James Dalton Smith v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 16, 2018·No. 05-16-01318-CR·Published

Opinion

Affirmed and Opinion Filed July 16, 2018

S In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-16-01318-CR

JAMES DALTON SMITH, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 401st Judicial District Court Collin County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. 401-82195-2015

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Bridges, Myers, and Schenck Opinion by Justice Bridges James Dalton Smith appeals his conviction of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a

child younger than fourteen and two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact. A jury found appellant guilty and sentenced him to thirty years’ confinement on the continuous sexual abuse count and four years’ confinement on each indecency count. In eight issues, appellant argues the continuous sexual abuse statute is unconstitutional on its face and as applied, the indictment was fundamentally defective, the jury charge was fundamentally defective, the evidence is insufficient to show appellant committed two or more of the alleged acts of sexual abuse after the effective date of the continuous sexual abuse statute and before the complainant reached fourteen years of age, there is a fatal variance between the indictment and the court’s charge, appellant’s sentence and the no parole provision violate state and federal constitutional protections against

cruel and unusual punishment, the trial court erred in admitting evidence of extraneous bad acts, and the trial court erred in overruling appellant’s objection to Eli Molina being the outcry witness. We affirm the trial court’s judgment.

At a hearing outside the presence of the jury at appellant’s trial in October 2016, the trial court conducted a hearing to determine the proper outcry witness. Laura Dueer, the thirty-one- year-old sister of the complainant, C.N.S., testified she had asked C.N.S. if appellant “had done anything inappropriately with her sexually” when C.N.S. was twelve or thirteen. C.N.S.’s “answer was no.” However, on January 21, 2015, C.N.S. called Dueer and said she had “lied to [Dueer] back then” and told Dueer that appellant had done something inappropriate. Dueer could not “get any kind of specific details” from C.N.S., but C.N.S. said “it started right around her eighth birthday” and ended when she was twelve or thirteen. Dueer “picked [C.N.S.] up and took her to the police right away.”

Eli Molina, a forensic interviewer at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County, testified he interviewed C.N.S. on January 21, 2015. In the interview, C.N.S. described detailed sexual acts that occurred with her and appellant on more than one occasion “from the time that she was nine until twelve or thirteen.” C.N.S. described in detail what she felt during the assaults and described sensory details about multiple assaults. Molina testified C.N.S. said she had told her sister that she “was molested” and told “someone on the Internet” that “she had been dating,” but Molina testified he was the first person eighteen years of age or older that C.N.S. had “told specific details about what touched what.” Appellant objected to Molina being the outcry witness, but the trial court overruled the objection.

C.N.S., seventeen at the time of trial, testified her father, appellant, began sexually abusing her in 2008 when she was nine years old. After the first time, appellant abused her “multiple times a week.” About a year after the abuse started, appellant began having sex with C.N.S. When

C.N.S. was in “seventh grade and after,” she was sometimes “kind of out of it” when appellant assaulted her because appellant gave her “pills” and “liquor and beer and marijuana.” C.N.S. testified appellant sometimes showed her pornography, left a sex toy in her bed after assaulting her one time, and left a picture of his penis on C.N.S.’s cell phone. The abuse ended in 2012, when C.N.S. was twelve or thirteen.

E.M., seventeen years old at the time of trial, testified she was C.N.S.’s “best friend from about sixth to tenth grade.” E.M. testified she frequently spent the night at C.N.S.’s house. The second time E.M. spent the night, she woke up and found appellant “standing at the foot of the bed watching while [she] was asleep.” Appellant had “something up to his face,” and E.M. thought “it was night vision goggles or something like that.” E.M. recognized appellant, who was wearing his work uniform. E.M. testified she thought that she might be imagining it, but she moved around and confirmed “it was definitely not [her] imagination.” E.M. pulled the blanket over herself and waited while she continued to watch. Appellant “just stood there for a while and then eventually backed out of the room and didn’t turn back around until he was out the door.” E.M. testified the incident did not happen again.

Lanita Smith testified she is married to appellant’s brother. On one occasion in 2014, after calling appellant to let him know she was coming over, Smith went to appellant’s house and knocked on the door. Appellant “took a little while” to come to the door and, when he opened the door, appellant was wearing boxers, he had a camera around his neck, and “it looked like he had [an erection].” Smith saw C.N.S. inside on a couch. C.N.S. had her panties “down around her knees,” and she was wearing a t-shirt. C.N.S. pulled up her panties and “sat up off the couch.” Smith went inside and asked C.N.S. if she was okay. C.N.S. said she was “fine” and “turned around and walked off.” Smith “thought it was kind of strange” and suspected “something was happening,” but she did not say anything until after C.N.S. reported the abuse. At the conclusion

of trial, the jury found appellant guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than fourteen and two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact. This appeal followed.

In his first issue, appellant argues the continuous sexual abuse statute, penal code section 21.02, in unconstitutional on its face and as applied and resulted in fundamental error as applied in this case. However, appellant did not raise the issue of the constitutionality of section 21.02 in the trial court. A defendant may not raise for the first time on appeal a facial challenge to the constitutionality of a statute. Karenev v. State, 281 S.W.3d 428, 434 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009). Further, appellant must preserve an “as applied” constitutional challenge by raising it at trial. Flores v. State, 245 S.W.3d 432, 437 n.14 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008). Thus, we conclude appellant has waived his right to challenge the constitutionality of section 21.02. We overrule appellant’s first issue.

In his second issue, appellant argues the indictment in this case is fundamentally defective and resulted in egregious error. Specifically, appellant complains the indictment for continuous sexual assault of a child was ambiguous because it used “and/or” language to allege four separate predicate offenses. Again, appellant did not object to the indictment in the trial court, and he thereby forfeited any right to object to indictment defects. Teal v. State, 230 S.W.3d 172, 182 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007). We overrule appellant’s second issue.

In his third issue, appellant argues the jury charge is fundamentally erroneous and resulted in egregious harm because it abrogated appellant’s right to a unanimous verdict and failed to require the jury to elect a specific act of abuse, allowed the jury to convict based on the commission of acts less than alleged in the indictment and allowed the jury to consider acts occurring before the effective date of the continuous sexual abuse statute and after C.N.S. turned fourteen.

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