Dedrick Dewayne Davis v. the State of Texas

Texas Court of Appeals, 2nd District (Fort Worth)·Decided June 18, 2026·No. 02-25-00209-CR·Published

Opinion

In the

Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth

No. 02-25-00209-CR

DEDRICK DEWAYNE DAVIS, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

On Appeal from Criminal District Court No. 3 Tarrant County, Texas

Trial Court No. 1868811

Before Bassel, Womack, and Wallach, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Wallach

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Dedrick Dewayne Davis was convicted of aggravated assault against a family member causing serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon, namely, his hands (Count One); aggravated assault of a family member with a deadly weapon, namely, a knife (Count Three); assault of a family member by occlusion while using or exhibiting a deadly weapon, namely, his hands, with a prior conviction for family-violence assault (Count Four); and assault against a family member with a previous conviction (Count Five).1 See Tex. Penal Code §§ 22.01(b)(2)(A), (b-3), 22.02(a)(2), (b)(1)(A). On appeal, Davis argues in three issues that (1) the evidence is insufficient to support a finding that he used a deadly weapon while committing Counts One, Three, and Four; (2) the evidence is insufficient to support a finding that he caused serious bodily injury to the complainant as alleged in Count One; and (3) that the trial court violated his constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him by overruling his hearsay objections to certain testimony offered by a police officer during the trial’s punishment phase. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Davis and the complainant, Brittney Tyson, began dating in February or March of 2023. About two or three months into the relationship, Davis became physically

1 Davis was also indicted for aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury with a family-violence allegation (Count Two). See Tex. Penal Code § 22.02(a)(1). But because the jury convicted Davis of Count One, it did not consider Count Two.

abusive and controlling. The first incident of physical violence occurred while the couple was driving to a comedy show. Davis, who had been upset for unknown reasons when he picked up Tyson, punched her in the cheek on the way to the show. After this first assault, the couple stopped talking for a few weeks. But Davis eventually reached out, and they continued their relationship.

But a short time later, Davis assaulted Tyson again. After Davis saw a text message about Tyson’s three-year-old daughter from the child’s father, Davis became enraged and started hitting Tyson over and over again with his fists and hands. He also strangled her before hitting her a few more times. Davis showed no remorse after this attack and instead just acted “like [everything] was normal.” After this incident, the couple’s romantic relationship ended.

Although Tyson did not report the assault on the day that it occurred, she ultimately called the police. The police took Tyson’s statement and photographed her bruises.

Davis frequently texted Tyson after these violent episodes and implored her not to give up on their relationship, but Tyson tried to make it clear to Davis that she no longer wanted to be with him. Eventually, Tyson agreed to meet Davis at Chase Bank for an exchange: she owed him money and he had her car keys. Tyson brought cash to pay Davis what she owed him, but he refused to hand over her car keys. Instead, he argued with her, threw her keys across the parking lot, broke her acrylic fingernail, bit her, and eventually forced her to leave with him.

After this incident, Tyson and Davis continued to see each other, but Tyson repeatedly expressed that she did not want to be in a romantic relationship with him anymore. However, Davis would not leave her alone and began sending her threatening messages and making uninvited visits to her apartment.

In November 2023, Tyson sent Davis a text message reiterating that she did not want to be with him. After receiving the message, Davis called her and yelled at her over the phone; he was upset, angry, and aggressive.

About fifteen minutes later, Davis arrived at Tyson’s apartment. Tyson was outside in the common area of her apartment complex when Davis arrived. Davis quickly approached Tyson, put his arm around her, and tried to strangle her to the ground. He told her that she was never going to leave him. He then forced her to go upstairs to her apartment.

Once Tyson’s door was shut, Davis hit her in the face with his fist, and she fell to the kitchen floor. He hit her multiple times, giving her a black eye, and then got on top of her and started strangling her. He continued to repeatedly strangle her, stopping when she started getting blue in the face and began to pass out and then resuming once she started breathing again.

Eventually, Davis got off of Tyson and took her tablet and phone. He then began grabbing some of Tyson’s clothing, packed them in a bin, and told her that she would not be coming back to her apartment for a while. He made her shower and

change clothes. After Tyson got out of the shower, Davis pushed her to the ground and attempted to hit her with a chair.

Eventually, Davis grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stated, “We got to go.”

While wielding the knife, he told Tyson that he would hurt her if she ran. Davis then forced her to leave, and they walked out together. Tyson believed that Davis would stab her if she did not go with him.

Davis first drove Tyson to a daycare facility to pick up her daughter,2 and then took the two of them to his house. Once they arrived at Davis’s house, he purchased first-aid items for Tyson and acted as if everything was normal. While Tyson received treatment for her injuries, her daughter played and watched her tablet in a secondary bedroom. Eventually, Tyson was able to use her daughter’s tablet to message someone for help.

When Davis saw the message, he began yelling at Tyson and physically assaulting her again. He strangled her, kicked her, and hit her in the head so hard that she heard a loud ringing sound. After this latest round of assaults, Tyson had two black eyes and could barely see.

2 Because of Tyson’s injuries, she remained in the car while Davis went inside the daycare facility to pick up her daughter. However, because Davis had taken her phone, she could not call for help while she was alone in the vehicle. She did not get out the car because she feared that Davis might harm her daughter or the other children at the daycare if he saw her try to escape.

After Davis “tr[ied] to heal” Tyson for several days at his house, he finally agreed to take her to the hospital. At Davis’s direction, Tyson told the hospital staff that she had been “jumped” and beaten up by “some other people.” After Tyson was admitted to the hospital, Davis stayed by her side the entire time so that she would not have the opportunity to tell anyone about what had actually happened. At one point when Davis left her hospital room, Tyson immediately told the nurse, “You have to get me out of here because he’s going to hurt me.” The hospital staff worked quickly to move Tyson to a secure unit.

When the nurse examined Tyson, she observed that she had a bite mark on her back and was bruised from head to toe, including her face, arms, chest, thighs, and buttocks. Because the bruises were in different stages of healing, she could tell that they were not all from a single incident.

Tyson’s mother testified that when she visited her daughter in the hospital, Tyson’s eyes were swollen shut and blackened. She also testified that Tyson had bruises all over her body, had severe spasms that prevented her from sleeping, could not walk, and needed assistance going to the bathroom and showering.

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Dedrick Dewayne Davis v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2026).

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