Jimmy Leon Etue v. the State of Texas

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Do Not Publish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.