Eubanks v. State

326 S.W.3d 231, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 5399, 2010 WL 2723176
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 8, 2010
Docket01-09-00826-CR, 01-09-00827-CR, 01-09-00828-CR, 01-09-00829-CR, 01-09-00830-CR, 01-09-00831-CR, 01-09-00832-CR, 01-09-00833-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 326 S.W.3d 231 (Eubanks 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
Eubanks v. State, 326 S.W.3d 231, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 5399, 2010 WL 2723176 (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

EVELYN V. KEYES, Justice.

A jury convicted appellant, Donald Ray Eubanks, of two counts of indecency with a child, two counts of sexual performance by a child, two counts of possession of child pornography, and two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. 1 The jury assessed a total punishment of life in prison and $80,000 in fines. In seven issues, appellant argues that (1) the evidence was legally insufficient to establish that Bri. E.’s mouth contacted his penis; (2) the evidence was factually insufficient to establish that Bri.E.’s mouth contacted his penis; (3) the evidence was legally insufficient to establish that appellant produced a photo that included sexual conduct by a child; (4) the evidence was legally insufficient to establish that appellant possessed child pornography; (5) double jeopardy prohibits him from being convicted of both sexual performance by a child and possession of child pornography; (6) double jeopardy prohibits appellant from being convicted on two indictments for possession of child pornography that did not allege that he possessed different photos; and (7) the trial court abused its discretion in admitting photos seized from appellant’s computer.

We affirm.

Background

Appellant is the paternal grandfather of the complainants, Bri.E. and Bro.E. From *236 the time the complainants were two years old, they spent almost every Sunday afternoon with appellant and his wife, Francine Eubanks. In October 2006, the complainants were visiting their aunt, Terri Moore, and playing with some friends in Moore’s bedroom. When Moore came into the room, the girls immediately stopped talking in a way that Moore found suspicious, so she asked the girls what they had been talking about. The complainants, who were seven at the time, told Moore that appellant was abusing them. Moore told the complainants’ mother, Jamie Eubanks. The complainants’ visits with appellant and Francine immediately stopped, and within the next few days, Jamie contacted the police, took the complainants to Texas Children’s Hospital, and began the process of seeking counseling for them.

Bro.E. told the doctor who examined her that appellant “hurt me” and that sometimes when he hurt her he “messed with my butt [and] sometimes my private.” The doctor testified that Bro.E identified her “private” as her vagina. Bro.E also told the doctor, “He slobbered on my mouth. My stomach and back and neck he slobbered on and face [sic].” When the doctor asked her what appellant did with her butt and private, Bro.E. responded, “He rubbed them with his feet and hands. Sometimes there would be pictures. Sometimes part of my clothes were off. Sometimes my bottoms off and my shirt off. Sometime my underwear ... or sometimes nothing on [sic].” Bro.E. told the doctor that the abuse began when she and Bri.E. started first grade and continued until the last time they had visited appellant.

Bri.E. told the doctor that appellant touched her “in the wrong places ... like in [my] pants and stuff.” Bri.E. also testified that appellant took pictures of her and Bro.E. She also told the doctor, “We would try to put our clothes on. We finally told our mother because we were getting scared. We didn’t tell her everything because we were embarrassed.” The doctor testified that she did not find any abnormalities or signs of trauma during her physical examination of the complainants. However, the doctor also testified that “in the majority of cases ..., approximately 90 percent of the ... evaluations, we don’t find any evidence of trauma.” She testified that the lack of physical trauma or injuries did not mean that the girls were not telling the truth. She testified that the complainants’ descriptions of the abuse and the time that had passed between the last incident and the exam led her to believe that a finding of no physical trauma could still have been consistent with their allegations.

Based on the complainants’ interviews with a forensic examiner at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Galveston and police interviews with the complainants’ mother and aunt, the police obtained a search warrant for appellant’s home. Police seized computers, wireless surveillance cameras, and external hard drives. A special agent with the Secret Service, W. Bra-cas, found 105 images of the complainants on appellant’s computer saved under appellant’s username in a file entitled “9806 B & B.” Appellant also gave a statement in which he denied all of the allegations. 2

Approximately one month after the complainants made their outcry, they began *237 receiving counseling from Carol Stephens, a psychotherapist. Stephens testified that it is common for victims of abuse to slowly disclose the details of what happened to them over a period of time, stating, “[The] first outcry is extremely difficult. So it’s highly unusual that they are going to immediately disclose everything.” Stephens testified that, as child abuse victims begin to feel safer in their environment, “it [makes] it easier for them to open up.”

Stephens testified that, as part of her treatment of the complainants, she discussed the abuse with them “a lot.” She testified that Bri.E. specifically disclosed to her, in her first private session, that her grandfather “would force her to put his penis in her mouth and put his hand on the back of her head and pull her head down.” Bri.E. told Stephens, “I hated it. It tasted terrible and it stunk down there.” Bro.E. told Stephens later in their treatment that her grandfather had contacted or touched her vagina with his mouth.

Stephens also testified that in the course of her treatment of the complainants, she had seen a tremendous improvement in their behavior, and that they had gone from having trouble in school and demonstrating excessive anger, feelings of shame and guilt, excessive crying, fear, and nightmares to being “two beautifully thriving 10-year-old girls” who are “normal 10-year-old girls as far as their behavior goes right now.” Several family members also testified that the complainants demonstrated problematic behavior prior to their outcry that improved once they were no longer in contact with appellant and were receiving treatment. In particular, the girls’ aunt, Terri Moore, testified that the girls had had trouble in school and that she observed them on more than one occasion attempting to touch her son inappropriately, but that after the girls made their outcry, their behavior improved tremendously. The complainants’ maternal grandfather, Harvey Moore, also testified that while the complainants lived with him and his wife, from the time the girls were two until they were five or six, the complainants behaved inappropriately on occasion and had some trouble at school. Specifically, he testified,

I would be holding them and they would touch me [on my penis] and kind of giggle about it. And that happened, I don’t know, three or four times. And I kept telling them that that’s not appropriate, we don’t do that. And it took three or four times to get it across to them not to do that.

The complainants themselves testified at trial. Bro.E. testified that she was assaulted by her grandfather, appellant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
326 S.W.3d 231, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 5399, 2010 WL 2723176, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eubanks-v-state-texapp-2010.