In Re AC

48 S.W.3d 899, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 3819, 2001 WL 629298
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 7, 2001
Docket2-00-077-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 48 S.W.3d 899 (In Re AC) 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
In Re AC, 48 S.W.3d 899, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 3819, 2001 WL 629298 (Tex. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

48 S.W.3d 899 (2001)

In the Matter of A.C.

No. 2-00-077-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

June 7, 2001.

*902 Michael Berger, Fort Worth, for Appellant.

Tim Curry, Crim. Dist. Atty., Charles Mallin, Asst. Crim. D.A. and Chief of the Appellate Section; and John A. Stride, Terri Pearce, Asst. Crim. D.A.'s, Fort Worth, for Appellee.

Panel A: CAYCE, C.J.; DAY and DAUPHINOT, JJ.

OPINION

CAYCE, Chief Justice.

INTRODUCTION

After a bench trial, the trial court adjudicated appellant delinquent on two counts of making a terroristic threat and placed him on probation for one year. In four points, appellant argues that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the judgment of delinquency, the State failed to disclose exculpatory evidence in time for trial, and his waiver of his right to a jury trial was not entered knowingly and voluntarily. We will affirm.

BACKGROUND

Over a two-week period in September of 1999, appellant, an eighth grader at Carter Junior High School, made a variety of sexual comments to two female classmates, J.M. and C.L. Both J.M. and C.L. prepared written statements at their school when they reported the incident to the vice-principal. They also prepared sworn written statements for the police six weeks later.

C.L. testified that appellant asked her bra size and said, "Do you want to suck my dick?" C.L. told him "no" and to get away from her. Appellant told the girls that if they told anybody about the comments, he would "blow [their] brains out with a nine millimeter." Appellant also stated that he was going to come up to the school with his "homeboys" and kill the girls. C.L. testified that appellant told J.M. that he was going to grab her chest and when J.M. responded, "I'll slap you," appellant told her that "if she touched him, that would be the last person she would ever touch, because he would blow her brains out." C.L. read part of her written statement to the court, which included the following: "[H]e asked me if I was stuck up, and I said no, and then he said, let's go to the bathroom and let me ram my dick down your throat and see how unstuck-up you are." C.L. also testified that she was afraid and she felt appellant might follow through on his threats.

J.M. testified that appellant tried to touch her chest and asked her when she was going to let him "hit it," which she understood to refer to sexual intercourse. Appellant also asked her what she would do if he touched her chest, to which she replied that she would slap him. Appellant then told her "that's the last person you would ever slap because I would put a nine millimeter to your head." J.M. testified that she feared serious bodily injury and believed appellant was capable of carrying out his threats. J.M. read part of her written statement to the court, which included the following: "[H]e slapped me softly, so I hit him back, and he said if I ever hit him again, it would be the last time I hit anyone." J.M. testified that she thought his statement meant that he was going to kill her. J.M. also testified that appellant told her and C.L. that if they *903 told anybody "he was going to blow [their] brains out."

TERRORISTIC THREAT

In his first and second points, appellant challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court's judgment of delinquency. Specifically, he argues that because his comments to J.M. and C.L. constituted only conditional threats of future violence, the evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to place J.M. and C.L. in fear of imminent serious bodily injury. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.07(a)(2) (Vernon 1994).

In reviewing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view all the evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment.[1]Cardenas v. State, 30 S.W.3d 384, 389-90 (Tex.Crim.App.2000); Narvaiz v. State, 840 S.W.2d 415, 423 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 975, 113 S.Ct. 1422, 122 L.Ed.2d 791 (1993). The critical inquiry is whether, after so viewing the evidence, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. McDuff v. State, 939 S.W.2d 607, 614 (Tex.Crim. App.), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 844, 118 S.Ct. 125, 139 L.Ed.2d 75 (1997). This standard gives full play to the responsibility of the trier of fact to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Our duty is not to reweigh the evidence from reading a cold record but to act as a due process safeguard ensuring only the rationality of the fact finder. Williams v. State, 937 S.W.2d 479, 483 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). The judgment may not be overturned unless it is irrational or unsupported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Matson v. State, 819 S.W.2d 839, 846 (Tex.Crim.App.1991).

In reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence, we are to view all the evidence in a neutral light, favoring neither party. Johnson v. State, 23 S.W.3d 1, 7 (Tex.Crim.App.2000); Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 129 (Tex.Crim. App.1996). Evidence is factually insufficient if it is so weak as to be clearly wrong and manifestly unjust or the adverse finding is against the great weight and preponderance of the available evidence. Johnson, 23 S.W.3d at 11. Therefore, we must determine whether a neutral review of all the evidence, both for and against the finding, demonstrates that the proof of guilt is so obviously weak as to undermine confidence in the judgment, or the proof of guilt, although adequate if taken alone, is greatly outweighed by contrary proof. Id. In performing this review, we are to give due deference to the fact finder's determinations. Id. at 8-9; Clewis, 922 S.W.2d at 136. Consequently, we may find the evidence factually insufficient only where necessary to prevent manifest injustice. Johnson, 23 S.W.3d at 9, 12; Cain v. State, 958 S.W.2d 404, 407 (Tex.Crim.App.1997).

Section 22.07 of the penal code provides, in relevant part:

§ 22.07. Terroristic Threat

(a) A person commits an offense if he threatens to commit any offense involving *904 violence to any person or property with intent to:

....

(2) place any person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury[.]

Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.07(a)(2). Imminent means "[n]ear at hand; mediate rather than immediate; close rather than touching; impending; on the point of happening; threatening; menacing; perilous." BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 750 (6th ed.1990); see also Devine v. State, 786 S.W.2d 268

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Bluebook (online)
48 S.W.3d 899, 2001 Tex. App. LEXIS 3819, 2001 WL 629298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ac-texapp-2001.