Damian v. State

881 S.W.2d 102, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1747, 1994 WL 362816
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 14, 1994
Docket01-91-01444-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 881 S.W.2d 102 (Damian 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
Damian v. State, 881 S.W.2d 102, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1747, 1994 WL 362816 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION

HEDGES, Justice.

Both appellant and the State have filed motions for rehearing. We deny both motions, but withdraw our original opinion of September 30, 1993, and issue this one in its stead. We affirm the judgment of the trial court as to guilt, and reverse and remand for a new trial on punishment only.

A jury found appellant, James Edward Damian, guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child, and after finding one enhancement paragraph true, assessed his punishment at 50-years confinement. In 14 points of error, appellant asserts that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance, that the evidence was insufficient to corroborate his confession, and that his due process rights were violated. The State brings one cross-point, that direct evidence was improperly excluded by the trial court under Tex.R.CRIM.Evid. 803(1). We affirm the judgment of the trial court as to guilt, and we reverse and remand for a new trial on punishment.

[105]*1051.Fact Summary

On September 15, 1990, Joshua Jasso held a party at his home. He invited a number of young people, most of whom were 17 years old or younger. Appellant, who was 24 years old, and complainant, a 12 year-old girl, also attended. Appellant purchased the liquor for the party.

The complainant joined in playing “quarters,” a drinking game. She had “three or four or five” shots of Black Velvet liquor, became sick, threw up, and “passed out” on one of the beds in Jasso’s room. At some point, another guest, Eugene Perez, passed out on the other bed. The complainant was awakened about 9:00 p.m. by Joshua Jasso and William Broderick. She was sore in the vaginal area and felt that something had been inside her vagina. Jasso and Broderick took her to Broderick’s house and called her brother to take her home. The complainant’s mother took her to the hospital for a sexual assault examination. After her examination, the police were called.

Appellant was arrested on September 18, 1990. He gave a statement admitting that he sexually assaulted the complainant. At a suppression hearing, he testified that he repeatedly told the arresting officer that he did not commit the offense. He asserted that he signed the confession only because the officer promised to reduce his bond from $20,000 to $5,000. The officer confirmed that he asked the magistrate to set a low bond because appellant had cooperated. He denied that he promised appellant a reduced bond. Finding that the statement was freely and voluntarily given, the trial court admitted the statement at trial.

Joshua Jasso, who had since moved to Chicago, did not testify at trial which began October 15, 1991. In a bill of exception, the State offered Broderick’s testimony that Jas-so saw appellant “f_ [the complainant].”

A hearing was held on appellant’s motion for new trial for the purpose of presenting evidence that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. The trial court found that no material, newly discovered evidence was presented to support the motion.

2. The Offense

Appellant was charged with “intentionally and knowingly caus[ing] the Defendant’s sexual organ to contact the female sexual organ of [the complainant], a child younger than thirteen (13) years of age and not his spouse.” Aggravated sexual assault of a child occurs when a person intentionally or knowingly “causes the sexual organ of a child to contact or penetrate the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of another person, including the actor” and the child is a person younger than 14 years of age who is not the spouse of the actor. Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 22.021 (Vernon 1989).

3. Sufficiency of the Evidence

In point of error nine, appellant asserts that because the evidence is insufficient to corroborate his “extrajudicial statement,” it cannot support his conviction. He contends that the evidence is insufficient to establish the corpus delicti of the offense, a requisite element of corroboration. He maintains that without his statement, there is insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction.

Appellant gave the following statement to the arresting officer:

Around 9:00 p.m., everyone left the house except for [the complainant], who had drank too much and had been taken to the bedroom where she passed out on the bed. Also David Perez was in the same bedroom with her, but he was on another bed as he had also drank too much and passed out. I then walked into the bedroom where [the complainant] was and stuck my hand through the legs of her shorts and into her vagina, as she was wearing baggy shorts. In a few minutes, [the complainant] moved my hand, I then left the bedroom and walked into the kitchen for a few minutes. I then walked back into the bedroom where I unzipped my pants, and took out my penis. I then moved her shorts leg over and placed my penis inside of her vagina where I had sexually [sic] intercourse with her for five or ten minutes. But before I was finished, Joshua Jasso came back inside his house and turned on the light and saw me on top of [the complainant]. Joshua then told me to get up [106]*106and leave. I then got up off of [the complainant] and left the residence.

We have long embraced the common-law rule that an extrajudicial confession is insufficient to support a conviction absent corroboration. Lott v. State, 60 Tex.Crim. 162, 131 S.W. 553 (1910). In this state, “the rule has been construed to require independent evidence of the corpus delicti.” Gribble v. State, 808 S.W.2d 65, 70 (Tex.Crim.App.1990). The term corpus delicti has been held to mean “proof of the fact that the crime charged has been committed by someone.” Bridges v. State, 172 Tex.Crim. 655, 362 S.W.2d 336, 337 (1962). The identity of the perpetrator of the crime is not an element of the corpus delicti: the inquiry focuses only on the harm brought about by the criminal conduct of some person. Gribble, 808 S.W.2d at 70. The purpose of the corroboration requirement is to ensure that a person confessing to a crime is not convicted without independent evidence that the crime was indeed committed. Id. at 71.

We must examine the record to determine whether there is independent evidence of the corpus delicti of aggravated sexual assault of the complainant. Neither appellant nor the State cites a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals case that sets forth the corpus delicti of aggravated sexual assault. A definition of corpus delicti that encompasses all of the elements necessary to prove the guilt of a defendant and to sustain a conviction is too broad. Self v. State, 513 S.W.2d 832, 834 (Tex.Crim.App.1974).

In this case, the State showed that a child, 12 years old, awoke sore in the vaginal area and could tell something had been inserted into her vagina. We hold that the complainant’s evidence alone was sufficient to establish the corpus delicti of this offense and to corroborate appellant’s confession. The quantum of independent evidence required to establish the corpus delicti which corroborates an extrajudicial confession need not be great. Gribble, 808 S.W.2d at 71-72; Self, 513 S.W.2d at 835-37. “So long as there is some evidence which renders the corpus delicti more probable than it would be without the evidence,” the purposes of the corroboration rule have been met. Gribble, 808 S.W.2d at 72;

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Bluebook (online)
881 S.W.2d 102, 1994 Tex. App. LEXIS 1747, 1994 WL 362816, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/damian-v-state-texapp-1994.