Byars v. State

691 S.W.2d 48, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 6983
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 24, 1985·No. No. 04-83-00422-CR·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ESQUIVEL, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction in a sexual abuse case.1

Appellant was charged by indictment with the offense of sexual abuse. The jury found appellant guilty of the offense charged, and the trial court assessed his punishment at nine (9) years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Corrections. Appellant’s motion for new trial was overruled by operation of law. He timely filed his notice of appeal. We affirm.

We will address appellant’s three grounds of error not in the order submitted but under the particular categories therein set out, i.e.: (1) Jury Deliberation; (2) Extraneous Offense; and (3) Effective Assistance of Counsel.

[50]*50JURY DELIBERATION

In his ground of error number two, appellant alleges that the trial court erred “in failing to grant a mistrial sua sponte based in fact upon the length of jury deliberation.”

The record reflects that appellant objected to the submission of an Allen2 charge to the jury but failed to request a mistrial and a ruling of the court thereon. Counsel’s failure to so move for a mistrial will be addressed in our later discussion concerning effective assistance of counsel.

Appellant’s complaint under this particular ground of error is not directed to the contents of the Allen instruction but instead is directed to the amount of time spent in deliberation by the jury prior to and after the instruction. Appellant contends that the amount of time spent in deliberation mandated a discharge of the jury sua sponte by the court rather than an instruction to deliberate further. We disagree with appellant.

A review of the record reveals that after the jury had deliberated for almost five hours, excluding a break for lunch, the jury sent a note to the trial judge, signed by the foreman, which said that they were unable to arrive at a unanimous decision. The jury returned to the courtroom and the following colloquy took place:

THE COURT: Will the Foreman raise your hand? Have you been able to reach a unanimous verdict?
THE FOREMAN: No, we have not.
THE COURT: Are you going to be able to reach a unanimous verdict?
THE FOREMAN: We tried several times and are unable to do it.

The court then read the Allen charge and sent the jury back to the jury room for further deliberation. Two hours later the jury sent the following note to the trial judge, signed by the foreman: “After 7 hours this jury is unable to reach a unanimous decision — no further deliberation will change the outcome — (deadlock).” When informed of the note by the court, out of the presence of the jury, appellant’s attorney urged the court to sua sponte declare a mistrial because appellant was not going to make such a motion. Appellant’s attorney, however, advised the court that “[w]e would like to arrive at some conclusion today one way or the other.” The court regarded this as a desire on appellant’s part to keep the jury deliberating and had the jury brought into the courtroom. The trial judge read the jury’s note to the fore-< man and proceeded to tell the jury about dinner arrangements. He then ordered every one except the jury out of the courtroom. After a short period of time the judge and the parties returned to the courtroom and the judge received two notes, the first of which was signed by the foreman and read: “It has been stated that no matter how long it takes these minds will not be changed.” In response to this note the judge advised the jury that he was going to keep them deliberating and would keep making some arrangements. The second note which was unsigned was then received by the judge. It read: “Does ‘other’ arrangements mean we might or will have over-night arrangements? If there will be over-night arrangements I will need to make a couple of phone calls.” The trial judge assured the jurors that he had “not decided that point yet” and sent the jury back to the jury room to deliberate until 7:30 P.M. at which time they would go to dinner. The record is silent as to whether the jury did go to dinner. In any event, almost three and one-half hours later, at 10:30 P.M., the jury sent in a note, signed by the foreman, that they had come to a complete agreement. The jury was brought back to the courtroom and announced that they found appellant guilty as charged. The jurors were polled by the court asking each one if that was their verdict. There is no record of any juror answering in the negative.

The rule is well settled that the length of time a jury deliberates is largely discretionary with the trial court and absent a showing of abuse of discretion there [51]*51is no reversible error. Rodela v. State, 666 S.W.2d 652, 653 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1984, pet. ref d); TEX.CODE CRIM.PROC. ANN. art. 36.31 (Vernon 1981). In this case the jury deliberated five hours prior to the submission of the Allen charge and five and one-half hours after the submission of the Allen charge before reaching a verdict. It is noted that the testimony in this case took one full day. Given the nature of the case and the amount of testimony adduced during trial we cannot say that the court abused its discretion in requiring the jury to deliberate ten and one-half hours. Cf. Johnson v. State, 630 S.W.2d 291, 294 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1981), pet. refd per curiam, 629 S.W.2d 953 (Tex.Crim.App.1982). Appellant’s ground of error number two is overruled.

EXTRANEOUS OFFENSE

Appellant contends that the trial court erroneously permitted the State to elicit from its rebuttal witness testimony of an extraneous offense for which appellant had not been charged or convicted.

We find it unnecessary to recite the sordid facts. It is sufficient to state that appellant’s testimony admitting that he placed his genitals in contact with the mouth of the prosecutrix, that he did so with her consent and without resistance on her part, and that he used no force or threats, directly contradicted the testimony previously given by the prosecutrix. Appellant clearly raised the defensive theory of consent.

In order to be convicted of the now repealed offense of sexual abuse, appellant must have engaged in conduct intentionally and knowingly without the pros-ecutrix’s consent. It is the lack of consent on the part of the prosecutrix that was the gravamen of the offense of sexual abuse. When the defensive theory of consent is raised, a defendant necessarily disputes his intent to do the act without the consent of the prosecutrix. His intent is thereby placed in issue and such intent cannot be inferred from the mere sexual act with the prosecutrix. The State may then offer extraneous offenses which are relevant to that contested issue. See Rubio v. State, 607 S.W.2d 498, 501 (Tex.Crim.App.1980).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Byars v. State, 691 S.W.2d 48, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 6983 (Tex. Ct. App. 1985).

691 S.W.2d 48 (Byars v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Kelli Rae O'Dea v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013
Burnett v. State
754 S.W.2d 437 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)