197 results for 'casenum:"08"'.
J. Alley finds a lower court did not err in admitting a confession and evidence obtained via in a warrantless search in the murder trial of a former Border Patrol agent accused of killing multiple women, especially targeting sex workers. Defendant “voluntarily waived his right to remain silent” when he told investigators during an interview that "he was ‘clean[ing] up the streets’ of Laredo,” and multiple legal theories support the authorities’ search of his vehicle. Most notably, they had probable cause for the search, as a purse belonging to a woman who escaped was “in plain view” on his truck's floorboard. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Alley, Filed On: May 15, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00025-CR, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Search
J. Alley finds a lower court partially erred in a lawsuit brought by the son of a deceased woman to determine whether he or his sister was the trustee of her trusts. The lower court was right to deny the son’s efforts to extend discovery because rules allowing for the extension are “designed to protect the adverse party’s right to conduct more discovery” rather than those who file. Nonetheless, contrary to the lower court’s findings, the son has in fact raised a genuine factual question over whether his sister resigned from her role as trustee. Reversed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Alley, Filed On: May 14, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00104-CV, Categories: Trusts, Wills / Probate
J. Palafox finds a lower court erred in granting defendant’s motion to quash after he was charged with child sex offenses. Defendant argued that it violated his double jeopardy rights to be charged with both continuous sexual abuse of a child and lesser constituent offenses, but while this is true for sentencing, “no sentence has yet been imposed and no judgment has yet been entered,” and prosecutors can pursue both at trial. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: May 10, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00335-CR, Categories: Sex Offender, Double Jeopardy, Child Victims
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in convicting defendant of assault with a deadly weapon against someone with whom he’d had a dating relationship. Defendant argued the court had not adequately considered his self-defense argument that the woman had tried to run him over with a car, but the jury was “free to disbelieve” this “conflicting” explanation.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: May 6, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00238-CR, Categories: Evidence, Assault
J. Alley declines to issue a petition for writ of mandamus vacating discovery-related orders in a divorce case. The relator ex-husband, who is a lawyer, argued discovery requests from his lawyer ex-wife could improperly require him to produce “attorney-client and work-product documents,” but the lower court has not yet ruled on privilege issues and, therefore there is “no clear abuse of discretion.”
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Alley, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 08-24-00026-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law, Discovery
Want access to unlimited case records and advanced research tools? Create your free CasePortal account now. No credit card required to register.
Try CasePortal for Free
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in finding defendant guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. Defendant argued the court erred by allowing testimony on his previous domestic violence incidents, but those previous incidents were part of a pattern of violence and therefore relevant, as they “provided the jury with an explanation” for his actions “other than self-defense.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00232-CR, Categories: Evidence, Fair Trial, Assault
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in finding defendant guilty of murder. Defendant argued the court erred by allowing testimony on his previous domestic violence incidents, but because defendant raised self-defense arguments — making his “motive and intent” in the shooting a “material issue in the case” — prosecutors were entitled to offer evidence of situations in which defendant “was the aggressor in the past.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00231-CR, Categories: Evidence, Fair Trial, Murder
J. Soto finds a lower court partially erred in granting summary judgment to a geotechnical engineer who was retained by a preservation group as part of a separate lawsuit over workmanship on a road. That preservation group than sued the engineer, arguing he had failed to adequately inspect the road as part of a settlement agreement. While the preservation group’s claims mostly fail because there are genuine questions over the engineer’s agreement to participate in the settlement agreement, the preservation group can still proceed with a negligence claim over “the professional engineering services that he did agree to provide.” Affirmed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: April 30, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00205-CV, Categories: Settlements, Negligence, Experts
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in revoking community supervision for defendant, imposed as part of two separate cases. Defendant argued there was not adequate evidence at his revocation hearing that he had taken a truck without permission, but the owner clarified defendant did not have permission in this case, and — although defendant was permitted to use the truck for work-related duties — in this case he admitted “he had taken the truck not for necessities but to purchase Xanax for himself.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00018-CR, Categories: Evidence, Probation
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in revoking community supervision for defendant, imposed as part of two separate cases. Defendant argued there was not adequate evidence at his revocation hearing that he had taken a truck without permission, but the owner clarified defendant did not have permission in this case, and — although defendant was permitted to use the truck for work-related duties — in this case he admitted "he had taken the truck not for necessities but to purchase Xanax for himself." Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00022-CR, Categories: Evidence, Probation
J. Soto finds a lower court erred in issuing a Qualified Domestic Relations Order after a divorce decree. The ex-wife is right that the court did not have jurisdiction to issue the order, but it was not part of the original divorce decree and was issued after the lower court’s jurisdiction over the case had already expired. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00311-CV, Categories: Family Law, Jurisdiction
J. Palafox grants mandamus relief after finding a lower court erred in a convoluted dispute that emerged from a personal injury case after it became clear at trial that an expert the injured man planned to call had a conflict of interest with a law firm representing the trucking company he was suing. The injured man is right that, because the trial date had been reset for a later date, discovery deadlines should have also been extended. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00256-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Experts, Discovery
J. Palafox denies habeas relief to defendant, who argued that his Eighth Amendment rights were violated when he was arrested and charged for murder as an adult despite being only 17 at the time of the offense. Pretrial habeas relief is not available unless the asserted rights would be "undermined if not vindicated before trial," which is not the case here. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00154-CR, Categories: Constitution, Juvenile Law, Civil Rights
J. Palafox denies habeas relief to defendant, who argued that his Eighth Amendment rights were violated when he was arrested and charged for murder as an adult despite being only 17 at the time. Pretrial habeas relief is not available unless the asserted rights would be “undermined if not vindicated before trial,” which is not the case here. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00159-CR, Categories: Constitution, Juvenile Law, Civil Rights
J. Alley finds a lower court erred in granting a defendant’s motion to suppress his confession to sexually abusing his daughter. While defendant referenced that he would get a lawyer while being questioned by detectives, he continued to speak to them regardless, and as he “was not in custody and was free to terminate the interrogation,” his confession should not have been suppressed. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Alley, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00077-CR, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Alley finds a probate court did not err in its division of a deceased man’s estate. Despite arguments to the contrary, the court did not change a settlement agreement reached by inheritors of that estate, as the term “estate property” has “a clear, unambiguous meaning in Texas law and does not include a surviving spouse’s half interest in community property.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Alley, Filed On: April 15, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00167-CV, Categories: Settlements, Wills / Probate, Contract
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in convicting defendant for murder. Defendant argued the evidence was insufficient and that his sentence should be reformed to criminally negligent manslaughter, including because he claimed the shooting was an accident. But there was in fact sufficient evidence that defendant acted “knowingly,” including because he initially lied about the circumstances of the shooting and attempted to hide evidence and leave town, which is “indicative of a consciousness of guilt.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00176-CR, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Manslaughter
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in convicting defendant of continuous sexual abuse of a child. Defendant raised a number of purported issues with his conviction, including disputing evidentiary rulings made by the court, and while the lower court did indeed err by allowing the victim’s mother and two detectives to testify as outcry witnesses based on discrepancies in their testimonies, the errors “did not have a substantial and injurious effect” given the overall evidence against defendant. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00162-CR, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in revoking defendant’s community supervision for failing to submit to drug tests after he pleaded guilty to heroin possession with a repeat-offender enhancement. Defendant argued he had not been given specific and adequate notice about the terms of his probation, but according to precedent from the Court of Criminal Appeals, a defendant waives their right to complain about probation terms if they don’t raise those complaints at trial. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: April 10, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00237-CR, Categories: Drug Offender, Probation, Plea
J. Palafox finds a lower court partially erred in entering no-evidence summary judgment against an injured passenger after she sued the driver of the vehicle she was in following an accident. The passenger has provided some evidence of causation, and for that reason the case should not have been thrown out entirely — though that passenger has “failed to produce more than a scintilla of evidence of her medical expenses and compensable mental anguish damages.” Reversed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00221-CV, Categories: Vehicle, Damages, Negligence
J. Soto denies a writ of mandamus to several Mexican companies because they failed to show that a El Paso County judge abused his discretion. Those companies argued that the lower court wrongly denied their motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because “the courts of Mexico have exclusive jurisdiction,” but it is too early in this dispute to completely rule out U.S. jurisdiction.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00246-CV, Categories: Civil Procedure, Jurisdiction
J. Alley finds a lower court did not err in admitting contested evidence of an injured 10-year-old girl bystander in a murder case which ended in conviction. While defendant argued that prosecutors unfairly used the evidence to “portray him as a ‘scorned and hated man,’” the evidence was relevant as it showed defendant had acted “in a manner clearly dangerous to human life.” Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Alley, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00108-CR, Categories: Evidence, Murder
J. Palafox finds a lower court did not err in denying El Paso County’s plea to the jurisdiction after it was sued by a former employee who said the county breached its settlement agreement following an employment lawsuit by failing to reinstate her “within a reasonable time.” Regardless of whether there are merit to the ex-employee’s claims — “those issues exceed the scope of [this] jurisdictional inquiry” — the county already conceded that it waived immunity in this matter and cannot now reassert it. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00173-CV, Categories: Employment, Settlements, Immunity
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in denying a doctor’s motion for no-evidence summary judgment after he was sued by a patient for medical negligence. The doctor argues the patient was in fact treated by a physician assistant, but he “was the only physician” in the emergency department at the time and is listed on some of the patient’s medical documents, and therefore the patient has raised a genuine dispute “as to the existence of a physician–patient relationship.”
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00079-CV, Categories: Negligence, Medical Malpractice, Contract
J. Alley finds a lower court ruled partially correctly when it granted summary judgment to car sales and financing companies after they were sued by customers who argued a car they bought had “defects rendering it worthless.” The customers brought no viable claims against the car financer and the “as-is” language in their sales paperwork defeated their claims against the car seller, and the lower court was right to grant summary judgment. However, the lower court was wrong to approve sanctions against the customers’ attorney, as it had no evidence impugning his motives or credibility. Affirmed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Alley, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00127-CV, Categories: Trade, Contract, Attorney Discipline
J. Palafox finds a lower court partially erred in a complicated fraud case in which the suing company, which was working with several other companies to build a solar power facility in Nicaragua, accused its former partners of mislabeling and supplying lower quality solar panels than the parties had agreed to. The lower court was wrong to find that one company involved in the case still had a right to exercise a forum-selection clause in its contract, because the company had “consciously litigated” in Texas and only attempted to exert this option “after receiving an adverse ruling.” Otherwise, the court ruled correctly, including issuing a take-nothing judgement against another company after the suing company failed to address the individual elements of its fraud by nondisclosure claim. Reversed in part.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Palafox, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 08-22-00244-CV, Categories: Fraud, Contract