Henry v. State

509 S.W.3d 915, 2016 WL 7119060, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1442
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 7, 2016
DocketNO. PD-0511-15
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 509 S.W.3d 915 (Henry v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henry v. State, 509 S.W.3d 915, 2016 WL 7119060, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1442 (Tex. 2016).

Opinions

OPINION

Meyers, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court

in which Johnson, Keasler, Hervey, Alcala, Richardson, Yeary, and Newell, JJ., joined.

A jury convicted Appellant, Alvin Peter Henry Jr., of evading arrest with a motor vehicle. At the punishment stage of trial, the jury found that Henry was previously convicted of two felony offenses, resulting in an enhanced sentence of sixty years’ imprisonment. Henry appealed, arguing that the State, during punishment, “failed to prove that he was the same person who had committed the extraneous offenses introduced during punishment, including the two prior felony offenses used to increase his range of punishment.” Henry v. State, 466 S.W.3d 294, 296 (Tex. App.-Texarkana Apr. 16, 2015, pet. granted). The court of appeals found that the State had adduced sufficient evidence to link Henry to the prior convictions used to enhance his punishment and affirmed the trial court’s judgment. Id. at 301-302.

Appellant filed a petition for discretionary review to consider whether the State adduced legally sufficient evidence to link Appellant to those alleged prior convictions. We conclude that the evidence adduced by the State was sufficient to prove the enhancement allegations.

FACTS

In 2014, Appellant was found guilty of evading arrest by motor vehicle with a finding that the vehicle was used as a deadly weapon. The State filed an amended notice of intent to seek an enhanced sentence for Appellant as a habitual offender. It offered two final felony adjudications as support for the enhancement: one in 2002 for aggravated robbery and another in 1989 for aggravated assault. If the enhancement allegations were found “true,” the range of punishment for Appellant’s offense would be increased to life, or any term between 25 to 99 years.

During the punishment phase, the State offered into evidence the judgments reciting the 1989 conviction for aggravated assault and the 2002 conviction for aggravated robbery. The defense called three witnesses to testify: Dr. David Bell (a psychiatrist who had examined Appellant), Appellant himself, and Appellant’s cousin. During cross-examination, the State had three separate exchanges concerning Appellant’s prior convictions.

The first was with Dr. Bell:

THE STATE: But he’s been to prison for aggravated assault twice—
DR. BELL: Yes.
THE STATE: —and for aggravated robbery once, and for three different family violence assaults or four assaults in the—in the past year or two. He is a violent person, right?
DR. BELL: He has a history of violence, yes.

The second, with Appellant himself:

THE STATE: Well, you’ve been to prison for aggravated assault, haven’t you?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes.
THE STATE: You’ve been to prison for aggravated robbery, haven’t you?
THE DEFENDANT: Yeah.

[917]*917And the last, with Appellant’s cousin, Mr. Dewayne Coleman:

THE STATE: Mr. Coleman, you know that Mr. Henry went to prison in 1989 for aggravated assault, right?
MR. COLEMAN: Right.
THE STATE: And then he went to prison in 2002 for aggravated robbery, right?
MR. COLEMAN: Okay.

At the end of the punishment phase, the jury was presented with the jury charge, which referred to both the 2002 aggravated robbery judgment and the 1989 aggravated assault judgment as being styled “the State of Texas versus Alvin Peter Henry, Jr.” The jury ultimately found Appellant guilty of the offense of “Evading Arrest or Detention with a Motor Vehicle with a Deadly Weapon Finding” and that Appellant was the same person who was previously convicted of the aggravated robbery and the aggravated assault offenses. The punishment assessed by the jury was 60 years. The judgment of conviction by the jury shows that Appellant pled “not true” to the enhancement paragraph and that it was found “true.”

COURT OF APPEALS

On appeal, Appellant argued that the evidence adduced by the State was legally insufficient to prove the prior convictions used for enhancement. Henry, 466 S.W.3d at 301. Appellant also argued that the State failed to show that he was convicted of the offenses, since Appellant’s legal name (Alvin Peter Henry, Jr.) was different from the name reflected in the judgments (Alvin Peter Henry). Id. Relying on our case, Flowers v. State, 220 S.W.3d 919 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007), the court of appeals stated that in order for the State to use a prior conviction for enhancement purposes, it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a prior conviction exists and that the defendant is linked to it. Id. The court of appeals determined that a defendant’s stipulation to the existence of a prior conviction is sufficient to link the defendant to that conviction and removes the need for the State to prove that the conviction exists. Id. It then reasoned that the State was required to prove the enhancements, notwithstanding Appellant’s stipulation, because Appellant subsequently pleaded “not true” to the enhancement allegations. Id. The court held that the testimony of both Appellant and his cousin Coleman, in tandem, was sufficient to link Appellant to the prior convictions used to enhance his punishment. Id.

ARGUMENTS OF THE PARTIES

Appellant’s Argument

Appellant argues that the State failed to link him to the prior convictions used for enhancement. According to Appellant, the State is required, for enhancement purposes, to prove that a defendant is the same person who was convicted in a prior alleged offense. Furthermore, Appellant notes that our Court has long held that the mere recital of a defendant’s name in certified copies of prior judgments is not sufficient to prove that the defendant is the same person convicted in the prior alleged offense. Although Appellant concedes that the State has adequately shown that prior convictions do exist, Appellant argues that it has failed to link Appellant to them. In the case at bar, the State introduced two prior judgments, which contained the following information: the prior offense, the date of the prior offense, and the date of conviction. Appellant contends that he never indicated that he had been convicted of [918]*918these offenses. Since Appellant pled “not true,” Appellant argues that the burden rested on the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had been convicted of the prior offenses. Finally, because the prior judgments contain the name “Alvin Peter Henry” and Appellant’s name is “Alvin Peter Henry, Jr.,” Appellant concludes that the State failed, “facially, to even show that the person convicted in the prior convictions was the same person on trial.”

State’s Argument

The State contends that it did adduce adequate legally sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that pri- or convictions existed and that Appellant was linked to those convictions.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ryon ONeil Michael v. the State of Texas
Tex. App. Ct., 3rd Dist. (Austin), 2026
Romie Richardson v. the State of Texas
Tex. App. Ct., 2nd Dist. (Fort Worth), 2026
Carl Robert Toler v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Parrish Bell v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Bruce Lynn Jackson v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Terry Edward Keylon Jr. v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2025
Christopher Bartlome v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Jesse James Segundo v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Clifton Todd Hanks v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Leandro Chain Gonzales v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Rainer Bernard Wiseman v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Colbin John Wright v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Joey Harper v. State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Kenneth Ray Chatman v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Juan Jose Navarro v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Alexis Limon v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
John Valenzuela v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Charles Craddock v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
509 S.W.3d 915, 2016 WL 7119060, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1442, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henry-v-state-texcrimapp-2016.