Cedrick Lamar Wilson v. State

504 S.W.3d 337, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11312, 2016 WL 6110712
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 19, 2016
DocketNO. 09-15-00412-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 504 S.W.3d 337 (Cedrick Lamar Wilson 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
Cedrick Lamar Wilson v. State, 504 S.W.3d 337, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11312, 2016 WL 6110712 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

OPINION

HOLLIS HORTON, Justice

A jury convicted Cedrick Lamar Wilson 1 of criminal trespass, a, Class B misdemeanor. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 30.05(d)(1) (West Supp. 2016).2 Wilson appealed from the judgment, and in four issues, he contends:

1. His constitutional rights to receive procedural due process were violated by the City’s unwritten building-use policy, which allowed the City. Manager to exercise his discretion about when to prohibit individuals from entering the Community Center.
[340]*3402. The City’s unwritten building-use policy could not be enforced against Wilson because it is too vague.
8. The City’s unwritten building-use policy did not have sufficient guidelines to prevent the City Manager from enforcing the policy in an arbitrary and irrational manner.
4. The evidence before the jury in Wilson’s trial was insufficient to support Wilson’s conviction for criminal trespass.

Wilson’s issues revolve around whether the City’s unwritten building-use policy provided the City Manager with valid authority to restrict Wilson from the Community Center. In his appeal, we note that Wilson does not challenge the constitutionality of section 30.05 of the Texas Penal Code, the criminal-trespass statute on which his conviction is based. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 30.05 (West Supp. 2016). Additionally, Wilson also has not argued he was selectively prosecuted in violation of his constitutional rights based on his status as a member of a protected class.

While a clear and written building-use policy might have given Wilson guidelines regarding the conduct expected of him while using the facilities at the Community Center, Wilson’s remedy for his complaints about the City’s unwritten policy is a civil matter that Wilson should seek to remedy by lobbying City Council. The elements of the criminal-trespass statute do not include a requirement that the State prove that the owner or occupier of the premises gave the defendant prior notice about the types of conduct that could result in the defendant’s losing his right to enter the premises where the trespass occurred. We further conclude that the evidence was sufficient to show that the City authorized the City Manager to exclude Wilson from the Community Center, and that the evidence before the jury in Wilson’s trial authorized the jury to return a verdict finding Wilson guilty of criminal trespass.

Background

In an information, the State accused Wilson of criminal trespass, alleging that Wilson intentionally or knowingly entered the Dayton Community Center on July 8, 2015, without the effective consent of the Community Center after he was given notice that his entry to the Community Center was forbidden. In the charge that was submitted to the jury, the trial court instructed that “[a] person commits an offense [of criminal trespass] if he enters or remains on or in property or in a building of another without effective consent and he: (a) had notice that entry was forbidden; or (b) received notice to depart but failed to do so.” In relevant part, the charge also stated that the term “notice” means “oral or written communications by the owner or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner[.]” Wilson did not object to the charge during the charge conference, and he also did not ask the trial court to submit any additional instructions to the jury. When the jury returned its verdict, it found Wilson guilty and found that he should serve a sentence of ninety days in county jail.

The testimony from Wilson’s trial provides the relevant background for the complaints that Wilson raises on appeal. Four witnesses testified during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial: (1) David Douglas, the City Manager for the City of Dayton; (2) Sherry Sikes, the director of the Jones Library, a library located inside the Dayton Community Center; (3) Officer Christopher Boufford, the Dayton police officer who warned Wilson on the instructions of David Douglas that Wilson would no longer be allowed to return to the Dayton Community Center; and, (4) Mya Wilson, [341]*341Wilson’s sister, who testified in Wilson’s defense.

The testimony in the trial established that on July 2, 2015, six days before Wilson was arrested for trespass, Officer Boufford gave Wilson an oral and written warning that he could not return to 801 South Cleveland, the Dayton Community Center’s address. In his testimony, Officer Boufford indicated that on July 2, David Douglas asked him to issue the warning to Wilson because Douglas had observed Wilson “harassing some females that were using the facilities at the [Community] Center.” When Officer Boufford located Wilson and gave him the written criminal-trespass warning, he told Wilson that if he had any complaints about the warning to discuss them with the City Manager. On appeal, Wilson does not dispute the evidence showing that on July 2, Officer Boufford warned him as instructed by Douglas that he was not to return to the Community Center.

During the trial, Dayton’s City Manager, David Douglas, explained why he told Officer Boufford on July 2 to give Wilson a criminal-trespass warning. According to Douglas, he decided to ban Wilson from the property based on Wilson’s conduct at the Community Center on July 2, which he observed, and based on complaints that he had received about Wilson from people who worked at the Community Center. According to Douglas, the City of Dayton and the Dayton Chamber of Commerce have employees who work at the Community Center. Douglas testified that various females who worked at the Community Center had complained to him about the way Wilson was acting at the Community Center. Generally, viewed in the light most favorable to the jury’s- verdict, the complaints Douglas described concern conduct that the jury could reasonably have viewed as inconsistent with the Community Center’s purpose.

Among the complaints Douglas received before July 2 were complaints that Wilson had a habit of staring “for hours on end” at the female employees who worked at the Community Center. Other complaints related to Wilson’s conduct of sleeping on furniture in the lobby. According to Douglas, sleeping in the lobby was “not allowed.” Employees, who reported that Wilson had been found sleeping in the lobby, complained that on waking him, he had become confrontational. According to Douglas, the women working in the Community Center were afraid of Wilson because he was volatile, cursed, and in general, “creeped [the female employees at the Community Center] out[.]” Additionally, Douglas expressed his view that Wilson had “gotten in the bad habit of stopping females” at the Community Center, and Douglas testified that he was concerned that if Wilson scared someone when approaching them, he might be shot.

Douglas also described observing Wilson’s conduct on July 2. Douglas testified that while at the Community Center on July 2, he saw Wilson approach and stop two females who were inside the Community Center. After Douglas observed Wilson encounter these individuals, he then saw Wilson go outside the building, where he sat down on a bench.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
504 S.W.3d 337, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11312, 2016 WL 6110712, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cedrick-lamar-wilson-v-state-texapp-2016.