in the Matter of D.L., a Juvenile

160 S.W.3d 155, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 1447
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 23, 2005
Docket12-03-00071-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 160 S.W.3d 155 (in the Matter of D.L., a Juvenile) 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 the Matter of D.L., a Juvenile, 160 S.W.3d 155, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 1447 (Tex. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

JAMES T. WORTHEN, Chief Justice.

A jury found that D.L., a juvenile, had committed six acts of aggravated sexual assault against five different victims and that he used or exhibited a deadly weapon during one of the incidents. He was sentenced to ten years of probation and was required to register as a sex offender pursuant to Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. On appeal, D.L. raises five issues relating to cruel and unusual punishment, the trial court’s denial of his motions for severance and mistrial, the terms of his community supervision, and the sufficiency of the evidence to support the deadly weapon finding. We affirm.

Background

Around the first of April in 2002, C.L. was sleeping with his grandmother, M.L. In the middle of the night, M.L. was awakened by C.L., who was “on all fours,” still asleep, and crying out: “[B.S.], help me! Stop! Stop! [D.L.], you’re hurting me! Stop it! Get off of me.” C.L. was approximately four years old at the time.

The next morning, C.L.’s grandmother asked him if somebody “had been messing with him.” C.L. told his grandmother that D.L. “put his thing up my ass. I was crying. I was trying to get away.” Later in the day, M.L. questioned B.S. and S.L., two of C.L.’s older cousins, about whether they had “fooled” with C.L. The boys went outside for a short time. Upon their return, S.L. stated that it was D.L. and that D.L. “got both me and [B.S.].”

M.L. reported the information to the Gregg County Sheriffs Office. Detective Tim Bryan, the investigator who spoke to M.L., notified Child Protective Services and also set up interviews for C.L., S.L., and B.S. at the Child Advocacy Center of East Texas. In separate interviews, each child restated his allegations against D.L. At least one of the children told the interviewer that D.L. had also sexually assaulted another cousin, C.H., and a neighbor, R.H. All of the alleged victims were under the age of fourteen.

A grand jury certified the State’s third amended petition in which it alleged that D.L. had engaged in delinquent conduct by committing aggravated sexual assault against C.H., S.L., B.S., C.L., and R.H. See *160 Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 22.021(a)(2)(B) (Vernon Supp.2004-2005) (aggravated sexual assault occurs where sexual assault is committed against a person who is younger than fourteen). The State also alleged that D.L. used or exhibited a deadly weapon, a knife, during the incident involving R.H. The matter proceeded to a jury trial. The jury found D.L. guilty on all counts and made a deadly weapon finding. D.L. was sentenced to probation for ten years and removed from his home. By agreement of the parties, D.L. was placed in the managing conservatorship of the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, who placed D.L. at a juvenile sex offender treatment facility. He was also required to register as a sex offender. This appeal followed.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure prescribes the registration procedure for persons convicted of sex-related offenses. The requirements of Chapter 62 apply to juveniles. Tex.Code CRiM. Peoc. Ann. art. 62.12(b)(1) (Vernon Supp.2004-2005). In his first issue, D.L. argues that Chapter 62 is unconstitutional on its face as a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment for a juvenile. 1 See U.S. Const, amend. VIII. The State counters that the reporting requirement is not punitive and therefore cannot constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Burden in Facial Challenges

A statute is presumptively constitutional. Barshop v. Medina County Underground Water Conservation Dist., 925 S.W.2d 618, 629 (Tex.1996). If possible, we interpret a statute in a manner that renders it constitutional. Id. The burden of proof is on the party challenging the presumption of constitutionality. Gen. Servs. Comm’n v. Little-Tex Insulation Co., Inc., 39 S.W.3d 591, 598 (Tex.2001). The party raising a facial challenge must demonstrate that the statute always operates unconstitutionally. Wilson v. Andrews, 10 S.W.3d 663, 670 (Tex.1999). In other words, the party must establish that no set of circumstances exists under which the statute would be valid. In re B.S.W., 87 S.W.3d at 771.

Constitutional Analysis

It is rudimentary that the Chapter 62 reporting requirements cannot be cruel and unusual punishment when applied to juveniles if the requirement is not punishment for constitutional purposes. See Ex parte Robinson, 116 S.W.3d 794, 797 (Tex.Crim.App.2003). Whether the provisions of a particular statute constitute punishment for constitutional purposes can be answered by application of what is known as the “intent-effects” test. Rodriguez v. State, 93 S.W.3d 60, 67 (Tex.Crim.App.2002).

Under the “intent-effects test,” a reviewing court must first ask whether the legislature intended the statute to be a criminal punishment; Id. If that question is answered in the negative, the court must then examine “whether the statutory scheme [is] so punitive either in purpose or effect as to transform what was clearly intended as a civil remedy into a criminal penalty.” Id. (citing Hudson v. United States, 522 U.S. 93, 99,118 S.Ct. 488, [493], 139 L.Ed.2d 450 (1997)). The manifest intent of a statute will be rejected only where the party challenging the statute *161 provides the “clearest proof’ that the statute is actually criminally punitive in operation. Rodriguez, 93 S.W.3d at 67 (citing Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U.S. 346, 361, 117 S.Ct. 2072, [2082], 138 L.Ed.2d 501 (1997)).

To evaluate whether the effects of a statute are criminally punitive, courts generally look to the factors set forth by the Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144, 83 S.Ct. 554, 9 L.Ed.2d 644 (1963). Rodriguez, 93 S.W.3d at 68.

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160 S.W.3d 155, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 1447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-dl-a-juvenile-texapp-2005.