Donald Lewis v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 12, 2017
Docket03-15-00306-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Donald Lewis v. State (Donald Lewis 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
Donald Lewis v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-15-00306-CR

Donald Lewis, Appellant

v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF TRAVIS COUNTY, 147TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT NO. D-1-DC-13-204137, HONORABLE WILFORD FLOWERS, JUDGE PRESIDING

MEMORANDUM OPINION

A jury convicted appellant Donald Lewis of one count of aggravated sexual assault

of a child and one count of indecency with a child. See Tex. Penal Code §§ 21.11(a)(1),

22.021(a)(2)(B). The jury then assessed punishment at forty years and twenty-five years respectively

for these offenses, with the sentences to run concurrently. In two issues, Lewis contends on appeal

that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child

and, alternatively, that his conviction for indecency with a child should be subsumed by his

conviction for aggravated sexual assault. We will affirm the conviction.

BACKGROUND

On June 26, 2013, the complainant in this case, J.H., was placed in a residential

treatment facility for girls who are in foster care. Within days of arriving, J.H., thirteen at the time,

climbed out of a bathroom window and ran away from the facility. Facility staff reported her missing to the police, but she returned to the facility on July 2, 2013. Upon her return, she was

crying, appeared disheveled, and reported physical and sexual assault. Staff members from the

facility contacted the police, and Officer Nathan Blake from the Austin Police Department

responded. Officer Blake interviewed J.H. about her reports and drove her around the area of the

facility so that J.H. could point out the locations where she alleged the assaults to have taken place.

While driving with Officer Blake, J.H. identified an apartment later determined to be Lewis’s

residence. Officer Blake collected J.H.’s clothing, including her underwear, to be tested for

DNA evidence.

After J.H. identified Lewis’s apartment, Officer Blake dropped her off with a staff

member from the facility, who then took her to the hospital for a sexual-assault examination. At the

hospital, Julie Gibbs, a sexual-assault nurse examiner (SANE), performed the exam and collected

external and internal swabs from J.H., including swabs from her vaginal canal and cervix. Gibbs

also collected two hairs from J.H.’s vaginal canal during the exam.

After dropping off J.H., Officer Blake returned to the apartment J.H. identified, at

which time he identified Joseph Quander and Clyde Pleasant leaving the apartment.1 Quander was

questioned by police at some point thereafter and acknowledged that he saw J.H. at Lewis’s

apartment over two days during the time she was missing from the facility. He also admitted that

he and Lewis had a sexual encounter with J.H. in Lewis’s bedroom at the apartment.2 During that

1 Quander stated that he and Pleasant stayed at Lewis’s one-bedroom apartment for several months. Lewis lived in the only bedroom, and Quander and Pleasant usually slept in the living room. 2 In a separate case, Quander pled guilty to a charge of aggravated sexual assault of J.H. and was sentenced to ten years in prison based on this same encounter.

2 encounter, Quander reported that he performed oral sex on J.H. while J.H. performed oral sex on

Lewis. When asked if he saw Lewis’s sexual organ penetrate J.H.’s mouth, Quander said he was

unsure because he “wasn’t trying to watch.” According to Quander, the encounter lasted

approximately ten to fifteen minutes, and all three then got dressed and returned to the living room.

Quander stated Lewis did not engage in any other type of sexual activity with J.H. during the

encounter. After they returned to the living room, Lewis told Quander he needed “some space,”

which Quander interpreted as a suggestion that Lewis wanted to have “further relations” with J.H.,

so Quander left the apartment. J.H. was still at the apartment, sitting in the living room with Lewis,

when Quander returned several hours later, though he did not observe any additional sexual activity

between them.

Police detectives also questioned Lewis, who had been arrested for an unrelated

parole violation. Lewis denied having any sexual encounter with J.H., but he admitted that she came

to his apartment on at least two occasions with his friend Jeana DeCoux. He told police that J.H.

said she was over eighteen but that he did not believe her. Lewis also stated that they smoked

“weed” and drank beer while she was there.3

Forensic scientists from the Austin Police Department Crime Lab tested the DNA

specimens collected during the SANE exam as well as J.H.’s underwear. Spermatazoa was present

on both the cervical and vaginal swabs, and Lewis could not be excluded as a contributor to those

samples. There were several stains found on J.H.’s underwear which also all contained spermatazoa.

3 Quander testified that he was high on crack cocaine at the time of the sexual encounter with Lewis and J.H.

3 Although the DNA from the stains was determined to be a result of multiple contributors, Lewis

could not be excluded as contributor from any of the samples collected. The Austin Police

Department Crime Lab performed DNA testing on the hairs found in J.H.’s vaginal canal, from

which it was determined that J.H. was the source of the DNA in the major component of the hair

specimen. The source of the minor component of the sample could not be confirmed through the

types of testing performed at the Austin Police Department Crime Lab, so the hair specimen was then

sent to Rachel Burch at the University of North Texas for further testing. After performing a Y-STR

analysis, which focuses solely on the male component of the sample, Burch concluded that Lewis

could not be excluded as a contributor from the hair sample.

In the indictment, Lewis was charged with five counts of aggravated sexual assault

of a child and four counts of indecency with a child. At trial, the trial court instructed the jury on

four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by

contact.4 First, the jury was asked to determine whether Lewis committed aggravated sexual assault

of a child by penetrating J.H.’s sexual organ with his sexual organ (Count 1) or, alternatively, by

Lewis’s sexual organ contacting J.H.’s sexual organ (Count 2). If the jury acquitted Lewis of

aggravated assault of a child as charged in Counts 1 and 2, the instructions asked the jury to

determine whether Lewis committed the lesser-included offense of indecency with a child by

touching the genitals of J.H. (Count 7). Additionally, without regard to its determinations on Counts

1, 2, and 7, the jury was instructed to determine whether Lewis committed aggravated sexual assault

4 Counts 5, 8, and 9 of the indictment were not pursued by the State and were not included in the jury charge.

4 of a child by penetrating J.H.’s mouth with his sexual organ (Count 3) or, alternatively, by Lewis’s

sexual organ contacting J.H.’s mouth (Count 4). If the jury acquitted Lewis of aggravated sexual

assault of a child as charged in Counts 3 and 4, the instructions asked the jury to determine whether

Lewis committed the lesser-included offense of indecency with a child by causing J.H. to touch

Lewis’s genitals (Count 6). The jury found Lewis guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child by

penetration of J.H.’s sexual organ as charged in Count 1 and, accordingly, did not reach Counts 2

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