Carlos Enrique Lorduy v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 23, 2023
Docket10-22-00161-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Carlos Enrique Lorduy v. the State of Texas (Carlos Enrique Lorduy v. the State of Texas) 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
Carlos Enrique Lorduy v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

IN THE TENTH COURT OF APPEALS

No. 10-22-00159-CR No. 10-22-00160-CR No. 10-22-00161-CR

CARLOS ENRIQUE LORDUY, Appellant v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

From the 443rd District Court Ellis County, Texas Trial Court Nos. 44583CR, 44584CR, and 44585CR

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Carlos Enrique Lorduy was charged by multiple grand jury indictments with the

third-degree felony offense of assault upon a person who was a member of Lorduy’s

family or household by impeding the person’s normal breathing or circulation (assault

family violence by strangulation), with the second-degree felony offense of aggravated

assault with a deadly weapon causing bodily injury, with the second-degree felony offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by threat, with the third-degree

felony offense of continuous violence against the family, and with the felony offense of

animal cruelty. The jury acquitted Lorduy of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon

by threat and animal cruelty. The jury found Lorduy guilty of assault family violence by

strangulation, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing bodily injury, and

continuous violence against the family. The jury assessed Lorduy’s punishment at four

years, eight years, and three years, respectively, in the penitentiary, and the trial court

imposed sentence accordingly. Lorduy brings this appeal and raises five issues.

Issues One, Four, and Five

In issue one, Lorduy contends that it was a double-jeopardy violation under the

Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution and a violation of Penal Code section

25.11(d) for the State to subject him to multiple prosecutions and multiple punishments,

purportedly circumventing legislative intent as it relates to allowable units of

prosecution. Despite the issue as set forth in Lorduy’s brief, Lorduy’s argument is that

his trial counsel was ineffective for not filing a pretrial motion to quash or set aside the

indictment and that, as a result, he was punished for the same offense in violation of the

multiple-punishment protections provided by the double-jeopardy clause of the Fifth

Amendment. In Lorduy’s fourth issue, he contends that the record as a whole

demonstrates his trial counsel was ineffective. Lorduy argues that trial counsel failed to

investigate the victim’s criminal and social history, failed to call an expert witness, failed

Lorduy v. State Page 2 to file a motion to dismiss under article 32.01 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and

failed to conduct pretrial discovery. In Lorduy’s fifth issue, he contends that prior

appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to properly raise an issue at the hearing on

his motion for new trial.

Issue one raises a double-jeopardy complaint and an ineffective-assistance-of-

counsel complaint. We will address the double-jeopardy issue first and then address all

ineffective-assistance-of-counsel issues together.

Double Jeopardy

Lorduy contends that convicting him of “10 counts . . . violated legislative intent,

i.e., subject[ed] [him] to double jeopardy.” The “10 counts” referred to by Lorduy are the

specific underlying acts of bodily-injury assault alleged in the continuous-violence-

against-the-family indictment. Lorduy’s rationale is that the assault-family-violence-by-

strangulation and the aggravated-assault-with-a-deadly-weapon-causing-bodily-injury

convictions with the continuous-violence-against-the-family conviction exceed the

allowable units of prosecution. Lorduy relies on Ellison v. State, 425 S.W.3d 637 (Tex.

App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2014, no pet.), to support his contention. In Ellison, the State

charged the defendant in two separate indictments with continuous violence against the

family. One indictment alleged two specific underlying acts of bodily-injury assault, and

the other indictment alleged three specific underlying acts of bodily-injury assault. Id. at

640. The problem in Ellison was that the same two underlying acts of bodily-injury assault

Lorduy v. State Page 3 were repeated in both indictments. Id. at 645. The court reasoned that “a double jeopardy

violation results if the State attempts to punish [the defendant] for any underlying bodily-

injury assault both under a separate assault count and as part of a continuous family

violence count.” Id. at 647. The court concluded that the “plain, clear language of section

25.11 indicates that the allowable unit of prosecution for double jeopardy purposes here

is a series of at least two bodily-injury assaults committed within a certain 12–months–

or–less period against a single victim in a dating relationship with [the defendant].” Id.

at 648. The court added that “section 25.11 indicates that only one punishment is

intended in cases of continuous family violence where the specific underlying acts of

bodily-injury assault upon which the defendant was convicted occurred against the same

victim and within the same period the continuous family violence occurred.” Id.

However, “’the scope of [double jeopardy] protection afforded by a prior conviction’ for

continuous violence against the family thus would not reach any conduct falling outside

such allowable unit of prosecution, for which [the defendant] had not already been

punished.” Id. (quoting Bailey v. State, 44 S.W.3d 690, 693 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th

Dist.] 2001), aff’d, 87 S.W.3d 122 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002)).

In the case before us, the victim is the same in each charged offense. Lorduy’s

charge of continuous violence against the family alleged ten specific underlying acts of

bodily-injury assault occurring between January 1, 2018, and June 3, 2018. Lorduy’s

charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon was alleged to have occurred on June

Lorduy v. State Page 4 13, 2018, and his charge of assault family violence by strangulation was alleged to have

occurred on June 23, 2018; neither was included as a specific underlying act of bodily-

injury assault in the continuous-violence-against-the-family charge. Further, section

25.11(a) of the Penal Code limits the underlying acts of bodily-injury assault in charging

continuous violence against the family to “conduct that constitutes an offense under

Section 22.01(a)(1)” of the Penal Code. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 25.11(a). Lorduy’s

charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is an offense under section 22.02 of

the Penal Code, and the assault-family-violence-by-strangulation charge is an offense

under section 22.01(b)(2)(B) of the Penal Code. These are not predicate offenses for the

offense of continuous violence against the family. Additionally, the conduct upon which

Lorduy’s charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and assault family

violence by strangulation are based falls outside the allowable unit of prosecution

because Lorduy had not been punished for the conduct. See Ellison, 425 S.W.3d at 648.

We conclude the multiple punishments imposed do not exceed the allowable units of

prosecution or violate double-jeopardy protections.

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

“Under Strickland v. Washington, [466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674

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Related

Brown v. Ohio
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Strickland v. Washington
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Bone v. State
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Goodspeed v. State
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Ex Parte Martin
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