42 results for 'court:"Texas Court of Criminal Appeals"'.
J. Van Cleef upholds defendant's conviction for attempting to evade arrest and detention and 10-year sentence. Captured after a manhunt, he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine then treated at a hospital, under law enforcement supervision. After his hospital discharge, he “took off running” while handcuffed and was then recaptured by a game warden and a K-9 dog. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Van Cleef, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: 6-23-197-CR, Categories: Drug Offender, Escape
J. Stevens upholds defendant's drug conviction and 40-year sentence. He argues that, since he was only staying at the apartment temporarily and was not the sole occupant of the apartment, the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly possessed methamphetamine. However, "the logical force of the evidence strongly links” defendant to the illegal drug. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Stevens, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: 06-23-223, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence, Search
J. Rambin reverses a trial court order denying a male noncitizen’s request to dismiss a criminal misdemeanor charge against him, pursuant to the governor’s order to jail migrants for illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border. Citing similar evidence in precedent cases, the non-citizen met his burden of showing the governor’s order has the discriminatory effect and purpose of selective prosecution based on gender discrimination. Reversed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Van Cleef, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 06-24-40-CR, Categories: Constitution, Immigration, Trespass
J. Stevens upholds a trial court judgment denying the appeal of a convicted felon whose eight-year suspended sentence for illegal possession of a firearm was revoked. Defense counsel found no genuine issues to justify an appeal, and, upon review of the record, no reversible error exists. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Stevens, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 06-23-157-CR, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing, Restitution
J. Stevens reverses and remands a trial court's order denying a non-citizen's claim of selective prosecution under the Texas Equal Rights Amendment. The defendant was arrested for criminal trespass on a railroad, a misdemeanor, pursuant to Governor Greg Abbott’s disaster proclamation in 34 counties to prevent the “ongoing surge” of illegal migrants from Mexico. The court of appeals is constrained to rule under another district's precedent, which found the state failed to show its prosecution of male, but not female, immigrants served a governmental interest in border protection. Reversed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Stevens, Filed On: April 16, 2024, Case #: 06-24-39-CR, Categories: Constitution, Immigration, Trespass
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J. Van Cleef affirms the trial court’s defendant's conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentence of 99 years in prison. The trial court properly allowed defendant to impeach a witness - the mother of the child victim -- who had a prior conviction for receiving stolen property from more than 10 years ago. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Van Cleef, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 06-23-105, Categories: Witnesses, Child Victims
J. Stevens affirms the trial court’s defendant's guilty plea conviction for murder and jury-imposed life sentence. The trial judge properly denied defendant’s request for a change of venue. He unsuccessfully argued he could not get a fair trial in the small county, citing comments by 95 people on earlier Facebook posts by the parents of the victim. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Stevens, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 06-23-142, Categories: Jury, Murder, Sentencing
Per curiam, the court of criminal appeals reforms a citizen’s murder sentence from death to life after; the trial court properly concluded the citizen has an intellectual disability. The citizen alleges racial bias tainted his conviction and death sentence, the jury engaged in prejudicial misconduct, and he was improperly interrogated for constitutional rights violations. These allegations are dismissed as an abuse of writ, because the citizen fails to satisfy the requirements.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: WR-75105-02, Categories: Habeas, Murder
Per curiam, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacates and remands the judgment of the court of appeals for the opportunity to conduct a reasonable suspicion analysis without the citizen’s lawful refusal to consent. The citizen was arrested and charged for possession with intent to deliver between 4 and 200 grams of methamphetamine, but she had refused to consent to the police officers’ search of her vehicle.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: PD-0700-22, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing
J. Hervy dismisses a citizen’s appeal of the trial court’s competency determination for his intellectual disability claim after the court signed the “Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.” The appeals court granted habeas relief by changing his sentence from death to life imprisonment without parole.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Hervy, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: AP-77093, Categories: Murder, Sentencing
J. McClure finds the appeals court erroneously vacated defendant's DWI conviction and determined the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress. The unsettled nature of Texas's traffic law on a driver's failure to remain in a single lane gave the officer a reasonable belief defendant violated the law when he crossed into another lane while making a turn. There was no definitive caselaw at the time of defendant's arrest as to whether a driver must operate a vehicle in an unsafe manner in addition to leaving his marked lane, and so the mistake of law doctrine allowed the officer to conduct a traffic stop and arrest defendant. Reversed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: McClure, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: PD-0037-22, Categories: Search, Dui
J. Newell finds that the court of appeals improperly denied defendant's appeal from his conviction for shooting and killing a man in his home because a statutory harm analysis should have been held since an alternate juror had been allowed in the room during deliberations. Reversed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Newell, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: PD-0280-22, Categories: Jury
J. Soto finds a lower court did not err in sentencing defendant to life in the shooting death of another person. Defendant argued his rights were infringed by comments made during the trial, including by a cop who testified during guilt-innocence that the shooting was “absolutely not” justified, but even if this opinion testimony was improperly admitted, it “does not result in constitutional error,” not least because defendant did not timely object to it, and the jury rejected defendant’s mitigating arguments despite receiving proper instructions. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Soto, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 08-23-00115-CR, Categories: Sentencing, Due Process, Jury Instructions
Per curiam, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals finds that the court of appeal improperly overturned the trial court's decision to vacate the jury verdict and sentence after the jury found defendant guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child. The case is remanded for the court of appeal to determine whether the election for jury to determine punishment was filed prior to the start of voir dire.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: PD-0653-23, Categories: Jury, Sex Offender
J. Richardson finds that the court of appeal properly overturned the trial court's conviction of defendant for evading arrest. Defendant "was egregiously harmed when the jury charge failed to include the element that appellant knew the officer was attempting to arrest him." Affirmed in part.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Richardson, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: PD-0963-19, Categories: Resisting Arrest
J. Walker finds that the court of appeals should have upheld defendant's conviction for committing sexual assault by penetrating the victim's sexual organ with his sexual organ because any error as to whether penetration occurred with defendant's sex organ or his mouth did not rise to the level of egregious harm. Reversed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Walker, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: PD-0918-20, Categories: Sex Offender
J. Hightower finds the lower court properly denied a property owner’s motion to dismiss. The property owner argues he was named a third party in a lawsuit because he filed a warranty deed for the property, but the party bringing the suit argues he was named because of his interest in the property, not because of the filing of the warranty deed; the instant court agrees. The property owner’s argument that the claims against him are a violation of his rights under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) are without merit as the TCPA does not apply in this circumstance. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge: Hightower, Filed On: October 31, 2023, Case #: 01-21-00539-CV, Categories: Real Estate, Foreclosure, Contract