David v. State

808 S.W.2d 239, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1336, 1991 WL 83138
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 10, 1991
Docket05-90-00477-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 808 S.W.2d 239 (David 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
David v. State, 808 S.W.2d 239, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1336, 1991 WL 83138 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

OVARD, Justice.

Gerald Yale David appeals his conviction for aggravated sexual assault. Upon his open plea of guilty, the trial court found him guilty and assessed punishment at forty-five years’ confinement. The single issue we are called upon to determine is whether his conviction and sentence unconstitutionally placed David twice in jeopardy for the same offense. Because we determine that this conviction was for an offense requiring additional proof of a different essential element from his other conviction, we affirm.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

In a bench trial, David pleaded guilty to three indictments charging him with aggravated sexual assault of a child and one indictment charging indecency with a child. At the trial’s conclusion, the trial court found him guilty in all four cases. His punishment was assessed at forty-five years’ confinement in each aggravated sexual assault case and twenty years’ confinement in the indecency with a child cause. The sentences were all pronounced to run concurrently.

The indictment in the present case, under cause number F89-79719-TL, charged that David, on or about June 30,1988, did knowingly and intentionally cause the penetration of the female sexual organ of D_ H_., a child, by his sexual organ. Another aggravated sexual assault conviction was in cause number F88-91805-NL. In that case, the indictment charged that David, on or about June 30, 1988, did knowingly and intentionally cause the penetration of the mouth of D_H_, a child, by the sexual organ of the defendant. His other two convictions are not pertinent to his complaint on appeal.

At trial, David’s judicial confessions were admitted into evidence. In those confessions he admitted to committing all offenses as they were charged in each indictment. Additionally, the State elicited testimony from D_H_’s brother that he saw David “hunching” D_ H_ on June 30, 1988 in a motel room. Another witness also testified about observing the vaginal penetration. D_H_did not testify.

David testified that the only sexual activity he had with D_H_occurred on June 30, 1988. He denied actual penetration of her sexual organ and equivocated as to his sexual behavior with the child. There was no testimony by any witness concerning David’s penetration of her mouth. His signed judicial confession was the only evidence that proved that offense.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY COMPLAINT

In his single point, David contends the two indictments charging aggravated sexual assault of D_ H_ on the same date, June 30, 1988, are actually charging the same offense committed by different methods. He argues that his penetration of D_ H_’s sexual organ and his penetration of her mouth by his sexual organ are merely different ways he used to perpetrate a solitary offense of aggravated sexual assault on D_H_

David relies on the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitu *241 tion, article I, section fourteen of the Texas Constitution, and article 1.10 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, all of which he points out protect individuals from twice being placed in jeopardy for the same offense. See U.S. Const, amends. V, XIV; Tex. Const, art. I, § 14; Tex.Code CRim. PROC.Ann. art. 1.10 (Vernon 1977). He begins his argument by analogizing his position to a hypothetical murder case where a defendant is charged, by two indictments, with causing the death of the same individual. One indictment, he hypothesizes, alleges the murder was caused by shooting with a gun, and the other by stabbing with a knife. Obviously, he emphasizes, only one conviction for murder could be obtained without violating double jeopardy protection.

Next he directs us to cases that admittedly are dissimilar from his case but which he feels support his position. These include a case holding that a person tried and convicted of an offense cannot later be tried a second time for an incident included within the same proof necessary to prove the first conviction. May v. State, 726 S.W.2d 573, 575 (Tex.Crim.App.1987) (double jeopardy protection prohibited a second trial for prosecution of driving while intoxicated, arising out of the same facts previously relied upon for an involuntary manslaughter conviction).

He points to statutes structured similarly to the aggravated sexual assault statute, such as the DWI law. He goes on to explain, show that the focal point should be that these statutes indicate only one offense may be committed, albeit in a variety of ways. He maintains that the Court of Criminal Appeals recognized such by holding that, when a statute provides for more than one way for a defendant to commit an act, the State must allege the manner and means it seeks to establish either separately or in disjunctive combination. State v. Winskey, 790 S.W.2d 641, 642 (Tex.Crim.App.1990) (an information charging a DWI offense may charge definitions of intoxication in the disjunctive, but it can result in only one conviction).

From these and other references, he concludes that the State violated his right to be protected against double jeopardy. He asserts that this violation occurred because the two convictions for aggravated sexual assault of D_H_resulted from his commission of a single offense committed by two different ways as charged in two individual indictments.

LEGAL PRINCIPLES

As both sides recognize, constitutional protection against double jeopardy provides protection against: (1) a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; (2) a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; and (3) multiple punishments for the same offense. Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410, 415, 100 S.Ct. 2260, 2264, 65 L.Ed.2d 228 (1980); Ex parte Peterson, 738 S.W.2d 688, 689 (Tex.Crim.App.1987). When a defendant is subjected to a single trial, only the third aspect of the protection, against multiple punishments, is involved. Ex parte Herron, 790 S.W.2d 623, 623-24 (Tex.Crim.App.1990).

Constitutional provisions speak of double jeopardy in terms of the “same offense” rather than “same transaction.” In order to determine whether a defendant has been subjected to double jeopardy, we must apply a test for defining what constitutes the “same offense.” Ex parte McWilliams, 634 S.W.2d 815, 823-24 (Tex.Crim.App.) (on reh’g), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1036, 103 S.Ct. 447, 74 L.Ed.2d 602 (1982). The leading case in the area of double jeopardy protection against multiple punishments is Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). Blockburger set out the test as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
808 S.W.2d 239, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1336, 1991 WL 83138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-v-state-texapp-1991.