Coleman v. State

131 S.W.3d 303, 2004 WL 396601
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 22, 2004·No. 13-01-00526-CR·Published·Cited by 93 cases

Opinions

[306] OPINION

Opinion by Justice HINOJOSA.

After a bench trial, the trial court found appellant, George Bradford Coleman, guilty of the third-degree felony offense of misapplication of fiduciary property of the value of $20,000 or more, but less than $100,000.2 The court assessed appellant’s punishment at three years imprisonment and a $2,500 fine, suspended the prison sentence, and placed him on community supervision for a term of three years. The trial court has certified that this case “is not a plea-bargain case, and the defendant has the right of appeal.” See Tex.R.App. P. 25.2(a)(2). In thirteen points of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in failing to quash the indictment and the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the conviction. We affirm.

A. BACKGROUND

In 1996, appellant, as the one-hundred-percent owner and only officer of Mid-states Corporation (“Midstates”), acquired the operating interest in two unitized wells located in DeWitt County. These wells were known as the Nordheim and Sucher Gas Units. The predecessor operator, Cougar Oil and Gas Company, Inc. (“Cougar”), assigned its interest in the units to Midstates. Under the assignment, Mid-states acquired all of Cougar’s obligations to the royalty owners.

Tenneco Ventures Finance Corporation (“Tenneco”) financed Midstate’s acquisition of the Nordheim and Sucher Units from Cougar. To- repay Tenneco, Midstates executed a “Conveyance of Production Payment.” The “conveyance” provided that Tenneco was to be paid a share of the production. As gas was sold, purchasers were to pay Tenneco.directly. Tenneco’s share of the production never came into Midstates’ possession.

During the years 1998-1999, the price of oil and gas declined. As a result of these depressed prices, Midstates had judgments assessed against it in the amount of approximately $200,000. During this time period, Midstates did not pay royalties regularly to the royalty owners. Mid-states was late on some royalty payments or failed to pay them at all. Midstates also issued checks drawn on accounts with insufficient funds to several royalty owners.

In January 1998, a criminal investigation into the records of Midstates was initiated. The investigation revealed that Midstates, and later Outline Oil Corporation (“Outline”),3 was selling the gas produced from the Nordheim and Sucher Units to Gulf Coast Energy Marketing Company (“Gulf Coast”). The investigation also revealed that Midstates had requested, in writing, that Gulf Coast forward one hundred percent of the net revenue income, including the royalties, to Midstates and agreed to indemnify Gulf Coast. In accordance with their agreement, Gulf Coast included the royalty owners’ share of the production in the payments it made to Midstates. As revenue was received from Gulf Coast for the sale of gas, Midstates would transfer the money to an “operating account” to avoid garnishment by judgment creditors. Instead of suspending funds for the royalty owners, Midstates would pay vendors [307] and operating expenses from the operating account. As the sole officer of Midstates and Outline, appellant had the exclusive authority to write checks and make withdrawals from the Midstates and Outline accounts.

After failing to be timely paid, some royalty owners in the Sucher Unit filed a civil suit against Midstates. This action resulted in a settlement of all claims of those royalty owners participating in the suit. In August of 1999, Midstates voluntarily assigned its income from the Sucher and Nordheim Units to a new operator, Range Resources, with the understanding that Range Resources would pay all royalty owners.

B. Sufficiency of the Evidence

In his first twelve points of error, appellant contends the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support his conviction for the offense of misapplication of fiduciary property. Appellant was charged in a one-count indictment with twenty-four separate violations of that offense.

A person commits the offense of misapplication of fiduciary property if he intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly, misapplies property he holds as a fiduciary in a manner that involves substantial risk of loss to the owner of the property or to a person for whose benefit the property is held. Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 32.45(b) (Vernon Supp.2004). Under the statute, “misapply” is defined as dealing “with property contrary to: (A) an agreement under which the fiduciary holds the property; or (B) a law prescribing the custody or disposition of the property.” Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 32.45(a)(2) (Vernon Supp.2004).

1. Standards of Review

When we review the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view all the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); Johnson v. State, 23 S.W.3d 1, 7 (Tex.Crim.App.2000); Rosillo v. State, 953 S.W.2d 808, 811 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 1997, pet. ref'd). We measure the legal sufficiency of the evidence by the elements of the offense as defined by a hypothetically correct jury charge. Malik v. State, 953 S.W.2d 234, 240 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). “Such a charge would be one that accurately sets out the law, is authorized by the indictment, does not unnecessarily increase the State’s burden of proof or unnecessarily restrict the State’s theories of liability, and adequately describes the particular offense for which the defendant was tried.” Id.

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Coleman v. State, 131 S.W.3d 303, 2004 WL 396601 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

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