Charles Arrington v. State

413 S.W.3d 106, 2013 WL 4082305, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 10096
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided August 14, 2013·No. 04-12-00430-CR·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinions

[109]*109OPINION

Opinion by:

SANDEE BRYAN MARION, Justice.

A jury convicted Charles Lavoy Arring-ton, appellant, of five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact. The jury sentenced appellant to sixty years’ confinement on each count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and to twenty years’ confinement on the one count of indecency with a child, all sentences running concurrently.

Appellant asserts five issues on appeal: (1) the trial court committed jury charge error by failing to give a unanimity instruction as to each separate criminal incident alleged at trial, as charged in each separate count/offense in the indictment; (2) the trial court’s jury charge error egregiously harmed him; (3) alternatively, the trial court’s jury charge error rendered his trial fundamentally unfair, in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; (4) his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to object to the State’s elicitation of expert witness testimony about the truthfulness of the complainant’s sexual misconduct accusations; and (5) his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to object to the State’s elicitation of lay witness testimony about the truthfulness of the complainant’s allegations. We reverse and remand.

BACKGROUND

The complainant in this case is appellant’s daughter, H.A., who was nine years old at the time of the alleged abuse. Appellant and H.A.’s mother were separated. After the separation, appellant went to live at his mother’s house. H.A. alleged the first incident of abuse occurred while she was visiting her father at appellant’s mother’s residence. H.A. testified she, appellant, and her brother were all in appellant’s room on his bed. She testified that while her brother was playing Xbox at the edge of the bed, appellant “stuck his hands down [her] pants.” H.A. stated he “rubbed” her “vagina and [her] butt.” H.A. did not tell her mother, but testified she told her friends at school.

H.A. testified the sfecond incident of abuse occurred over spring break while H.A. was in the third grade.’’ H:A. and her younger brother went to stay with their father and his girlfriend, Tracey. H.A. testified to three separate incidents of sexual abuse that occurred at appellant and Tracey’s house. The first, she testified, occurred in the shower after Tracey had left for work and after her brother fell asleep. H.A. testified appellant told her to go get in the shower. While H.A. was in the shower, appellant turned the light off and got in the shower with her. H.A. testified to oral-penile penetration, oral-vaginal contact, and sexual contact when appellant touched her breasts, vagina, and her “butt,” and when appellant made her touch him inappropriately. This is referred to as the “first shower.”

The third incident was the “second shower,” which H.A. testified occurred the day after the first shower incident. During the second shower, H.A. testified to penile-vaginal penetration,- penile-anal penetration, penile-oral penetration, digital-anal penetration, and digital-vaginal touching/penetration.

The fourth incident about which H.A. testified occurred the day after the second shower incident while she, her brother, and appellant were on a mattress in the living room. H.A. testified when her brother fell asleep appellant moved him to a couch and then engaged in sexual contact with her. H.A. testified that penile-oral [110]*110penetration, digital-vaginal touching, sexual contact when appellant touched her breasts, vagina, and her “butt,” digital-anal penetration, penile-anal penetration, and penile-vaginal penetration occurred during this incident.

H.A. stated she told her friends about the incidents that occurred over spring break. After rumors circulated at her elementary school, a counselor approached H.A. and . H.A. told her what had occurred.2 Appellant was charged with seven counts of aggravated sexual assault: Count I (Penile-Vaginal Penetration), Count II (Penile-Anal Penetration), Count III (Oral-Vaginal Contact), Count IV (Penile-Oral Penetration), Count V (Digital-Vaginal Penetration), and Count VII (Digital-Anal Penetration). He was also charged with Count VI, indecency with a child by sexual contact. Count III was subsequently dropped after the trial court declared a mistrial on that count. The jury charge contained no instruction telling the jury they had to be unanimous on which separate criminal act they believed constituted the specific offense of aggravated sexual assault.

JURY CHARGE ERROR

Appellant argues the lack of a unanimity instruction in the jury charge was error. The State concedes that error occurred. The Texas Constitution and the Texas' Code of Criminal Procedure require that a jury verdict in felony cases be unanimous. Tex. Const. art. V, § 13; Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 36.29(a) (West 2006). A jury must reach a unanimous verdict about the specific crime that the defendant committed. Cosio v. State, 353 S.W.3d 766, 771 (Tex.Crim.App.2011). The jury must “agree upon a single and discrete incident that would constitute the commission of the offense alleged.” Id. (quoting Stuhler v. State, 218 S.W.3d 706, 717 (Tex.Crim.App.2007)). “[N]on-unanimity may occur when the State charges one offense and presents evidence that the defendant committed the charged offense on multiple but separate occasions.” Id. at 772. When each of the multiple incidents would individually establish a different offense, the situation requires that the “charge, to ensure unanimity, would need to instruct the jury that its verdict must be unanimous as to a single offense or unit of prosecution among those presented.” Id. “[Guaranteeing unanimity is ultimately the responsibility of the trial judge because the judge must instruct the jury on the law applicable to the case.” Id. at 776. “The trial judge is therefore obligated to submit a charge that does not allow for the possibility of a non-unanimous verdict.” Id.

In a case with very similar facts to the instant case, Cosío, the defendant was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of indecency with a child. Id. at 770. Evidence was presented of more than .one instance supporting each count and there was no unanimity instruction instructing the jury that it had to be unanimous about which instance constituted the commission of the offenses for purposes of each of the individual counts. Id. The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded there was error and held the charges in Cosío allowed for the possibility that the jury rendered non-unanimous verdicts. Id. at 774. The Court noted, “[t]he jury could have relied oh separate incidents of criminal conduct, [111]*111which constituted different offenses or separate units of prosecution, committed by Cosío to find him guilty in the ... counts.” Id. (citation omitted); see Francis v. State, 36 S.W.3d 121

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Charles Arrington v. State, 413 S.W.3d 106, 2013 WL 4082305, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 10096 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

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