Damion Dewayne Williams v. State

474 S.W.3d 850, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 9383, 2015 WL 5158449
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 3, 2015·No. 06-14-00219-CR·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice Moseley

Damion Dewayne Williams, convicted of aggravated sexual assault 1 of Alana, 2 his twelve-year-old half sister, was sentenced to eighteen years’ imprisonment. On appeal, Williams raises several points of error, including (1) a challenge to the admission of evidence of other wrongdoing admitted under Rule 404(b) of the Texas Rules of Evidence, (2) a claim of error by the trial court in applying the balancing test prescribed by Rule 403 of the Texas *852 Rules of Evidence, (3) a claim- of error in the exclusion of a co-defendant’s statement, (4) a claim of error in the jury-charge, and- (5) a claim that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction. Because we 'sustain his complaint-of jury charge "error (finding the existence of égregiously harmful error), we find it necessary to reverse the conviction -and remand the matter to the trial court for a -new trial. Accordingly, we do not address Williams’ other points of-error.

I. The Evidence and Indictment

Alana testified that Williams and his cousin, Sam, came to her house about 3:00 a.m. July 23, 2012, and had her engage in sexual intercourse with each of them. She detailed the incident, relating that Williams had penetrated both her vagina and her anus with his penis. 3 A friend of Alana’s who was spending the night with her also came out into the back yard of the house and witnessed some of the intercourse taking place between Williams and Alana. The next morning, Alana told Sandra, her mother, about the incident. Sandra promptly went to Williams’ mother’s home (where Williams resided) to confront Williams about the- allegations made by Alana. Upon being confronted, Williams became agitated and retrieved a pistol, which he waved around apparently attempting to apply the ad baculum method of persuasion as he told his mother that Sandra and Alana were lying. Sandra said she felt threatened by Williams’ actions. Despite his protestations of innocence, at one point during this confrontation, Williams told his mother he had been high on drugs and did riot remember what he might have done..

Upon exiting the residence where Williams lived, Sandra then went to Sam’s mother’s house, where Sam lived. Williams followed Sandra there and, once again, waved the pistol around with what appeared to Sandra, to have the motive of intimidating Sam, who remained silent. A nurse who conducted a sexual assault examination of Alana testified that the child had described both vaginal and anal penetration performed on her by Williams.

The indictment alleged that on July 23, 2012, Williams had

Paragraph A
then and there intentionally or knowingly cause[d] the penetration of the sexual organ of [Alana], a child who was then and there younger than 14 years ,of age, by deferidant’s sexual organ;
Paragraph B -
then and there intentionally or knowingly cause[d] the penetration of the anus of [Alana], a child who was then and there younger than 14 years of age, by the defendant’s sexual organ.

See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.021(a)(1)(B) (West Supp.2014)." ‘ The indictment contained no coordinating conjunction, either cumulative or disjunctive, between paragraphs A and B.

II. Charge/Unanimity

Williams claims that the trial court’s jury charge was error because, he maintains, it allowed the jury to arrive at a non-unanimous verdict. Williams argues that the trial court should have required the jury to reach a unanimous verdict re *853 garding whether Williams penetrated Alana’s sexual organ or her anus. We agree.

The charge mirrored the indictment, authorizing conviction if the jury found, beyond a reasonable doubt, on one hand, that Williams engaged in aggravated sexual assault of a child by penetrating Alana’s sexual organ and, on the other hand, if the jury, using the same standard of proof, found that Williams engaged in aggravated sexual assault of a child by penetrating her anus. To best compre-’ hend the situation, it is best to set out the wording, of the pertinent part of the charge verbatim. The charge read as follows:

PARAGRAPH A
Now, if you find from the evidence beyond ,a reasonable doubt that on or about the 23rd day of July, 2012, in Harrison County, Texas, the defendant, Damion Dewayne Williams, did,. then and there intentionally or knowingly cause the penetration of the sexual organ of [Aana] a child who was then ánd there younger than 14 years of age, by. defendant’s sexual organ then you will find the defendant guilty of aggravated sexual assault as charged in the, indictment. ;
... Unless you so find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, or if you have a reasonable doubt thereof, you. will acquit the defendant and say by your verdict “Not Guilty.”
PARAGRAPH B
Now, if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 23rd day of July, 2012, in Harrison County, Texas, the defendant, Damion Dewayne Williams,. did, ■ then and there intentionally or knowingly cause the penetration of the anus of [Aana] a child who was then and there younger than 14 years of age, by defendant’s sexual organ then you will find the: defendant guilty .of aggravated sexual assault as charged in the indictment.
Unless -you so find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, or if you have a reasonable doubt thereof, you will acquit the defendant and say by ■your verdict “Not Guilty.”'

Neither the indictment nor the charge used either a ‘cumulative coordinating conjunction, e.g., “and,” or a.disjunctive coordinating ' conjunction, e.g., “or.” Both documents simply stated Paragraph A, describing penetration of the complainant’s sexual organ as the offense, followed by Paragraph B," describing penetration of the child’s anus. 4

Each viewing the ruling fi’om a different perspective, both parties, cite to and rely on Jourdan v. State, 428 S.W.3d 86 (Tex.Crim.App.2014), as controlling precedent for their opposing viewpoints. Ater reviewing the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ reasoning in that case (as well as other cases addressing similar issues), we find that the rationale in Jourdan determines the outcome of Williams’ appeal.

At issue in Jourdan was whether the appellant’s right to a unanimous verdict had been protected. Similar to Williams, Jourdan’s indictment contained two paragraphs, the first of which alleged contact or penetration of the victim’s sexual organ by Jourdan’s sexual organ,.and the second

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Damion Dewayne Williams v. State, 474 S.W.3d 850, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 9383, 2015 WL 5158449 (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

474 S.W.3d 850 (Damion Dewayne Williams v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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