James Kevin Pope v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 22, 2009
Docket02-08-00235-CR
StatusPublished

This text of James Kevin Pope v. State (James Kevin Pope v. State) 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
James Kevin Pope v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

                                               COURT OF APPEALS

                                                 SECOND DISTRICT OF TEXAS

                                                                FORT WORTH

                                        NO. 2-08-235-CR

                                        NO. 2-08-236-CR

                                        NO. 2-08-237-CR

JAMES KEVIN POPE                                                             APPELLANT

                                                   V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS                                                                STATE

                                              ------------

            FROM THE 415TH DISTRICT COURT OF PARKER COUNTY

                                MEMORANDUM OPINION[1]

The complainants in these cases are Appellant James Kevin Pope=s three teenaged daughtersCtwins K.L.P. and K.M.P. and youngest daughter K.O.P.; each indictment contains counts alleging conduct perpetrated against a specific daughter.  In all, a jury convicted Appellant of forty counts of sexual assault of a child and three counts of sexual performance by a child.  The jury assessed his punishment at life imprisonment and a $10,000 fine for each count of sexual assault of a child.  For each count of sexual performance by a child, the jury assessed his punishment at twenty years= confinement and a $10,000 fine.  The trial court sentenced Appellant accordingly and ordered that the sentences be served consecutively.  Appellant complains about the factual sufficiency of the evidence and the absence of a jury instruction.  Because we hold that the evidence is factually sufficient and that the trial court=s error in omitting the jury instruction was harmless, we affirm the trial court=s judgments.

I.  Factual Sufficiency of the Evidence

In his third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth points, Appellant contends that the evidence is factually insufficient to sustain the jury verdicts, relying on the conflicts in his daughters= testimony.

A.  Standard of Review


When reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, we view all the evidence in a neutral light, favoring neither party.[2]  We then ask whether the evidence supporting the conviction, although legally sufficient, is nevertheless so weak that the factfinder=s determination is clearly wrong and manifestly unjust or whether conflicting evidence so greatly outweighs the evidence supporting the conviction that the factfinder=s determination is manifestly unjust.[3]  To reverse under the second ground, we must determine, with some objective basis in the record, that the great weight and preponderance of all the evidence, though legally sufficient, contradicts the verdict.[4]


In determining whether the evidence is factually insufficient to support a conviction that is nevertheless supported by legally sufficient evidence, it is not enough that this court Aharbor a subjective level of reasonable doubt to overturn [the] conviction.@[5]  A jury may choose to believe some witnesses but not others; it may also believe some portions of a witness=s testimony but reject other portions of the same witness=s testimony.[6]  We cannot conclude that a conviction is clearly wrong or manifestly unjust simply because we would have decided differently than the jury or because we disagree with the jury=s resolution of a conflict in the evidence.[7]  We may not simply substitute our judgment for the factfinder=s.[8]  Unless the record clearly reveals that a different result is appropriate, we must defer to the jury=s determination of the weight to be given contradictory testimonial evidence because resolution of the conflict Aoften turns on an evaluation of credibility and demeanor, and those jurors were in attendance when the testimony was delivered.@[9] 

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James Kevin Pope v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/james-kevin-pope-v-state-texapp-2009.