Hunt v. State

764 S.W.2d 839, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 53, 1989 WL 1275
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 12, 1989
DocketNo. 13-88-265-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 764 S.W.2d 839 (Hunt 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
Hunt v. State, 764 S.W.2d 839, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 53, 1989 WL 1275 (Tex. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

DORSEY, Justice.

The issue is whether a prosecution for aggravated sexual assault has been forestalled by application of the doctrine of collateral estoppel arising from the appellant’s acquittal of sexual assault of same alleged victim.

Appellant, Billy Joe Hunt, was indicted in Cause No. 7110-1 for sexually assaulting the victim, C.A.M.S., “on or about December 18, 1987.” He was also charged in a separate indictment in Cause No. 7109-1 for the aggravated sexual assault of the same victim, such offense allegedly occurring on December 28,1985, when the victim was under age 14. Appellant was subsequently tried before a jury and acquitted on Cause No. 7110-1. Upon receiving no[840]*840tice of setting in Cause No. 7109-1, he filed an application for writ of habeas corpus seeking to set aside the prosecution on the basis of collateral estoppel. The trial court denied relief after conducting a hearing. Appellant now complains of the court’s ruling by two points of error. We affirm.

The indictment in Cause No. 7110-1, of which appellant was acquitted, charges appellant with penetrating the anus of C.A. M.S., a child younger than 17, on or about December 18, 1987. The indictment for which he is to stand trial in Cause No. 7109-1 accuses him of inserting an artificial penis in the sexual organ of C.A.M.S. on or about December 28, 1985, at which time the victim was younger than 14 years of age.

Point one asserts the trial court erred in denying the relief sought under appellant’s writ of habeas corpus because the State, in Cause No. 7109-1, is collaterally estopped from relitigating the issue of whether any sexual activity has ever occurred between the appellant and the victim.

Collateral estoppel, as embodied in the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy, means that when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit. Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 443, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 1194, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970); Dedrick v. State, 623 S.W.2d 332, 336 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). The doctrine requires the reviewing court to examine the record of the prior proceeding to determine whether a rational jury could have based its general verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration. If the former verdict must have been based on the issue in question, it cannot be relitigated. Ashe, 397 U.S. at 444, 90 S.Ct. at 1194; Zimmerman v. State, 754 S.W.2d 402, 403 (Tex.App.— Corpus Christi 1988, pet. ref’d).

At issue then is what facts the verdict of acquittal was based upon. Appellant urges that the jury determined that no sexual contact occurred between Hunt and the alleged victim at any time. The State argues that the factual issue that was resolved is much narrower: that the assault with the specifics of time, place and manner as alleged in the indictment did not occur.

It is necessary to examine in some detail the evidence and arguments to determine what was in issue before the jury.

Complainant, C.A.M.S., a girl 15 years of age at the time of trial, born January 4, 1973, testified directly and positively that Billy Joe Hunt had anal intercourse with her “[A]t the Gulf Skies Motel, room number four, December, between the 17th and 18th,” of 1987. Her mother, Shirley Kay Burney, was present when the assault occurred. The defendant, Hunt, first placed an artificial penis in her rectum before inserting his own. C.A.M.S. testified that Hunt had intercourse with her, both “regular and anal” many times before over the previous four or five years. She estimated the number of times that Hunt had sexual intercourse with her was “probably about a hundred.” When they first started, it was “just intercourse” and then progressed to anal intercourse. She testified that she complained to him about the pain, but felt she could not leave or ask her mother for help because Hunt would stop her and hit her and her mother. He had hit them in the past.

She did not remember a specific incident around November of 1985, although she gave a statement to the police concerning that incident and reviewed the statement on the witness stand. After she reviewed her statement, the State’s attorney asked if she remembered Hunt doing anything to her at that time. She responded, “No.” The witness stated that Hunt told her he was going to make her a prostitute for his friends, and she would get jewelry, money, and clothes, but that Hunt had never given her rewards for having sexual intercourse with him. She stated she hated him, but still cares for her mother because he “made my mother do all those things.”

On cross-examination C.A.M.S. stated that Hunt had lived with her, her mother, and brother for seven years — since 1981; that at the time Hunt moved in, they were [841]*841living with a Mr. Carter, who was married to her mother, Shirley Kay Burney. She stated again that she had sexual intercourse with Hunt over 100 times and that she had told the police that during one day she had sexual intercourse with him six times.

As to the event in question, the witness was unsure whether it happened on December 17, or 18; she stated it happened around then, but could have been the 16th, 19th, or 20th, around 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. She did not know what they had done earlier that day or whether it was a weekend night or not. She admitted that she had been diagnosed as having gonorrhea at some point. She denied having sex with anyone other than Hunt, “besides my brother and my mother.” She later admitted having sex with Elmer Hauns, with whom she, her mother, and brother were living for awhile and that Mr. Hauns was convicted for sexual contact with her, and she testified at his trial.

The next witness of the State was Shirley Kay Burney, the co-indictee of Hunt, who had pled guilty to both indictments and received a probated sentence as part of a plea bargain agreement that she testify against Hunt. Burney testified directly and unequivocally that Hunt had sexual intercourse with her daughter on or about December 17 or 18, 1984, in room number four, at the Gulf Skies Motel, Aransas Pass, Texas. She was there with her daughter and Hunt. Hunt had C.A.M.S. on her knees and inserted his penis in her. It happened at night and could have been between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. She was unsure whether it was the 17th or 18th, whether it was a school night or weekend, what they had done the earlier part of the day, or if anyone else had been around earlier that night.

On cross-examination Ms. Burney was questioned about her past. Her mother died when she was young and her father abandoned her. She was adopted by an aunt and uncle, and the uncle repeatedly raped her when she was 15 years old. She was sent to a girl’s home in Louisiana and later to one in Waco. She was committed to the Austin State Hospital, where at age 16 she met and married her first husband, who was also a patient. She later had him committed and divorced him. Her two children, the complainant and a son, have been taken from her twice for abuse. She married several other times and lived with other men prior to and after meeting Hunt. She thinks she is still married to her last husband, Carter, who was convicted for setting Hunt afire.

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Bluebook (online)
764 S.W.2d 839, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 53, 1989 WL 1275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunt-v-state-texapp-1989.