Damon Evans v. the State of Texas

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided February 23, 2023·No. 05-20-00590-CR·Published

Opinion

AFFIRMED as MODIFIED and Opinion Filed February 23, 2023

S In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-20-00590-CR

No. 05-20-00591-CR

DAMON EVANS, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the Criminal District Court No. 2 Dallas County, Texas

Trial Court Cause Nos. F20-51047-I and F20-51046-I

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Molberg, Reichek, and Garcia Opinion by Justice Molberg

Following appellant Damon Evans’ plea of guilty in an open plea hearing, the trial court found Evans guilty of two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, found true an enhancement paragraph in each indictment that alleged Evans had a prior felony conviction of assault on a public servant, and sentenced him in each case to eight years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Institutional Division, with the sentences to be served concurrently. Evans timely appealed after the trial court entered judgments and certified his right to appeal. He

also timely filed a motion for new trial and presented it to the trial court. His motion for new trial was overruled by operation of law without a hearing.

Evans raises thirteen issues on appeal, the last three of which seek various modifications to the two judgments. The State disputes Evans’ first ten issues, agrees with the last three, and raises a cross-point seeking another modification to the two judgments. We modify the judgments as reflected below, and as reformed, affirm the judgments.

I. ANALYSIS

A. Guilty Plea and Finding of Guilt In his first six issues, Evans challenges in various respects the judgments convicting him of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as charged in the indictments. Specifically, Evans argues the trial court erred because (1) his guilty plea was not supported by an adequate judicial confession or factual basis in the record (first and second issues); (2) his guilty plea was not knowingly and voluntarily entered (third and fourth issues); and (3) rather than finding him guilty as charged in the indictments, the trial court should have found him not guilty or guilty of the lesser-included crime of assault (fifth and sixth issues).1

1 For each grouping of issues, Evans’ arguments are identical, except for the trial court cause numbers to which they are directed. His first, third, and fifth issues concern trial court cause number F20-51046-I; his second, fourth, and sixth issues concern trial court cause number F20-51047-I.

1. Judicial Confession In his first and second issues, Evans argues his guilty plea in each case was not supported by a judicial confession and an adequate factual basis for each crime is not in the record. The State disagrees and argues Evans’ judicial confession in each case was alone sufficient to support his convictions and that his convictions were further supported by Evans’ testimony at the plea hearing. We agree with the State.

Article 1.15 of the code of criminal procedure provides that when a defendant pleads guilty, he cannot be convicted upon his plea alone without sufficient evidence to support the plea. TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 1.15; McGill v. State, 200 S.W.3d 325, 330 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2006, no pet.). A judicial confession, standing alone, constitutes sufficient evidence to support a guilty plea. See Dinnery v. State, 592 S.W.2d 343, 353 (Tex. Crim. App. [Panel Op.] 1979) (op. on reh’g) (describing this as “well settled”) (citations omitted); see also Menefee v. State, 287 S.W.3d 9, 13 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009). Here, the plea paperwork in each case includes the following:

....

....

Evans argues his judicial confession was deficient in two ways. First, he claims it was deficient because it included language stating “or as a lesser included offense of the offense alleged in the charging instrument” and was not narrowed to include only aggravated assault. As support, he cites Hughley v. State, No. 06-15- 00174-CR, 2016 WL 3668026 (Tex. App.—Texarkana July 9, 2016, pet. ref’d) (mem. op., not designated for publication), which involved a judicial confession containing somewhat similar language. Evans argues that because Hughley mentions other evidence of guilt in the record beyond the defendant’s judicial confession, “Hughley suggests that it is only when there is additional evidence beyond the boilerplate judicial confession will the evidence be sufficient to support the plea.” But we do not read Hughley so narrowly, and, in any event, Hughley does not find the judicial confession in that case deficient, and the case involved a

different offense, procedural context, and issues on appeal.2 Contrary to Evans’ implicit suggestion otherwise, Hughley does not alter the well-settled rule that a judicial confession, standing alone, constitutes sufficient evidence to support a guilty plea, see Dinnery, 592 S.W.2d at 353.

Second, Evans argues his judicial confession was deficient because the plea paperwork in which it is contained was signed by him and his trial counsel on different dates.3 As support, Evans cites Mayberry v. State, No. 05-92-02830-CR, 1993 WL 480212, at *2 (Tex. App.—Dallas Nov. 19, 1993, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication), noting that in that case, we described the plea paperwork as being “witnessed by” his counsel and arguing that here, because he and his trial counsel signed the plea paperwork on different dates, his counsel did not “witness” it. We are unpersuaded by Evans’ reliance on Mayberry and reject his argument that the difference in dates made his judicial confession deficient on this record. Evans, his trial counsel, and the State signed the plea paperwork containing Evans’ judicial

2 Hughley involved a judgment adjudicating guilt on a charge of assault in a family violence situation causing bodily injury, for which the trial court originally placed Hughley on deferred adjudication community supervision. 2016 WL 3668026, at *1. On appeal, the court decided a jurisdictional question and an evidentiary sufficiency question, the latter of which was prompted by Hughley’s argument that the judgment was void because there was no evidence to support his conviction. 2016 WL 3668026, at *3. Our sister court disagreed, see id., at *3–5, and affirmed the judgment, stating, “we find that Hughley’s responses to the trial court’s questions, taken with the judicial confession and written plea of guilt, all of which were filed in the clerk’s record, were sufficient to support the trial court’s finding that Hughley was guilty . . . and to enter its judgment of conviction accordingly.” Id. at *5. The judicial confession in Hughley stated the defendant “JUDICIALLY CONFESSES and admits to committing the offense . . . exactly as charged in the charging instrument or as a lesser included offense charged in . . . the charging instrument.”

3 His counsel’s signature on the “Defense Attorney’s Approval” section of the plea paperwork is dated May 15, 2020.

confession and stipulation before the plea proceedings began, and during the plea proceedings, Evans confirmed to the trial court he had an opportunity to speak privately with his attorney, had gone over the allegations and understood what he was charged with in each case, and the trial court admitted various exhibits into evidence, without objection by Evans or his counsel, including an exhibit consisting of Evans’ judicial confession and stipulation in the plea paperwork in each case.4 Based on the record before us, we conclude Evans’ judicial confession, which includes language admitting to the commission of “[a]ggravated [a]ssault exactly as charged in the charging instrument[,]” is sufficient to support each conviction, as a judicial confession, standing alone, constitutes sufficient evidence to support a guilty plea. See Dinnery, 592 S.W.2d at 353.

We overrule Evans’ first and second issues.

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