Daniel Mavero v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 26, 2016·No. 05-14-01097-CR·Published

Opinion

AFFIRM; and Opinion Filed July 26, 2016.

S In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-14-01097-CR

DANIEL MAVERO, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Criminal Court No. 10 Dallas County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. MA13-71667L

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Lang, Brown, and Whitehill Opinion by Justice Brown

Appellant Daniel Mavero appeals his jury conviction for violation of a protective order.

After the jury found appellant guilty, the trial court assessed punishment at 365 days’ confinement and a $150 fine. In six issues, appellant generally contends (1) the evidence is legally insufficient to support his conviction, (2) the trial court’s charge contained egregious errors, and (3) the trial court committed various errors related to the admission of extraneous offense evidence. For the following reasons, we affirm appellant’s conviction.

Background

Appellant was charged by information with violation of a protective order. The information alleged appellant intentionally or knowingly communicated with J.S., “a protected individual and a member of the family and household, by contacting [her] via telephone . . . in

violation of an order issued by the 330th District Court . . . under authority of Section 6.504 and Chapter 85 of the Family Code and Article 17.292 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and said communication was prohibited by the aforesaid order.”

At trial, J.S. testified she and appellant had a sexual relationship that resulted in the birth of her son, J.K.S. J.S. later obtained a “Final Protective Order” in “child support court” because appellant sent her e-mails threatening to kill her. J.S. identified that Order, which was admitted into evidence without objection. The Order was issued by a Dallas County Family District Court 1 and prohibited appellant from, amongst other things, communicating with J.S. in any manner except through his lawyer or a third party that the family court had designated to arrange visitation between appellant and J.K.S. Although the Order recited appellant failed to appear at the hearing, J.S. testified that appellant was present during the hearing and knew about the Order.

On December 2, 2013, while the order was in effect, J.S. testified appellant called her at the VA Hospital, where she works. The call came from an inside line. J.S. immediately contacted the VA Police, showed them the protective order, and told them appellant had called her from inside the hospital. J.S. also reported the call to Dallas Police.

J.S. testified she did not believe appellant had accidently called her because appellant would call her to harass her when she did not respond to his e-mails. She further testified that appellant had sent her e-mails begging her to call him or to reply, but she did not respond. J.S. said she did not report the e-mails to police because appellant used fake e-mail addresses and it would have been difficult for her to prove he had sent them. She nevertheless knew he sent them because of their content.

1 See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 24.638 (West) (identifying 330th Judicial District Court as a family district court).

Steven Girard is a patrol officer at the VA Hospital. Girard testified that he responded to J.S.’s call on the day of the offense. J.S. told Girard she had a protective order and that appellant had just called her from inside the hospital. Girard said the VA Police looked for appellant, but were unable to find him.

David Weisskopf, a domestic violence detective with the Dallas Police, testified he was assigned to investigate J.S.’s complaint. Weisskopf spoke to J.S., reviewed the protective order, and determined he needed to file a case. Weissekopf acknowledged that he based his decision on J.S.’s statement and that he did not obtain telephone records or video surveillance tapes from the VA Hospital to verify her claims.

After hearing the evidence, the jury found appellant guilty of violating the protective order. This appeal followed.

Legal Sufficiency of the Evidence In his first issue, appellant asserts the evidence is legally insufficient to support his conviction. In arguing this issue, appellant relies primarily on the State’s failure to prove all of the manners in which the information alleged, and the jury found, he committed the offense.

In reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict to determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found, beyond a reasonable doubt, the essential elements of the offense as defined by a hypothetically correct jury charge. Clayton v. State, 235 S.W.3d 772, 778 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007); Estrada v. State, 334 S.W.3d 57, 61 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2009, no pet.). A hypothetically correct jury charge is one that accurately sets out the law, is authorized by the charging instrument, 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.

Malik v. State, 953 S.W.2d 234, 240 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997). When a charging instrument alleges alternative manners of committing an offense in the conjunctive, it is proper for the trial court to charge the jury in the disjunctive. Kitchens v. State, 823 S.W.2d 256, 258 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991).

Under section 25.07(a)(2)(C) of the penal code, a person commits an offense if, in violation of an order issued under section 6.504 of the family code, chapter 85 of the Family Code, or article 17.292 of the code of criminal procedure, he knowingly or intentionally communicates in any manner with a protected individual or a member of the family or household, if the protective order prohibits such communications. See TEX. PEN. CODE ANN. § 25.07 25.07(a)(2)(C)(West Supp. 2015).

In this issue, appellant first contends the evidence is legally insufficient to show J.S. was a member of appellant’s family and household. The information alleged, in the conjunctive, that J.S. was “a protected individual and a member of the family and household.” The application paragraph tracked the information’s conjunctive allegations. According to appellant, the State was therefore required to prove J.S. was both a protected individual and a member of appellant’s family and household.

However, a hypothetically correct charge would have allowed the jury to find this element of the offense if it found J.S. was either a protected individual or a member of appellant’s family or household. See Finster v. State, 152 S.W.3d 215, 218 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2004, no pet.); see also Cada v. State, 334 S.W.3d 766, 771 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011). Because appellant does not dispute that J.S. was a protective individual, his complaint is without merit. See Finster, 152 S.W.3d at 218.

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