Brandon Rashad Burton v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided August 5, 2019·No. 05-18-00608-CR·Published

Opinion

Affirmed as Modified; Opinion Filed August 5, 2019.

In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-18-00608-CR

No. 05-18-00609-CR

No. 05-18-00610-CR

BRANDON RASHAD BURTON, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 291st Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas

Trial Court Cause Nos. F17-00846-U, F17-55788-U, and F16-51151-U

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Myers, Molberg, and Carlyle Opinion by Justice Myers

These are appeals from a judgment of conviction for evading arrest or

detention (with a prior evading arrest conviction);1 a judgment of conviction for assault family violence by impeding breath/circulation;2 and a judgment adjudicating guilt for the offense of evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle.3 In three issues, appellant contends the judgments should be reformed in various ways, and

1 05-18-00608-CR/F17-00846-U 2 05-18-00609-CR/F17-55788-U 3 05-18-00610-CR/F16-51151-U

the State has brought six cross-points requesting further modifications of the judgments. As modified, we affirm the trial court’s judgments.4 BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY In 2016, pursuant to a plea agreement, appellant pleaded no contest and judicially confessed to the offense of evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle.5 See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.04(a), (b)(2)(A). He also pleaded true to the enhancement paragraph alleging a prior felony conviction for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

With the enhancement paragraph, the third degree felony offense was elevated to a second degree felony and a punishment range of not more than twenty years or less than two, and a fine not to exceed $10,000. See id. §§ 12.33(a), 12.42(a), 38.04(b)(2)(A). The plea agreement also provided that appellant would be placed on deferred adjudication community supervision for three years and a $1,000 fine would be “probated.” The trial court accepted appellant’s pleas and, at another hearing held two weeks later, placed appellant on deferred adjudication community supervision for three years and ordered a $1,000 fine.

4 On March 12, 2019, the State filed an unopposed motion to abate these appeals. This motion asked us to abate the appeals

and return them to the trial court for an explicit finding on whether appellant had the trial court’s permission to appeal. Because of ambiguity in the records, we granted the State’s motion in part and ordered the trial court to conduct a hearing to determine whether appellant pleaded guilty pursuant to plea bargain agreements; whether appellant waived his right to appeal as part of the agreements; and whether appellant was sentenced in accordance with the plea bargain agreements. The trial court found, among other things, that appellant had pleaded guilty and/or true pursuant to plea bargain agreements with the State and that the court granted appellant permission to appeal in each case. See, e.g., TEX. R. APP. P. 25.2(a)(2); Hargesheimer v. State, 182 S.W.3d 906, 912 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006); Radford v. State, No. 05–18–00764–CR, 2018 WL 6616896, at *1 (Tex. App.––Dallas Dec. 18, 2018, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication). Based on the trial court’s findings, we concluded in an order signed on April 10, 2019, that appellant had the right to appeal in all three cases, and we reinstated the appeals.

5 05–18–00610–CR/F16–51151–U

In 2017, while on community supervision for the 2016 evading arrest offense, appellant committed two additional offenses: a family violence assault involving impeding breath/circulation, and another evading arrest offense. See id. §§ 22.01(b– 2); 38.04(a), (b)(1). The State filed a motion to adjudicate appellant’s guilt in the 2016 evading arrest offense, and the State’s motion ultimately alleged as grounds the family violence assault,6 the 2017 evading arrest offense,7 three more offenses, and six other violations of the terms of deferred adjudication. Appellant negotiated plea agreements where he received concurrent sentences in all three cases and a six- year cap on his incarceration in the 2016 evading arrest and the family violence assault cases.

The trial court held a hearing where it adjudicated all three cases. Appellant pleaded true to the allegations in the motion to adjudicate in the 2016 evading arrest case. He also pleaded guilty to the family violence assault indictment and true to the punishment enhancement, and guilty to the 2017 evading arrest indictment. The court assessed five-year sentences in the 2016 evading arrest and the family violence assault cases, and a six-month sentence in the 2017 evading arrest case, with all of the sentences to be served concurrently.

6 05-18-00609-CR/F17-55788-U 7 05-18-00608-CR/F17-00846-U

DISCUSSION

1. Appellant’s Post-Submission Motion to Dismiss After the State’s brief was filed and following the submission of these cases, appellant filed a motion based on rule 42.2(a) of the rules of appellate procedure for the voluntary dismissal of these appeals. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.2(a) (providing in part that “[a]t any time before the appellate court’s decision, the appellate court may dismiss the appeal upon the appellant’s motion.”).

The State’s response argues in part that our jurisdiction has been invoked and the parties’ briefs have called our attention to various errors in the judgments––errors we have duty to address. See Asberry v. State, 813 S.W.2d 526, 531 (Tex. App.–– Dallas 1991, pet. ref’d) (“For an appellate court to ignore its duty to correct the record to speak the truth when the matter has been called to its attention by any source, and when it has the necessary data to do so, and to force a later nunc pro tunc proceeding in the trial court ensuring the possibility of another appeal in the same case, as happened here, does nothing to aid judicial economy.”). The State also urges us to exercise our discretion under rule 42.2 and deny appellant’s motion so as to not encourage the “opportunistic squandering of judicial resources.” The State points out that rule 42.2 merely provides that we “may” dismiss the appeals. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.2(a). The use of the word “may” indicates discretionary authority. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 311.016(1) (“‘May’ creates discretionary authority or grants permission or a power.”).

Appellant’s brief in the above appeals requested certain modifications of the judgments. The State’s response agreed with several of the requested modifications, disputed another, and brought six cross-points seeking additional modifications of the judgments. These cases were submitted on the briefs approximately one month later, and they had been submitted for approximately two weeks when appellant filed his rule 42.2 motion to dismiss. We agree with the State that dismissing the appeals now would risk the needless consumption of judicial resources because the parties could still move for judgments nunc pro tunc in the trial court, and after the court held a hearing on those motions, ruled on them, and issued judgments nunc pro tunc, appellant would have a right to appeal to this Court again from the nunc pro tunc judgments. See Guthrie-Nail v. State, 543 S.W.3d 225, 227 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018) (oral ratification of a prior nunc pro tunc judgment is not appealable order; trial court must enter new nunc pro tunc judgment which would be appealable.); see also Asberry, 813 S.W.2d at 531. We believe the better course is to address the issues raised by the parties, modifying the judgments and affirming those judgments as modified. Accordingly, we deny appellant’s rule 42.2 motion to dismiss.

DISCUSSION

2. The 2017 Evading Arrest Case In his first issue, appellant contends the judgment in the 2017 evading arrest case should be modified to delete the duplicative court costs from the judgment because the trial court may assess costs only once against a defendant when

disposing of multiple cases in a single criminal action. The State agrees with this requested modification.

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