Benson v. State

224 S.W.3d 485, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 2684, 2007 WL 1020463
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 5, 2007
Docket01-05-00063-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by61 cases

This text of 224 S.W.3d 485 (Benson v. State) 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
Benson v. State, 224 S.W.3d 485, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 2684, 2007 WL 1020463 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

EN BANC OPINION

ELSA ALCALA, Justice.

Appellant, James Hail Benson, appeals from the trial court’s judgment that revoked his deferred adjudication and sentenced him to 12 years in prison and a $500 fine for the second-degree felony of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. See Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 22.02(a)-(b) (Vernon Supp.2006). In his first issue, appellant asserts that the trial court erred by failing to appoint appellate counsel in time for him to file a motion for new trial. He asks that we abate the present appeal and remand the cause to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether he received effective assistance of counsel during the period for filing a motion for new trial. In his second and third issues, appellant contends that the 12-year sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and violates his due process rights. We conclude that the Court of Criminal Appeals has disapproved of our procedure that requires abatement for an evidentiary hearing, as set forth in Jack v. State, 42 S.W.3d 291, 294 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2001, order) (Jack I). See also Jack v. State, 64 S.W.3d 694, 696-97 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2002) (Jack II), pet. dism’d, 149 S.W.3d 119 (Tex.Crim.App.2004) (Jack III). We decline to abate the appeal, and hold that appellant has failed on direct appeal to rebut the presumption that he was represented by trial counsel during the period of time for filing a motion for new trial. We further hold that he waived the right to complain about the length of his sentence because he failed to object on those grounds to the trial court. We affirm.

Procedural Background

In February 2000, the trial court accepted appellant’s guilty plea and placed him on five years’ deferred adjudication community supervision for aggravated assault. About four years later, the State filed a motion to adjudicate appellant’s guilt, alleging that he committed another aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Appellant, who was represented by appointed [489]*489attorney John Clark, pleaded not true to the allegation. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court found the allegation true. In the punishment phase of the hearing, no additional evidence was introduced, but each side made a closing argument, with the State requesting a sentence near the maximum of 20 years and appellant’s attorney asking for a sentence in the range of five or six years. The trial court sentenced appellant to 12 years in prison and a $500 fine on July 20, 2004. After appellant was sentenced, his trial counsel neither objected to the sentence, nor filed a motion to withdraw from the case, nor filed anything else with the trial court.

Nine days after sentencing, appellant filed a pro se notice of appeal. Appellant’s pro se notice of appeal states, “Appellant, an indigent, prays for the setting of APPEAL BOND, and NOT BEING REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL SINCE SENTENCING also prays for the APPOINTMENT OF APPELLATE COUNSEL.” On January 14, 2005, almost five months after appellant filed the notice of appeal, the trial court certified appellant’s right of appeal,1 which included the notation that appellant’s attorneys were “J. Clark/J. Guerinot.” On February 18, 2005, appellant filed a pro se motion in this Court requesting an extension of time to file a pro se brief.

On March 7, 2005, we abated the appeal. In our order of abatement, we stated, “The problem is that appellant is not represented by counsel on appeal.” (Emphasis added.) We ordered the trial court to conduct a hearing to determine whether appellant wished to pursue the appeal and whether appellant was indigent. Our order required the trial court to appoint appellate counsel for appellant if appellant desired to pursue the appeal and was found to be indigent. On April 15, 2005, the trial court conducted the hearing that was ordered by our abatement. At the hearing, the trial court found appellant to be indigent and appointed appellate counsel for appellant. At the time that appellate counsel was appointed, the trial court judge stated, “Well, I don’t know why you weren’t appointed a lawyer on appeal ... because you should have been appointed a lawyer. ...” (Emphasis added.) The hearing following our March 7 abatement did not address whether appellant was represented by trial counsel during the 30-day-window for filing a motion for new trial; rather, it concerned only whether appellant was represented by appointed counsel to pursue the appeal.

After we reinstated the appeal, appellant’s newly appointed appellate counsel filed an appellate brief that requested a second abatement of the case, citing to Jack I and Jack II. See Jack I, 42 S.W.3d at 294; Jack II, 64 S.W.3d at 696-97. On July 19, 2006, we issued an order that abated this cause for a second time. Our order stated, ‘We abate the appeal and remand the cause for a hearing to determine whether appellant had counsel, and whether he received ineffective assistance of counsel, during the 30-day period for filing a motion for new trial.” While the first abatement order instructed the trial court to address appellant’s lack of representation by appellate counsel for the appeal, in the second abatement we instructed the trial court to address appellant’s purported lack of representation by trial counsel during the 30-day period for filing a motion for new trial. In our order abat[490]*490ing the case for the second time, we stated, “Once the appeal is reinstated, we will rule on appellant’s request to file an out-of-time motion for new trial.” We therefore did not rule on the merits of whether we would allow appellant to file an out-of-time motion for new trial, which was the ultimate remedy sought by appellant. Instead, we opted to wait to decide that issue until after the trial court conducted an eviden-tiary hearing on whether appellant was represented by trial counsel during the 30-day window for filing a motion for new trial.

The State filed a motion to reconsider the order that abated the case for a second time. Upon the State’s motion requesting rehearing, and after requesting a response from appellant, we withdrew the order abating this case, and reinstated the appeal on September 6, 2006. The trial court, therefore, never conducted the evi-dentiary hearing that had been ordered in the second abatement, concerning whether appellant was represented by trial counsel during the 30-day-window for filing a motion for new trial.

Representation During Window for Filing Motion for New Trial

In his first issue, appellant contends that he was denied his right to counsel at a critical stage of the proceedings against him — the period of time for filing a motion for new trial — because the trial court failed to appoint appellate counsel immediately after sentencing. Appellant requests remand of the cause to the trial court with instructions that appellant be permitted to file a motion for new trial and for the trial court to conduct a hearing on the motion. The State responds that we should discontinue our practice of abating appeals for the trial court to determine whether appellant was deprived of counsel during the period of time for filing a motion for new trial because we lack statutory or procedural authority to do so, and because the Court of Criminal Appeals has disapproved of the practice.

A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
224 S.W.3d 485, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 2684, 2007 WL 1020463, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/benson-v-state-texapp-2007.