Cagle v. State

976 S.W.2d 879, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 5535, 1998 WL 647978
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 26, 1998
Docket12-97-00358-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 976 S.W.2d 879 (Cagle 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
Cagle v. State, 976 S.W.2d 879, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 5535, 1998 WL 647978 (Tex. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

HOLCOMB, Justice.

This is an appeal brought by Jessie Nolan Cagle (“Appellant”), from his conviction of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Appellant was also found guilty of indecency with a child, but he makes no complaint of this conviction on appeal. At trial, Appellant waived a jury and the trial court, after considering the evidence and arguments of counsel, assessed his punishment at twenty years’ imprisonment for indecency with a child and forty years’ confinement for aggravated sexual assault of a child. Appellant complains in his sole issue that “the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction.” We will affirm.

Since Appellant does not specify whether his complaint concerns legal or factual sufficiency, we will review both. The standard for reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence is “whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); see also Gees a v. State, 820 S.W.2d 154, 156-57 (Tex.Cr.App. 1991); Richardson v. State, 879 S.W.2d 874, 879 (Tex.Cr.App.1993), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1085, 115 S.Ct. 741, 130 L.Ed.2d 643 (1995). An appellate court should uphold the trier of fact unless its decision is found to be irrational or unsupported by more than a mere modicum of evidence. Moreno v. State, 755 S.W.2d 866, 867 (Tex.Cr.App.1988). All conflicts in the evidence should be resolved in favor of the verdict and every reasonable inference indulged. Turro v. State, 867 S.W.2d 43, 47-48 (Tex.Cr.App.1993). The trier of fact, in this case the trial judge, is the exclusive judge of the facts and credibility of the "witnesses and the weight to be given the testimony, and he is entitled to accept or reject any or all of any witness’ testimony. Penagraph v. State, 623 S.W.2d 341, 343 (Tex.Cr.App.1981). Once an appellate court has determined that the evidence is legally sufficient to support the verdict, the court must then proceed to review the factual sufficiency of the evidence. Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 133 (Tex.Cr.App.1996). In conducting a factual sufficiency review, we must view all of the evidence impartially and set aside the verdict only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. Id. at 134; Bigby v. State, 892 S.W.2d 864, 875 (Tex.Cr.App.1994), cer t. denied 515 U.S. 1162, 115 S.Ct. 2617, 132 L.Ed.2d 860 (1995).

The testimony of the sexual victim alone is sufficient evidence of penetration. Garcia v. State, 563 S.W.2d 925, 928 (Tex.Cr.App.1978). And the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has also expressed its view on a child victim’s testimony as follows:

... [W]e cannot expect the child victims of violent crimes to testify with the same clarity and ability as is expected of mature and capable adults. To expect such testimonial capabilities of children would be to condone, if not encourage, the searching out of children to be the victims of crime *881 such as the instant offense in order to evade successful prosecution.

Villalon v. State, 791 S.W.2d 130, 134 (Tex.Cr.App.1990). Also, in Villalon, the court concluded that “the rule in this jurisdiction [is] that penetration may be proven by circumstantial evidence.” Id. at 133. With these standards in mind, we will set forth as impartially as possible that evidence presented at trial.

The victim (“E.F.”) was eleven years old at the time of trial, but was eight when the charged offense oecuiTed. She lived in a rural area in Wood County, Texas, with her mother, Betty Lou Ferrell (“Betty”), and two sisters, S.F. who was eight years of age, and M .F., who was three years of age. E.F. and S.F. each had their own bedroom and M.F. slept with her mother. It was not unusual for Appellant, Betty’s half-brother, to occasionally spend the night at the Ferrell home, as did Betty’s cousin, Weldon Gene Crawson (“Crawson”). In May 1994, both Appellant and Crawson spent the night in the Ferrell home. Appellant slept on a pallet in the front room and Crawson slept in E.F.’s room while E.F. slept with S.F. in her room. The next morning around seven o’clock, Betty found both Appellant and E.F. on the pallet. Betty described them as lying on their sides with E.F.’s back toward Appellant’s front, with their bodies at the same angle, touching and covered with a blanket. They were apparently clothed and neither was asleep. When Betty confronted Appellant as to why they were lying together, Appellant stated that he put her in bed with him because E.F. was coughing. Although Betty did not suspect any misconduct at the time, she did not approve of her eight-year-old daughter being in bed with her half-brother. She immediately told Appellant and Crawson to leave and that they could never spend the night there again. Upon questioning by her mother, E.F. denied that Appellant had “fooled” with her.

In November of 1996, the victim made an outcry and told her mother that Appellant had put his “thing” in her butt. Betty stated that E.F. referred to her anus as her “butt,” her sexual organ as her “front,” and the male organ as a “thing.” E.F. identified an anatomical drawing of her “butt” and his “thing”. She testified at trial that Appellant earned her from her bed into the front room and put his “thing” in her “butt.” E.F. further testified that she tried to get away, but that he would not let her go. She also stated that Appellant had done the same thing to her “five or six” times before. After hearing her daughter’s outcry, Betty contacted the Wood County Sheriffs Department and reported E.F.’s statements to Juvenile Investigator Joyce Box (“Box”), who began a sexual assault investigation. In the course of the investigation, Box met with Appellant, who gave two voluntary statements which were admitted into evidence during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. Although Appellant denied both penile and finger penetration, he admitted that he rubbed the victim’s vagina and the rest of her body. He also placed his penis between her legs and rubbed it back and forth. Appellant confessed that he had molested E.F. and that he was sick and was ashamed of what he had done. He further confirmed the victim’s testimony that he carried her from her bed into the front room and laid her on the pallet with him. He stated that he had sexually touched her on other occasions, as well.

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Bluebook (online)
976 S.W.2d 879, 1998 Tex. App. LEXIS 5535, 1998 WL 647978, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cagle-v-state-texapp-1998.