Gonzalez v. State

337 S.W.3d 473, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 1967, 2011 WL 1005454
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 17, 2011
Docket01-09-00844-CR, 01-09-00845-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by75 cases

This text of 337 S.W.3d 473 (Gonzalez 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
Gonzalez v. State, 337 S.W.3d 473, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 1967, 2011 WL 1005454 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION

ELSA ALCALA, Justice.

Appellant, Dennis Gonzalez, appeals a judgment finding him guilty of sexual assault for penetrating the complainant’s sexual organ and aggravated sexual assault for penetrating the complainant’s anus. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 22.011(a)(1)(A), 22.021(a)(1)(A)® (West 2007). In five issues, appellant contends that the evidence establishing aggravated sexual assault is legally and factually insufficient; that the indictment concerning penetration of the complainant’s sexual organ is materially defective; that his conviction for sexual assault of the complainant’s sexual organ was a lesser-included offense of his conviction for aggravated sexual assault of the complainant’s anus and precluded by double jeopardy; that the State employed improper jury arguments; and that the trial court erred by admitting testimony from a witness not listed in the State’s notice of intent to introduce extraneous offenses. We conclude that the evidence is sufficient, that the indictment is not materially defective, that appellant’s conviction for sexual assault is not precluded by double jeopardy, that the State’s jury arguments were proper, and that appellant has failed to show any harm from the omission of the witness from the State’s notice of intent to introduce extraneous offenses. We affirm.

Background

One afternoon in September 2007, the complainant went to visit her boyfriend at a hotel room. At around 1:00 a.m. on the following morning, the complainant and her boyfriend argued. Upset, the complainant left the hotel and began walking down the street. A gray car approached and stopped next to her. Appellant, the driver, asked her if she needed a ride. She said yes and entered the car, sitting in the front passenger seat. She began directing appellant to her home, but he drove into a neighborhood and parked on the side of the street. Appellant told her, “I know you’re a prostitute.” The complainant denied that she was a prostitute. Appellant grabbed her hand tightly. He instructed her to remove her clothes and threatened to hurt and kill her if she did “anything funny.” Too scared to fight back, she complied. Appellant took her clothes, cell phone, and money.

Appellant pulled his pants down and forced her to perform oral sex on him. After a while, he then instructed her to recline the passenger seat. Appellant positioned himself on top of her and penetrated her sexual organ with his sexual organ. Crying, the complainant begged him to stop, but appellant told her to shut up.

A while later, appellant instructed her to turn over onto her stomach, facing down. Appellant then penetrated her anus with his sexual organ. The complainant was immediately in pain. Placing his hand around her neck in a chokehold, appellant told her, “I’ll hurt you.” For a short time, the complainant was unable to breathe. After ejaculating in her anus, appellant *477 ordered her to take her clothes and exit the car. The complainant never consented to any type of sexual contact with appellant.

In only her shorts, socks, and bra, the complainant ran down the street. Seeing a house with its lights on, she began knocking on the door, saying, “Help.” The complainant told the man who answered the door what had happened. The man loaned her a shirt and called the police. An officer arrived around 6:06 a.m. The complainant told the officer that she had been forced into a car and the driver had penetrated her sexual organ with his sexual organ. She stated that she did not want to be examined and did not want to file a police report. Nevertheless, the officer called an ambulance.

The ambulance took the complainant to the hospital. There, a nurse performed a sexual assault examination. The complainant told the nurse that the driver had exited the car and forced her to enter. The complainant also told her that the driver had sex with her “in the front and back.” The nurse noted two bruises on the complainant right forearm. Using cotton swabs, the nurse collected specimens from the complainant’s sexual organ and anus. Testing revealed the presence of sperm in both specimens. In the sexual-organ specimen, further DNA analysis identified sperm from at least two sources, of which appellant was possibly, but not definitively, one. In the anal specimen, DNA analysis identified sperm from only one source, which was from appellant.

Two' indictments for aggravated sexual assault each alleged that on or about September 13, 2007, by the use of physical force and violence, appellant compelled the complainant to submit and participate, and by his acts and words, appellant placed the complainant in fear that serious bodily injury would be imminently inflicted on her. One of these indictments alleged that appellant intentionally or knowingly caused the penetration of the complainant’s sexual organ with his sexual organ. The second indictment asserted that appellant intentionally or knowingly caused the penetration of the complainant’s anus with his sexual organ without her consent. Prior to voir dire, appellant’s trial counsel objected on the ground that the “two indictments allege the same offense against the same victim, the same day.” The trial court overruled the objection. Before the jury, appellant was arraigned on these charges, to which he pleaded “not guilty.”

During cross-examination of the complainant, appellant’s trial counsel asked the complainant if she had ever been convicted for prostitution. The complainant responded, “No.” Asking again, counsel elicited the complainant’s admission that she was convicted for prostitution in June 2009, which was almost two years after these offenses occurred.

Appellant’s trial counsel made no objection to the charges. For. both jury charges,-the jury wás instructed that if it was not convinced that the act constituted aggravated sexual assault, it could convict for the lesser-included offense of sexual assault. On the charge of aggravated sexual assault of the complainant’s sexual organ, the jury returned a verdict of guilty for the lesser-included offense of sexual assault. On the charge of aggravated sexual assault of the complainant’s anus, the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

Immediately preceding the punishment phase, appellant objected to the State offering a witness whom it did not listed in its notice of intent to introduce extraneous offenses. The State’s notice identified two sexual assaults committed by appellant against Cambio and Castillo, each of whom testified during the punishment phase. The notice failed to list the aggravated *478 sexual assault committed against Ortiz. However, one month prior to trial, the State filed a notice of intent to introduce business records. Among those records is the jail card for appellant’s arrest for the aggravated sexual assault charge against him involving Ortiz, pending in the same district court. Finding that appellant had received actual notice from the State about the assault against Ortiz, the trial court overruled appellant’s objection.

In the sentencing phase, Ortiz testified that in April 2006, she was walking down the street at around 6:30 a.m. when a silver car approached and stopped next to her. Appellant, the driver, asked her if she needed a ride. Ortiz said yes and entered the car, sitting in the front passenger seat. She began directing appellant to her destination, but he drove the opposite way.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
337 S.W.3d 473, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 1967, 2011 WL 1005454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gonzalez-v-state-texapp-2011.