Alfredo Rodriguez Oviedo v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 20, 2021
Docket03-19-00568-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Alfredo Rodriguez Oviedo v. the State of Texas (Alfredo Rodriguez Oviedo v. the State of Texas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alfredo Rodriguez Oviedo v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-19-00568-CR NO. 03-19-00569-CR

Alfredo Rodriguez Oviedo, Appellant

v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

FROM THE 147TH DISTRICT COURT OF TRAVIS COUNTY NOS. D-1-DC-18-300184 & D-1-DC-18-300185, THE HONORABLE CLIFFORD A. BROWN, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Alfredo Rodriguez Oviedo pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated

sexual assault of a child. See Tex. Penal Code § 22.021(a)(2)(B). Pursuant to a plea bargain, the

trial court sentenced Rodriguez Oviedo to thirty years’ confinement on each count, with the

sentences to run concurrently. In two issues, Rodriguez Oviedo challenges the trial court’s

denial of his motion for new trial and refusal of his request for a hearing on the motion. We will

affirm the trial court’s judgments of conviction. BACKGROUND1

Rodriguez Oviedo was charged by indictment with two counts of aggravated

sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child by contact, and one count of

indecency with a child by exposure. Pursuant to a plea bargain, Rodriguez Oviedo pleaded

guilty to the two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. In exchange, the State waived

the remaining counts and dismissed felony charges—including a charge of continuous sexual

abuse of a child—pending against Rodriguez Oviedo in other cases. The trial court followed the

punishment recommended by the State in the plea bargain and sentenced Rodriguez Oviedo to

thirty years’ confinement on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Rodriguez Oviedo filed a motion for new trial, contending that his guilty plea was

involuntary because he had been denied effective assistance of counsel. In support of his

motion, Rodriguez Oviedo attached an unsworn declaration, in which he alleged that his trial

counsel had failed to conduct an adequate investigation or prepare for trial.

The trial court, in an effort to resolve the issue, ordered trial counsel to submit an

affidavit responding to Rodriguez Oviedo’s allegations. Following the submission of

trial counsel’s affidavit, Rodriguez Oviedo filed an affidavit from his brother,

Armando Rodriguez, in support of the motion, as well as a proposed order setting a hearing on

the motion. Trial counsel, in turn, filed an affidavit from another brother of Rodriguez Oviedo’s,

1 The following uncontroverted facts are taken from the parties’ briefing and the record before the Court.

2 Juan Luis Rodriguez Oviedo.2 The trial court denied the motion for new trial without a hearing,

and this appeal followed.3

STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review a trial court’s ruling on a motion for new trial, as well as its decision

on whether to hold a hearing on the motion, for an abuse of discretion. Corporon v. State,

586 S.W.3d 550, 557 (Tex. App.—Austin 2019, no pet.); see Gonzalez v. State, 616 S.W.3d 585,

594 (Tex. Crim. App. 2020); Gonzales v. State, 304 S.W.3d 838, 842 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010).

“In so doing, we reverse only when the trial judge’s decision was so clearly wrong as to lie

outside that zone within which reasonable persons might disagree.” Gonzales, 304 S.W.3d at

842 (quoting Smith v. State, 286 S.W.3d 333, 339–40 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009)). The trial court’s

ruling is within the zone of reasonable disagreement “when there are two reasonable views of the

evidence.” Id.

DISCUSSION

In two issues, Rodriguez Oviedo complains that the trial court abused its

discretion in denying his motion for new trial and refusing his request to hold a hearing on the

motion.

2 Because Rodriguez Oviedo and his brother share a surname, we will refer to Juan Luis by his first names. 3 Although Rodriguez Oviedo waived his right to appeal as a term of the plea bargain, the trial court gave him permission to appeal its order denying the motion for new trial. See Tex. R. App. P. 25.2(a)(2)(B) (providing that in plea bargain case, defendant may appeal after getting trial court’s permission). 3 Denial of the Motion for New Trial

In his first issue, Rodriguez Oviedo contends that the trial court abused its

discretion by denying his motion for new trial. In the motion, Rodriguez Oviedo alleged that his

guilty plea was involuntary because he received ineffective assistance of counsel prior to the plea

proceeding. Specifically, Rodriguez Oviedo complained that his attorney failed to conduct an

adequate investigation or prepare for trial, against Rodriguez Oviedo’s expressed wishes.

Rodriguez Oviedo claimed that trial counsel’s deficient representation rendered his

plea involuntary.

Rodriguez Oviedo asserts that trial counsel’s affidavit, filed in opposition to the

motion for new trial, “failed to refute the facts showing an entitlement to relief,” and the

trial court therefore denied the motion “without there being any evidence contradicting

[Rodriguez Oviedo’s] factual allegations.” Rodriguez Oviedo maintains that but for trial

counsel’s actions, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial.

“[W]hen analyzing the trial court’s decision to deny a new trial based on

ineffective assistance of counsel, we view the relevant legal standards through the prism of an

abuse-of-discretion standard.” Branch v. State, 335 S.W.3d 893, 904 (Tex. App.—Austin 2011,

pet. ref’d). The test is not whether, in our opinion, “the facts present an appropriate case for the

trial court’s action” but whether the trial court “acted without reference to any guiding rules or

principles.” State v. Herndon, 215 S.W.3d 901, 907 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007) (quoting Howell

v. State, 175 S.W.3d 786, 792 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005)). We view the evidence in the light

most favorable to the trial court’s ruling. Gonzalez, 616 S.W.3d at 594 (internal quotation

marks omitted).

4 When, as here, the trial court has not made express findings, we “will imply

findings necessary to support the ruling if they are reasonable and supported by the record” and

presume that the trial court made all findings in favor of the prevailing party. State v. Gutierrez,

541 S.W.3d 91, 98 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017); see Okonkwo v. State, 398 S.W.3d 689, 694 (Tex.

Crim. App. 2013). The trial court, as factfinder, is the sole judge of witness credibility.

Okonkwo, 398 S.W.3d at 694. We must afford “almost total deference to a trial court’s findings

of historical facts as well as mixed questions of law and fact that turn on an evaluation of

credibility and demeanor.” Id. This is so even when the court’s determinations are based solely

on affidavits, regardless of whether they are controverted. Id. Claims of ineffective assistance of

counsel “involve mixed questions of law and fact that often contain[ ] subsidiary questions of

historical fact, some of which may turn upon the credibility and demeanor of witnesses.”

Odelugo v. State, 443 S.W.3d 131, 137 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014) (internal quotation marks

omitted).

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