Ex Parte Matthew Leachman

554 S.W.3d 730
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 19, 2018·No. 01-16-00787-CR·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

Opinion issued June 19, 2018

In The

Court of Appeals

For The

First District of Texas

his retrial. Leachman filed an amended motion for rehearing from our May 10, 2018 opinion. We deny the amended motion for rehearing and affirm.2

Background

A. Procedural History in State Court In the conviction at issue under trial court cause number 786224, Leachman

was charged in 1998 by indictment of aggravated sexual assault of a child.3 Following a jury trial, in which the trial court had denied Leachman’s motion to represent himself, he was convicted and sentenced to 40 years’ confinement in 1998. See Leachman v. Stephens, No. 4:11-CV-212, 2015 WL 5730378, at *1 (S.D. Tex. Sept. 30, 2015) (mem. and order, not designated for publication) (federal habeas proceeding summarizing procedural history). After this Court affirmed the conviction, the Court of Criminal Appeals granted Leachman’s petition for discretionary review, vacated our decision, and remanded for consideration of claims not at issue here. See Stephens, 2015 WL 5730378, at *1; see Leachman v. State,

2 Although we deny the amended motion for rehearing without requesting a response, we withdraw our May 10, 2018 opinion and judgment and issue this opinion on rehearing and a new judgment. See TEX. R. APP. P. 49.2, 49.3. Our disposition remains unchanged. See Brookshire Bros., Inc. v. Smith, 176 S.W.3d 30, 33 (Tex.

App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2004, pet. denied) (op. on rehr’g).

3 In separate proceedings, Leachman pleaded guilty to three counts of indecency with a child, involving different children than the complainant here, under trial court cause numbers 786223, 786226, and 720366. He was sentenced to 20 years’

confinement in each case in 1999, to be served concurrently. He did not appeal those sentences. See Leachman v. Stephens, No. 02-13-00357-CV, 2016 WL 6648747, at *2 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Nov. 10, 2016, pet. denied) (mem. op.)

(summarizing Leachman’s criminal litigation history).

No. 01-98-01255-CR, 2004 WL 744820 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] Apr. 8, 2004) (mem. op. on reh’g, not designated for publication), vacated, No. PD-0517- 05, 2005 WL 2990698 (Tex. Crim. App. Nov. 9, 2005) (not designated for publication). On remand, this Court again affirmed Leachman’s conviction, the Court of Criminal Appeals refused his petition for discretionary review, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari. See Stephens, 2015 WL 5730378, at 1; see Leachman v. State, No. 01-98-01255-CR, 2006 WL 2381441, at *1 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] Aug. 17, 2006, pet. ref’d), cert. denied, 554 U.S. 932, 128 S. Ct. 2995 (2008).

Leachman filed a state application for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the denial of his motion to represent himself. See Stephens, 2015 WL 5730378, at *1. The state habeas court recommended denial, and the Court of Criminal Appeals denied Leachman’s first habeas application without a written order. See Ex parte Leachman, No. WR-36-445-04 (Tex. Crim. App. Dec. 1, 2010).

B. Procedural History in Federal Court Leachman then filed a federal habeas corpus petition based on the denial of

his Sixth Amendment right to represent himself, which the federal district court denied as procedurally defaulted. See Stephens, 2015 WL 5730378, at *1, *4 (citing Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 835–36, 95 S. Ct. 2525 (1975)). The Fifth Circuit affirmed the federal district court’s judgment on all issues, except the finding

that Leachman could not demonstrate cause and prejudice to excuse the procedural default of his Faretta self-representation claim. See id.; see Leachman v. Stephens, No. 12-20187, 581 Fed. App’x 390, 398 (5th Cir. 2014) (not designated for publication), cert. denied, 135 S. Ct. 2315 (2015). On remand, the federal district court conditionally granted Leachman’s federal habeas corpus petition on his Faretta self-representation claim on September 30, 2015, and ordered his release unless the State moved to grant him a new trial within 90 days. See Stephens, 2015 WL 5730378, at *6.

C. The State Habeas Corpus Application and Writ Hearing On November 4, 2015, the State timely moved for a new trial under trial court

cause number 786224, which the state judge for the retrial granted on the record. On August 17, 2016, the state court granted the State’s motions to transfer its prior filings to new cause numbers, noting that the original indictment under trial court cause number 786224 had been reindicted into two separate trial court cause numbers, 1520246 (anal sodomy) and 1520247 (oral sodomy), after the grand jury had indicted Leachman on two separate counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

On August 30, 2016, Leachman filed a pro se pretrial habeas corpus application in the trial court, which was assigned to the underlying trial court cause number 1522187. Leachman asserted that, while the State may seek a new

indictment on the same offense, the superseding indictment must mirror the initial charge. See Ex parte Legrand, 291 S.W.3d 31, 38–39 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2009, pet. ref’d) (citing United States v. Holland, 956 F.2d 990, 993 (10th Cir. 1992)). He claimed that the State was attempting to turn the single charge into two separate charges, two convictions, and two sentences.

On September 28, 2016, the habeas judge, who did not preside over Leachman’s original trial, held a non-evidentiary writ hearing on Leachman’s pro se habeas application in which both sides presented argument, but no witnesses. Leachman repeated his argument that the State was trying to take the same offense and split it into multiple offenses, thereby violating the multiple-punishment aspect of the double jeopardy clause. The State responded that it intended to withdraw its motion to consolidate and would proceed to trial only on the first trial court cause number 1520246. The prosecutor stated that he intended to file an amended motion to cumulate sentences, seeking only to stack any sentence on the existing 20-year sentence Leachman was still serving.

At the end of the writ hearing, the habeas court orally denied Leachman’s writ.

The habeas court noted that if the State’s “intent is to proceed on one of the two new indictments, as opposed to both,” that “take[s] care[] of any potential issues, so I am going to deny your writ of habeas corpus.” Later that day, the habeas court signed a judgment denying Leachman’s pretrial habeas corpus application.

D. Proceedings in this Court On September 28, 2016, Leachman timely filed a pro se notice of appeal from

the habeas court’s denial of his pretrial habeas application. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a)(1), 31.1. On October 24, 2016, in compliance with a request from the Clerk of this Court, the trial court certified Leachman’s right of appeal of the denial of his pretrial habeas application. See id. 25.2(a)(2), (d). In compliance with a second request, the district clerk also filed a second supplemental clerk’s record in this Court on October 26, 2016. This record contains the State’s amended motion to cumulate sentences, which was filed only in the first charge 1520246, and the docket sheet for the second charge 1520247, showing that no such motion was filed there.

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Ex Parte Matthew Leachman, 554 S.W.3d 730 (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

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