hammonds called D while being recorded. Hammonds attempted to talk about their previous conversations, and D started back-peddling. D didn't want to talk about that. A few months prior to Vallabhaneni’s testimony D asked Prier to find someone to kill Vallabhaneni and her attorney. Prier testified that During the months D was asking Prier to arrange the murders, he instructed her to go to a post office and watch who came and went. D also told her to watch an office on Lake Austin Boulevard, which he identified was Wright's husband's law office. D was convicted of two counts of solicitation to commit murder. D appealed.