Honc v. State

698 S.W.2d 218, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 7270
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 19, 1985
Docket13-84-289-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 698 S.W.2d 218 (Honc 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
Honc v. State, 698 S.W.2d 218, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 7270 (Tex. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

*220 OPINION

NYE, Chief Justice.

Appellant pled nolo contendere to an indictment charging him with sexual assault, indecency with a child, and injury to a child. The trial court assessed punishment at ten years in the Texas Department of Corrections. We reverse and remand in part and remand for the reassessment of punishment in part.

At the outset, we direct the attention of the State’s attorney and the trial court to the recent cases of Drake v. State, 686 S.W.2d 935 (Tex.Crim.App.1985); Ex parte Siller, 686 S.W.2d 617 (Tex.Crim.App.1985); and McIntire v. State, 662 S.W.2d 65 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi, 1983), aff'd in part, rev’d in part (Tex.Crim.App. June 26, 1985). The problems inflicting this ease, and ultimately causing a remand have their genesis in the indictment which alleged three separate offenses which allegedly occurred during a fourteen month period. Had these offenses been charged in three separate indictments, or had the trial court not lumped these three offenses into one conviction, we would have been able to affirm the indecency and injury to a child convictions.

To fully understand the problems involved in this appeal, we must begin with the charging instrument. The indictment alleged that appellant committed sexual assault on December 19, 1982, indecency with a child on December 17, 1983, and injury to a child on January 10,1984. Unfortunately for the State, sexual assault did not become an offense in Texas until September 1, 1983. TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.-011 (Vernon Supp.1985). Before September 1, 1983, penetrating a child’s vagina with a hand, (the conduct supporting the sexual assault charge) would have constituted indecency with a child or sexual abuse of a child if the conduct was intended to arouse or gratify sexual desires. The indictment here did not allege that appellant acted with this requisite intent and therefore the conduct alleged was not a crime until September 1, 1983 when the “intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire” element was eliminated and sexual assault became an offense.

The State appears to concede in its appellate brief that appellant was convicted for conduct which occurred before the effective date of the new sexual assault section; it concludes its brief with the prayer that this Court “should consider count one as being null and void and should, therefore, proceed to the two other counts not prejudiced by the disposition as to the 1st count.” We agree with the State that the judgment regarding count one must be reversed. An objective review of the appellant’s written guilty plea and the trial court’s judgment reflects that appellant was convicted for conduct which occurred on December 19, 1982. As noted below, however, the evidence shows that a sexual assault also occurred in December 1983, when sexual assault was an offense, and would have supported the conviction had the trial court not explicitly found the offense to have occurred on December 19, 1982. Since both parties, and the trial court through its judgment, all seem to agree that appellant was convicted for conduct that was not an offense at the time it occurred, appellant’s eighth ground of error is sustained and the judgment of conviction for sexual assault is reversed and the cause remanded to the trial court.

We now turn to appellant’s other grounds of error. In appellant’s first ground of error, he asserts that the evidence is insufficient to prove that appellant penetrated S.H.’s vagina with his hand on December 19,1982. The indictment alleges that appellant did, on or about December 19, 1982, “intentionally and knowingly cause the penetration of the vagina of S.H., a child younger than seventeen years of age and not the spouse of the defendant, by means of the defendant’s hand.” As noted above, the crime for which appellant was charged, sexual assault, was not an offense on December 19, 1982, the alleged date of the offense. However, the State is not bound by the date alleged in the indictment so long as the date proved is anterior *221 to the State’s pleadings and is not so remote as not to show the offense is barred by the statute of limitations. Clark v. State, 590 S.W.2d 512 (Tex.Crim.App.1979). The appellant was indicted on March 15, 1984. The proof included in the record through stipulated testimony shows that in December 1983, appellant took off the child’s shorts and underwear and used his hands to open her vagina so that he could perform oral sex upon her. She also testified, by affidavit, that in early December 1983, appellant, her step father, drove her to a dirt road where he removed her clothing and forced his finger into her vagina. Both of these incidents occurred before the indictment was presented. The evidence is sufficient to support the allegations in count one of the indictment. Appellant’s first ground of error is overruled.

Appellant claims in his second ground of error that count one of the indictment is fatally defective because it fails to include the essential element of “the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.” Appellant asserts that count one of the indictment charges the offense of indecency with a child under TEX.PEN.CODE ANN. § 21.11 (Vernon Supp.1985). Under this section, specific intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person is an essential element. Turner v. State, 600 S.W.2d 927 (Tex.Crim.App.1980). This intent may be inferred from all circumstances surrounding the crime, including a defendant’s remarks and his conduct. McKenzie v. State, 617 S.W.2d 211 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). However, appellant was charged and convicted under the first count of the indictment with sexual assault under TEX.PEN.CODE ANN. § 22.011. Under this section, specific intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of another is not an essential element of that specific crime. Therefore, the indictment as to count one is not fatally defective for failure to include specific intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of another as an essential element. Under § 22.011, a defendant must commit the act intentionally or knowingly. This mental state was alleged in the indictment. Appellant’s second ground of error is overruled.

Appellant claims in his third ground of error that there is no evidence to prove that appellant acted with the intent to arouse and gratify his sexual desire by engaging in sexual contact with a child by touching the breast of S.H. on December 17, 1983. As we have said, the requisite specific intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person can be inferred from the defendant’s conduct, his remarks and all surrounding circumstances. McKenzie v. State, 617 S.W.2d 211 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). The testimony, stipulated to by all parties, included a written statement of S.H. in which she testified that on December 17, 1983, her stepfather unbuttoned her blouse and touched her breasts for approximately ten minutes.

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Pawson v. State
865 S.W.2d 36 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
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783 S.W.2d 773 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1990)
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Bluebook (online)
698 S.W.2d 218, 1985 Tex. App. LEXIS 7270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/honc-v-state-texapp-1985.