Jason Hendershot A/K/A Jason Hendershott v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 9, 2012
Docket13-10-00452-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Jason Hendershot A/K/A Jason Hendershott v. State (Jason Hendershot A/K/A Jason Hendershott 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
Jason Hendershot A/K/A Jason Hendershott v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

NUMBER 13-10-00452-CR

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG

JASON HENDERSHOT Appellant, AKA JASON HENDERSHOTT,

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

On appeal from the 148th District Court of Nueces County, Texas.

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Chief Justice Valdez and Justices Garza and Vela Memorandum Opinion by Justice Garza Appellant, Jason Hendershot aka Jason Hendershott, challenges his conviction

on eight first-degree felony counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two first-

degree felony counts of aggravated kidnapping, and two second-degree felony counts

of indecency with a child. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. §§ 20.04 (aggravated kidnapping), 21.11 (indecency with a child) (West 2011), § 22.021 (aggravated sexual

assault of a child) (West Supp. 2011). A jury assessed punishment at life imprisonment

for each of the first-degree felonies and twenty years’ imprisonment for the indecency

charges, with the sentences to run concurrently. Hendershot raises seven issues on

appeal. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

T.K. testified that, on May 19, 2007, when she was 14 years old, she was

vacationing at a beach house in Aransas Pass, Texas, with her friend, K.V., and K.V.’s

mother and sister. K.V. was 15 years old at the time. While at the beach, T.K. and K.V.

met two high-school-age boys, identified as Stephen and Chris, and spent several hours

playing and swimming with them at the beach. At some point, Stephen introduced the

girls to his father, Noe Hernandez, and Hernandez’s friend, Hendershot. The group

spent some time riding around the beach in Hernandez’s black Ford truck.

Stephen and Chris dropped T.K. and K.V. off in the afternoon and agreed to

meet up later to go to a bonfire at the beach. T.K. left her phone number on

Hernandez’s cell phone, since he shared the phone with his son. That evening, T.K.

received a call that she believed was from Chris. The caller invited T.K. and K.V. to the

bonfire and asked to meet up at the beach. The girls snuck out of the house they were

staying in, walked to the beach, and saw the black Ford truck waiting for them. They

were surprised to find only Hernandez and Hendershot waiting inside the truck. The

men said they were there to pick up the girls and take them to meet Stephen and Chris

at the bonfire. T.K. and K.V. got in the truck and sat in between Hernandez and

Hendershot in the front seat. According to the testimony of both T.K. and K.V.,

Hernandez drove the truck for approximately thirty minutes to an hour, and they ended 2 up in a remote, deserted area of the beach.

T.K. testified that Hernandez then pulled K.V. from the truck by her hair, and

Hendershot grabbed her cell phone and broke it “in half.” Hendershot then put his hand

around T.K.’s neck, pinned her down on the front seat and told her to undress, and

threatened to kill her and “hunt down” and kill her family if she did not comply.

Hendershot then forced T.K. to engage in various sex acts. T.K. stated that Hernandez

then pulled her out of the cab and took her into the bed of the truck, where he forced

T.K. to engage in various sex acts.

K.V. testified that Hernandez pulled her by the hair to the bed of the truck and

tried to remove her clothes. K.V. resisted, so Hernandez slapped her in the face and

forcibly removed her clothes. Hernandez then forced K.V. to engage in various sex

acts. She testified that Hendershot then came to the back of the truck “a few minutes

later” and forced her to engage in various sex acts. According to K.V., Hernandez told

the girls that if they told anyone about what happened, “he would find us and kill our

family and us.”

Both T.K. and K.V. testified that, after the ordeal, Hernandez poured water on the

girls’ genital areas in order to clean them off, and he told them to rinse out their mouths

with mouthwash. T.K. and K.V. got back in the truck and Hernandez and Hendershot

drove them back to the area where they had initially met. Fearing that the men would

“hunt [them] down,” T.K. and K.V. returned to the beach house and went to sleep

without reporting the assaults. The next morning, the group returned to their home in

Cedar Park, Texas. The following day, a Monday, T.K. came over to K.V.’s house so

the two could walk to school together. When T.K. arrived, according to K.V., “we started

to just cry and we knew we had to tell our parents what had happened.” Police were 3 called and the girls submitted to physical examinations at a hospital.

Julie Gibbs, the sexual assault nurse examiner that performed the physical

examinations, testified that the results indicated that both girls had minor injuries to their

genital areas that were consistent with having suffered sexual assault.

Robin Castro, a forensic scientist with the Texas Department of Public Safety

(“DPS”), testified that she performed testing on evidence obtained from the girls’ bodies

and clothing. Castro stated that K.V.’s underwear contained DNA from her as well as

an unknown male, and that neither Hendershot nor Hernandez could be excluded as

contributors of that DNA. Castro also stated that there were sperm cells recovered from

T.K.’s body and that Hernandez could not be excluded as a contributor of those cells,

but Hendershot could be excluded.

After the sexual assault examinations, T.K. and K.V. gave statements to police in

which they described the assailants and the truck in which the assaults occurred. After

subsequent police investigation, T.K. and K.V. each were presented with two photo

lineups. Both girls identified Hendershot and Hernandez as the individuals that

assaulted them. The men were arrested and tried together. Both were convicted on all

counts and sentenced to multiple terms of life imprisonment. Hendershot’s appeal

followed.1

II. DISCUSSION

A. Media Presence in Courtroom

1 Hernandez also appealed his conviction, and we affirmed. Hernandez v. State, No. 13-10- 00473-CR, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 2546 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi Mar. 29, 2012, pet. filed) (mem. op., not designated for publication).

4 By his first issue, Hendershot argues that the trial court erred by allowing

cameras in the courtroom.2 The reporter’s record shows that the following colloquy

occurred immediately before the jury was asked to enter the courtroom for the first day

of trial:

[Hendershot’s counsel]: I’d like to object to the cameras being allowed in the courtroom, Your Honor. This case has been covered extensively by the media and I don’t want the fact that the media is present to affect anybody’s decision or anybody’s presentation of this case. And I believe we’ve leveled the playing field, if the media was not allow[ed] in the courtroom. I believe their being in courtroom is prejudice to my client.

THE COURT: How so, sir?

[Hendershot’s counsel]: Again, Your Honor, I believe, it’s going to—I think it will have an [e]ffect on how this case is presented, how decisions are made in this case.

[Hendershot’s counsel]: With them being in the courtroom.

[Hendershot’s counsel]: That—that’s how, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Well, but how would decision making—and you haven’t identified the person, but how would decision making be affected?

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