Carty v. State

178 S.W.3d 297, 2005 WL 1837938
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 18, 2006
Docket01-03-01266-CR, 01-03-01267-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 178 S.W.3d 297 (Carty 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
Carty v. State, 178 S.W.3d 297, 2005 WL 1837938 (Tex. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

*300 OPINION ON REHEARING

SAM NUCHIA, Justice.

We grant appellant’s motion for rehearing, withdraw our opinion issued November 10, 2004, and issue this opinion in its place.

Appellant, Alfred Llewelyn Carty, was charged in two separate indictments with first-degree felony offenses of aggravated sexual assault of his six-year-old daughter, J.C. Appellant pleaded not guilty and the cases were consolidated for trial. A jury found appellant guilty of both offenses. The trial court assessed punishment at 14 years in prison for each charged offense, with the sentences to run concurrently. Appellant presented five issues on appeal. In his first three issues, appellant argues that the trial court erred by (1) admitting into evidence records from the Children’s Assessment Center; (2) admitting into evidence the testimony of Tammy Urban regarding the complainant’s “outcry” statement; and (3) submitting a disjunctive jury charge in cause number 01-03-01266-CR, which allowed conviction on a non-unanimous verdict. In his fourth and fifth issues, appellant asserts legal and factual insufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s verdict. We affirm the judgment of the trial court in cause number 950073. We sustain appellant’s third issue, reverse the trial court’s judgment in cause number 954561, and remand that cause for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

At the time of the sexual assault, appellant and his common-law wife were separated. Appellant had moved out of the family’s apartment and into his own apartment sometime in the spring of 2002. The couple’s two children, six-year-old J.C. and her brother, who was 13 years old when he testified at trial, continued to live primarily with their mother. However, the children frequently stayed overnight at appellant’s one-bedroom apartment, especially on weekends. On these overnight visits, the children and appellant would sleep in the same bed.

Appellant was indicted for two sexual assaults of J.C. The first assault for which appellant was indicted (“the first assault”) 1 took place on or about September 1, 2002. The second assault for which appellant was indicted (“the last assault”) 2 took place on or about October 31, 2002.

J.C. testified that appellant touched her “more than once” with his “private part” both on the outside and the inside of her sexual organ. Although J.C. used immature terms in her testimony, the prosecutor had J.C. indicate on a girl doll what part of her body “between the legs” referred to. The record shows that J.C. indicated the vaginal area and vaginal opening of the doll as being “between the legs” and that it was where she would “go number one.” The prosecutor also had J.C. indicate on a boy doll what part of appellant’s body “his private parts” referred to. The record shows that J.C. indicated the male genital area of the boy doll.

J.C. testified that, prior to placing his penis in contact with her sexual organ and penetrating her with his penis, appellant would put Vaseline on his penis. J.C. was asked if she saw appellant put the Vaseline on his private part, and J.C. responded, “Sometimes, but not all the time.” J.C. testified that appellant would touch her *301 sexual organ with his index and middle fingers. J.C. was also asked whether her brother was always there when appellant did this, and she responded by saying that her brother would “[sjometimes be somewhere else.”

According to the outcry witness, Tammy Urban, J.C. told her that appellant sexually assaulted her every time she stayed overnight at his apartment. Urban elicited details about the assaults. In describing the last assault, J.C. told Urban that appellant pulled her nightgown up and her panties down. Appellant then put Vaseline on and inside her sexual organ with his hand, penetrating her sexual organ with his finger. Appellant then placed his penis in contact with J.C.’s sexual organ and then penetrated her sexual organ with his penis and ejaculated.

In late 2002, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, J.C. informed her mother that appellant was molesting her. There is no evidence in the record indicating whether J.C. ever told her mother any details about the assaults. Her mother instmcted J.C. to tell her brother about the molestation, but not to tell anyone else. After telling her mother about the abuse, J.C. never visited appellant again.

On April 30, 2003, an anonymous report was made to the child protective service (“CPS”) abuse hotline. On May 14, 2003, CPS caseworker Amy McAndrew took J.C. and her brother from school and drove them to CPS’s Children’s Assessment Center (the “CAC”) where both children were interviewed by CPS investigator Tammy Urban. J.C. described for Urban details of the abuse and identified appellant as the assailant. Later, J.C. was examined by Dr. Rebecca Girardet. Both children were placed in the care of a maternal aunt.

DISCUSSION

The State asserts that appellant waived his rights to appeal and urges us to dismiss. The State bases this claim on the fact that, at the time appellant and the State agreed to a sentence recommendation, they executed standard plea agreement documents, which included a waiver of appeal. The trial court, at that time, also certified that appellant had entered a plea bargain and had no right to appeal. It is obvious from the record, however, that appellant had a jury trial in both cases pursuant to his pleas of not guilty. Further, as the State should have noted, the trial court subsequently filed corrected documents certifying appellant’s right to appeal.

Disjunctive Jury Charge

In his third issue, appellant asserts that the trial court erred by submitting a disjunctive jury charge in the case involving the first assault. Appellant contends that this error allowed him to be convicted on less than a unanimous verdict. The indictment for the first assault alleged that appellant had assaulted J.C. in three alternative ways: (1) by placing his sexual organ in contact with J.C.’s sexual organ; (2) by penetrating her sexual organ with his finger; (3) by penetrating her sexual organ with his sexual organ. The jury charge for the case involving the first assault was given in the disjunctive — allowing the jury to convict if it found appellant had sexually assaulted J.C. in any one of the three alleged manners. Appellant contends that this allowed a conviction even if the jury’s verdict was not unanimous.

When reviewing a trial court’s jury instructions, we first determine whether the jury charge was erroneous. Nguyen v. State, 811 S.W.2d 165, 167 (Tex.App.Houston [1st Dist.] 1991, pet. ref d).

Generally, appellant’s claim of jury charge error would be without merit. A single indictment may present allega *302 tions of different methods of committing the charged offense in the conjunctive and the jury may be charged in the disjunctive. Kitchens v. State, 823 S.W.2d 256, 258 (Tex.Crim.App.1991); Rodriguez v. State,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 S.W.3d 297, 2005 WL 1837938, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carty-v-state-texapp-2006.