Ashlee Dunbar v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 23, 2020·No. 03-18-00674-CR·Published

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-18-00673-CR NO. 03-18-00674-CR

Ashlee Dunbar, Appellant

v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

FROM THE 424TH DISTRICT COURT OF LLANO COUNTY NOS. CR7254, CR7255, THE HONORABLE EVAN C. STUBBS, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Ashlee Dunbar appeals the trial court’s judgments revoking community

supervision. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.755. Raising four points of error, appellant

argues that the trial judge and her court-appointed attorney violated her constitutional rights and

that the trial court improperly assessed attorney’s fees. For the following reasons, we affirm the

judgments revoking community supervision in trial court cause number CR7255, and we modify

the judgment revoking community supervision in trial court cause number CR7254 to remove

the assessment of attorney’s fees and, as modified, affirm the judgment.

Background

Pursuant to a plea bargain, appellant pleaded guilty in July 2017 to the

second-degree felony offense of possession of a controlled substance in trial court cause number CR7254, see Tex. Health & Safety Code § 481.115(d), and to three counts of the state-jail felony

offense of endangering a child in trial court cause number CR7255, see Tex. Penal Code

§ 22.041(f). The trial court sentenced appellant to ten years’ confinement in cause number

CR7254 and two years’ confinement for each count in cause number CR7255 but suspended

imposition of the sentences and placed appellant on community supervision for five years in both

causes. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.053.

The State filed a motion to revoke in both causes in February 2018. Appellant

signed a waiver of rights and pleaded true to the alleged violations of the terms and conditions of

her community supervision as set forth in the following paragraphs of the State’s motions

to revoke:

5. The defendant failed to report in person to the Probation Officer of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department of Wichita County, Texas, (courtesy supervision) as directed by the Probation officer for the following months: December 2017, January 2018 and February 2018, with a last report date of November 7, 2017. The Defendant failed to report by mail or online to Llano County for the months of December 2017, January 2018 and February 2018.

....

12. The defendant failed to submit to a (urine or hair follicle) test requested by the Community Supervision Officer on November 7, 2017 (a fail to submit) and November 8, 2017 (a fail to report).

13. The defendant failed to participate and work, without compensation, ten hours per month in a community service restitution program or task as directed by the Community Supervision Officer for a total of 375.00 hours.

14. The defendant failed to pay the following amounts to and through the Community Supervision and Corrections Department:

a. The defendant is $175.00 delinquent in Court costs.

b. The Defendant is $420.00 delinquent in Probation Fees.

2 c. The Defendant is $35.00 delinquent in Crime Stoppers fee to the LLANO Crime Stoppers Program.

e. The Defendant is $140.00 delinquent in Fines.

f. The Defendant is $175.00 delinquent in Court appointed attorney fees.

The trial court heard the State’s motions to revoke in September 2018. The

exhibits included appellant’s waiver of rights and plea of true to the State’s allegations in the

above-stated paragraphs in both causes. After the State abandoned the allegation in paragraph 12

that defendant failed to report on November 8, 2017, appellant pleaded true in open court to the

remaining allegations. In addition to the exhibits, the trial court was provided with the incident

report from the original charges, appellant’s criminal history, and a presentence investigation

report. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.253 (addressing contents of presentence report).

Defense counsel represented to the trial court that they had a copy of the presentence report and

that he “[had] been informed that everything was correct and accurate to the best of [appellant]’s

knowledge.” Id. art. 42A.255 (allowing defendant or defendant’s attorney to comment on

presentence report and, “with the approval of the judge, introduce testimony or other information

alleging a factual inaccuracy in the investigation or report”).

During the hearing’s punishment phase, the State did not call any witnesses, and

the defense called only appellant. Appellant testified that she did not report to the “probation

office” because of an “abusive boyfriend” who “was trying to hunt [her] down anywhere and

everywhere,” knew the location of the office, and would wait outside the office. She also

testified that she met with her community supervision officer in November 2017, but she had not

kept in touch with the officer after that meeting because the officer asked her to take a drug test,

and she “did not have the money to do it and [she had not] kept in contact with her since.” After

3 closing arguments, the trial court asked appellant about her children, the children’s father, and

her work history. Appellant testified that her cousin who lived in Kansas had adopted her

children, that appellant “[had not] had any communication with them since they were taken,” and

that the children’s father was in prison from the incident that formed the underlying basis of the

State’s original charges against her.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court found that appellant had violated

the conditions of supervision, revoked appellant’s community supervision in both causes, and

sentenced her to seven years’ confinement in cause number CR7254 and two years’ confinement

for each count in cause number CR7255. These appeals followed.

Analysis

Challenge to Trial Judge’s Impartiality

In her first point of error, appellant challenges the trial court’s impartiality based

on the trial judge’s allegedly “improper comments” during the punishment phase of the

revocation hearing. Appellant characterizes the trial judge’s comments as “exhibit[ing] disgust

and a moral judgment in reaching his decision to revoke appellant’s [community supervision]”

and alleges that the comments reveal a lack of impartiality that violated her rights under the

Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and Article I,

Sections 10 and 19, of the Texas Constitution.

As an initial matter, we observe that appellant did not object to the trial court’s

comments or to her sentence at the time it was imposed, and she did not move for the trial

judge’s recusal. See Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a) (stating that failure to raise contemporaneous

objection generally results in failure to preserve error); see also Tex. R. Civ. P. 18a (providing

4 procedure for judge’s recusal); Unkart v. State, 400 S.W.3d 94, 99 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013)

(explaining that ordinarily complaint regarding improper judicial comment must be preserved at

trial). For purposes of this appeal, we assume without deciding that appellant’s first point of

error may be raised for the first time on appeal. See Loge v. State, 550 S.W.3d 366, 378 (Tex.

App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2018, no pet.) (assuming without deciding that appellant’s

complaint about judicial comments that allegedly violated appellant’s “right to an impartial

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