Carlos Omar Nieto v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 27, 2010
Docket13-09-00302-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Carlos Omar Nieto v. State (Carlos Omar Nieto 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
Carlos Omar Nieto v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion



NUMBER 13-09-302-CR



COURT OF APPEALS



THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS



CORPUS CHRISTI
- EDINBURG



CARLOS OMAR NIETO, Appellant,



v.



THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.



On appeal from the 430th District Court

of Hidalgo County, Texas.



MEMORANDUM OPINION



Before
Justices Rodriguez, Benavides, and Vela

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Vela



Appellant, Carlos Omar Nieto, was indicted for two counts of sexual assault of a child (counts one and two), see Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.011(a)(2)(A) (Vernon Supp. 2009), and one count of indecency with a child by contact. See id. § 21.11(a)(1). The jury acquitted appellant of counts one and two, but convicted him of count three. Following a punishment hearing, the jury assessed punishment at fourteen years' imprisonment. In three issues, appellant complains: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction; (2) the trial court erred in failing to grant a mistrial; and (3) he received ineffective assistance of counsel. We affirm.

I. Factual Background

A. State's Evidence

Thirteen-year-old P.W. and her friend, fourteen-year-old A.V., spent time together at the RGV Ice Skating Center in McAllen. There, they met appellant, who was thirty-six years old, and Kevin Tienter, who was seventeen years old. On April 12, 2008, A.V. was spending the night with P.W., who lived with her parents in McAllen. That night, Tienter and appellant came to P.W.'s house. Because P.W.'s parents were home, P.W. and A.V. "snuck them in" through the garage window. P.W. testified that while she, A.V., appellant, and Tienter were in her bedroom, she heard appellant tell A.V. to "just relax"and that A.V. said, "'No, I don't know. . . .'" P.W. testified that "I saw him [appellant] that--like he started pulling down her [A.V.'s] shorts--under--like a blanket." Next, she saw that appellant "got the blanket and he put it over her, like under her waist." A.V. testified that while she and the others were in P.W.'s bedroom, P.W. and Tienter "started making out and like having sex, and stuff." At that point, appellant asked A.V., "'Can I eat you out?'" A.V. knew what he wanted, but she was "scared and panicky." She testified that "I just went along with it because [P.W.] wanted to be with Kevin, and I didn't want to get her mad, . . ." A.V. stated that appellant took off her shorts,"and he started doing oral sex, with his tongue and his finger." At that point, the prosecutor asked A.V., "When you say 'oral sex,' with his tongue, he used his tongue how?" She said, "He licked me down there." In response, the prosecutor asked her, "When you say 'down there,' are you referring to your private parts?", she said, "Yes, ma'am." When the prosecutor asked her, "Did his tongue go inside your private part?", she said, "Yes, ma'am." She also testified that appellant put his "fingers" inside her "private part." When appellant stopped, A.V. got dressed and stayed away from him. A.V. testified that she was never appellant's spouse, and "he knew that I was 14." A.V. testified that after the incident, "[H]e [appellant] had told us to lie, and say it was a different Charlie." (1) Specifically, appellant told her and P.W. "to say that it was a Charlie about 5"10', a Mexican with a tattoo on his neck." A.V. testified that she and P.W. "just felt like it was wrong, and that we couldn't lie to our parents, . . . So we just told them the truth after the incident happened. . ."

Kevin Tienter testified that on the evening in question, he planned to visit P.W. at her house "[t]o have sex." That night, appellant gave Tienter a ride to P.W.'s house, and when they arrived, P.W. let both of them in through the garage window. They went to P.W.'s bedroom, where Tienter and P.W. "just started having sex." Tienter stated that while he and P.W. were in bed together, A.V. and appellant were on the floor, whispering. Tienter testified that he and appellant stayed in P.W.'s bedroom with P.W. and A.V. for about one and one-half hours, but he did not know if appellant and A.V. had sex.

Yulissa Salazar, a McAllen police officer, testified that on May 9, 2008, she obtained statements from A.V. and P.W. After obtaining these statements, Officer Salazar was able to discern that appellant, who was thirty-six years old, had sexually assaulted A.V. on April 12, 2008 and that A.V. was fourteen years old at that time.

B. Defense Evidence

Officer Yulissa Salazar testified that she did not know if A.V. went to see a sexual assault nurse examiner. Officer Salazar's report of the incident did not indicate that a "sexual examination kit" was completed on A.V. Officer Salazar did not make a diagram of the crime scene and did not take any photos of the inside or outside of the home where P.W. lived.

P.W.'s mother, M.W. (2) testified that on the night in question, she went to sleep around 10:00 p.m. At some point, she woke up because of "a noise that somebody opened the door" of her daughter's room. She saw that her daughter's door was open and saw "two shadows pass by." M.W. went into the kitchen and saw P.W. and A.V. standing in the kitchen doorway. They told M.W. that they had heard a noise in the garage.

P.W. testified that she and A.V. led appellant and Tienter from the garage into her bedroom. After P.W. secured her bedroom, she and Tienter got on her bed. P.W. testified that the only light in her room came in through her bedroom window. However, she could tell that appellant was on her bedroom floor with A.V. P.W. stated that she and A.V. let appellant and Tienter out of the house through the garage. When M.W. confronted them about what had happened, P.W. testified that she lied to her mother and told her that she and A.V. had heard a noise outside the garage.

Kevin Tienter testified that on the night in question, he was at appellant's house. At that time, P.W. and Tienter sent "several texts" to each other, and P.W. invited him to her house. Tienter testified that the purpose of the invitation was for him to have sex with P.W. Appellant drove him to P.W.'s house. Tienter testified that there was no light coming through the window of P.W.'s bedroom. He could hear appellant and A.V., but he could not see them. When defense counsel asked Tienter, "Did you hear any noise of the mouth that would indicate that somebody was providing oral sex to another person?", he said, "No, sir." He stated that when he and P.W.

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

Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Perez v. State
310 S.W.3d 890 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Tear v. State
74 S.W.3d 555 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Watson v. State
204 S.W.3d 404 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2006)
Margraves v. State
34 S.W.3d 912 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2000)
Laster v. State
275 S.W.3d 512 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2009)
Wead v. State
129 S.W.3d 126 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2004)
Thrift v. State
176 S.W.3d 221 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Tennard v. State
802 S.W.2d 678 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Kemp v. State
846 S.W.2d 289 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Malik v. State
953 S.W.2d 234 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Waldo v. State
746 S.W.2d 750 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Lachapelle v. State
579 S.W.2d 1 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Cain v. State
958 S.W.2d 404 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Bauder v. State
921 S.W.2d 696 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1996)
Salinas v. State
163 S.W.3d 734 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Webb v. State
232 S.W.3d 109 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
McKenzie v. State
617 S.W.2d 211 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1981)
Villarreal v. State
286 S.W.3d 321 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Carlos Omar Nieto v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carlos-omar-nieto-v-state-texapp-2010.