Jimmy Leon Etue v. the State of Texas

• Court: Texas Court of Appeals, 6th District (Texarkana)
• Decided: June 26, 2026
• Docket: 06-25-00138-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

In the Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-25-00138-CR

JIMMY LEON ETUE, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 5th District Court Cass County, Texas Trial Court No. 2024F00146

Before Stevens, C.J., van Cleef and Rambin, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Rambin MEMORANDUM OPINION

A Cass County jury found Jimmy Leon Etue guilty of indecency with a child by contact.

See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 21.11. After a punishment trial to the bench, the trial court

sentenced Etue to twenty years’ imprisonment. On appeal, Etue argues that the trial court erred

by (1) trying him in absentia, (2) “excluding evidence that the complainant previously made a

similar unprosecuted allegation of sexual abuse,” and (3) sentencing Etue while his counsel was

not present. Etue raised these same issues on appeal from his conviction for aggravated sexual

assault of a child in our appellate cause number 06-25-00136-CR.1

For the same reasons stated within our opinion in appellate cause number 06-25-00136-

CR, we find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by finding that Etue voluntarily

absented himself after the first day of trial or by excluding evidence of the victim’s allegation of

sexual abuse against another man. We further find that Etue was not harmed by the trial court’s

decision to sentence him while his counsel was not present, since the trial court had previously

assessed the same sentence in his counsel’s presence. As a result, we affirm the trial court’s

judgment.

Jeff Rambin Justice

Date Submitted: June 1, 2026 Date Decided: June 26, 2026

Do Not Publish

1 In appellate cause number 06-25-00137-CR, Etue also appeals another conviction for indecency with a child by contact. 2