In re A.E.B.

255 S.W.3d 338, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 3074
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 29, 2008
DocketNo. 05-06-01536-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 255 S.W.3d 338 (In re A.E.B.) 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 A.E.B., 255 S.W.3d 338, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 3074 (Tex. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice MOSELEY.

A jury found A.E.B. engaged in delinquent conduct by committing attempted sexual assault against the complainant, O.P. The trial court sentenced A.E.B., who was fifteen years old at the time of trial, to a six-year determinate sentence with commitment to the Texas Youth Com[340]*340mission and a possible transfer to the Texas Department of Corrections. The trial court found that A.E.B. used a deadly weapon during the incident. A.E.B. brings eight issues on appeal, including complaints as to: (1) the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury’s finding; and (2) the trial court’s denial of his request for a jury instruction on the lesser included offense of assault.

As discussed herein, we conclude the evidence is legally sufficient to support the jury’s finding. However, we conclude the trial court erred in denying AE.B.’s request for a jury instruction on the lesser included offense of assault, and we resolve AE.B.’s fifth issue in his favor. We reverse the trial court’s order of disposition and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The complainant, O.P., testified that she was walking in the neighborhood around her apartment complex at about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 28, 2006. She was walking on the top of a hill along Preston Vineyard Drive in Frisco. She heard someone jogging behind her, and then someone grabbed her from behind. Although she could not see the person’s face, she thought it might have been a friend playing a joke on her, but she said he was squeezing her “very hard” (she said it was not “friendly”) and she was scared. She asked him what he was doing, but he did not answer. He forced both of them to fall to the ground. They lay for a few minutes on their left sides; O.P. struggled against him, and he kept squeezing her and pushing her against the ground. He released her suddenly, and she turned around and saw he was wearing a mask. Then he got up and ran away. O.P. described her attacker as wearing tennis shoes, dark shorts, and a sleeveless top, and said he was carrying a sack or a bag.

The State asked if O.P. noticed “whether he had anything in his hands?” O.P. said she noticed something in his hand and attempted two explanations, but the trial court sustained AE.B.’s objections to her responses. The State then asked, “You— can you describe what you saw and what you — what it looked like to you?” The following exchange then occurred:

[O.P.]: Yeah. I don’t know. It was some kind of dull thing. I don’t know, like, just some — I don’t know, like — like maybe — like maybe the back of something, like a square thing. I don’t remember. I just saw something in— in his hand, so — and I — I assumed it was a knife. I don’t know. I just assumed so but I didn’t see it.
[A.E.B.’s counsel]: Judge, I’ll object as to speculation.
THE COURT: Sustained.
[A.E.B.’s counsel]: Ask the jury to disregard.
THE COURT: The jury shall disregard the final response.
[A.E.B.’s counsel]: Move for a mistrial.
THE COURT: Denied.

When O.P. got up, she saw a pickup on the road. The pickup’s driver, Clifford Willoughby, testified he saw two people on the ground; one of them was wearing a ski mask and was on top of a girl. Willoughby yelled, and the masked person ran away. Willoughby saw him take off the mask. Willoughby did not see his face, but said he was wearing the ski mask, tennis shoes, and dark shorts. A passenger in another car, Erin Majongwe, noticed a person running and thought it was suspicious. She described the person as a teenager with a medium build. Majongwe then saw O.P. and Willoughby and stopped to help.

[341]*341Shortly thereafter, the police were notified of the attacker’s description and the direction in which he was running. About ten minutes after the incident was reported, A.E.B. was apprehended in a nearby alley. A police officer testified A.E.B. was out-of-breath, like he had been running, and he was walking away from the direction of the incident. After A.E.B.’s arrest and again in court, Majongwe identified him as the person she saw running. In addition, an arresting officer identified A.E.B. in the courtroom and identified an exhibit as a photograph of A.E.B. taken at the police station just after his arrest; in the photograph, A.E.B. is wearing dark shorts and tennis shoes.

A policeman testified A.E.B. had a “flip phone” style cell phone, either in his hand or clipped to the waistband of his shorts. He was also carrying a pillowcase that contained a ski mask, a “muscle shirt,” a black-handled knife with a two-inch blade, an unopened condom, and a comb. A police officer looked in A.E.B.’s bag and saw a “wadded up” ski mask.

After A.E.B. was taken to the police station, the contents of his bag were inventoried. A second arresting officer testified:

Q Okay. And to your recollection, what — was the knife, the comb, or the condom covered or masked in any way in that bag?
A Yes.
Q And how would you describe the way that they were found in that bag?
A The knife and the condom were separated from the comb. The comb was discovered first. During the course — I knew the comb was in his possession at the time of the incident. During the course of — of the investigation when we were looking for some other weapon that he may have had, that’s when I began to look further into the bag and discovered the knife was wrapped up inside of the mask.
Q Okay. And what about the condom? A I’m sorry?
Q What about the condom?
A The condom as well. The condom fell out as I pulled the knife out.

There was testimony that a condom has a sexual use as a prophylactic, and that A.E.B. referred to the bag as containing his “protection.”

A.E.B. did not testify.

II. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

A. Legal Sufficiency

In his first issue, A.E.B. challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury’s determination of delinquency.

The second amended petition seeking determinate sentence alleged that A.E.B. engaged in delinquent conduct, to-wit:

... [he] violated a penal law ...: Attempted Aggravated Sexual Assault, in that the said child did then and there with the specific intent to commit the offense of Aggravated Sexual Assault of [O.P.], do an act, to-wit: knocked the said [O.P.] to the ground and physically overpowered [her], while wearing a ski mask, which amounted to more than mere preparation that tended but failed to effect the commission of the offense intended.
And it is further presented ... that a deadly weapon, to-wit: a knife was used or exhibited during the commission of the aforesaid offense or during immediate flight following the commission of the aforesaid offense, and that the juvenile respondent used or exhibited said deadly weapon or was a party to the [342]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
255 S.W.3d 338, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 3074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-aeb-texapp-2008.