In the Matter of M.C.L.

110 S.W.3d 591
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 19, 2003
DocketNo. 03-02-00464-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 110 S.W.3d 591 (In the Matter of M.C.L.) 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 M.C.L., 110 S.W.3d 591 (Tex. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION

BEA ANN SMITH, Justice.

After waiving his right to a jury trial, M.C.L., a juvenile, was adjudicated delinquent for committing the offenses of re[593]*593sisting arrest, two counts of assault on a public servant, and criminal mischief in an amount more than $500 but less than $1,500. See Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 54.08 (West 2002); see also Tex. Pen.Code Ann. §§ 22.01, 28.03, 38.03 (West 2003). The court held a disposition hearing and ordered M.C.L. committed to the Texas Youth Commission for an indeterminate period of time not to exceed M.C.L.’s twenty-first birthday. By five issues, M.C.L. challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the juvenile court’s judgment. We conclude that the evidence is legally insufficient to support the juvenile court’s finding that M.C.L. committed criminal mischief in an amount more than $500 but less than $1,500. The evidence is sufficient, however, to support a finding that the criminal mischief caused pecuniary loss totaling $50 or more but less than $500. We further conclude that the evidence is legally insufficient to support the juvenile court’s finding of resisting arrest. Finally, we hold the evidence is factually insufficient to support the court’s finding that M.C.L. committed assault on a public servant. We therefore reverse the juvenile court’s judgment of adjudication and its disposition order and remand the cause for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

According to testimony at trial, on February 13, 2002, Travis County Juvenile Probation Officers Victor Valdez, Jason Hill, and Brent Horton, along with Travis County Deputy Constables Lucy Neyens and Damon Miller, went to M.C.L.’s home to attempt to serve a warrant on M.C.L.’s younger brother, a juvenile probationer. Although the brother was not at home, they found M.C.L., for whom they also had an outstanding arrest warrant. Neyens and Horton immediately arrested and handcuffed M.C.L.; he sat on the couch in handcuffs for about fifteen minutes while the officers searched the premises for his brother. The officers then removed M.C.L. and placed him in Neyens’s police car, where he waited for another ten or fifteen minutes while the officers went back to the house and continued searching.

While in the police car, M.C.L. managed to move his handcuffed hands from behind his back to the front of his body. This provoked the officers to place leg shackles on M.C.L. The events that transpired after the shackles were placed on M.C.L. are disputed. What is clear is that M.C.L., who had been sitting in the police car while the shackles were placed on him, suddenly stood up. The officers thought M.C.L. was trying to escape, and a struggle ensued. The officers wrestled M.C.L. back into the police car and shut the doors. M.C.L. then kicked out the car’s rear windows; the broken glass from the windows cut Horton.

M.C.L. was initially charged with two counts of assault on a public servant by cutting and kicking Miller, two counts of assault on a public servant by cutting and kicking Horton, and criminal mischief in an amount more than $1,500 but less than $20,000. At trial, the State amended its petition to reflect a charge of criminal mischief in an amount more than $500 but less than $1,500. After the State presented its case in chief, the juvenile court granted M.C.L.’s motion for a directed verdict on the charge of assault on a public servant by cutting Miller with glass and rendered an adjudication of not true as a matter of law. At the conclusion of the trial, the juvenile court adjudicated M.C.L. delinquent for committing the lesser included offense of resisting arrest by kicking Miller, two counts of assault on a public servant by cutting and kicking Horton, and criminal mischief in an amount more than $500 but less than $1,500. M.C.L. [594]*594now challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment of adjudication.

DISCUSSION

Standard of Review

Adjudications of delinquency in juvenile cases are based on the criminal standard of proof. See Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 54.03(f). We therefore review adjudications of delinquency in juvenile cases by applying the same standards applicable to sufficiency of the evidence challenges in criminal cases. See In re E.P., 963 S.W.2d 191, 193 (Tex.App.-Austin 1998, no pet.).

In reviewing a legal sufficiency challenge, we view all the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine whether any rational trier of fact could have found the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. See id. (citing Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). In a factual sufficiency review, we examine 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, 134 (Tex.Crim.App.1996). We will set aside the verdict only if the evidence is so weak as to be clearly wrong or manifestly unjust or if the finding of a vital fact is so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong. Zuliani v. State, 97 S.W.3d 589, 593 (Tex.Crim.App.2003); Johnson, 23 S.W.3d at 11.

Criminal Mischief

By his first two issues, M.C.L. challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to prove that M.C.L. committed criminal mischief in an amount more than $500 but less than $1,500.

A person commits the offense of criminal mischief if, without the consent of the owner, he intentionally and knowingly damages or destroys the tangible property of the owner. Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 28.03(a). Criminal mischief includes as an element the value of the injury inflicted. See id. § 28.03(b); Gallardo v. State, 167 Tex.Crim. 511, 321 S.W.2d 581, 581 (1959). The amount of pecuniary loss determines the punishment range for the offense. See Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 28.03(b). Section 28.06 of the penal code provides two methods for determining the diminution in property value caused by criminal mischief; the method used depends on whether the property was damaged or destroyed. See id. § 28.06 (West 2003). If the property was destroyed, the amount of pecuniary loss is “the fair market value of the property at the time and place of the destruction,” or if the market value cannot be ascertained, “the cost of replacing the property within a reasonable time after the destruction.” Id. § 28.06(a). If the property was damaged, the amount of pecuniary loss is “the cost of repairing or restoring the damaged property within a reasonable time after the damage occurred.” Id. § 28.06(b).

M.C.L.

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Bluebook (online)
110 S.W.3d 591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-matter-of-mcl-texapp-2003.