Jose Ines Hernandez v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 30, 2023
Docket13-22-00196-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Jose Ines Hernandez v. the State of Texas (Jose Ines Hernandez v. the State of Texas) 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
Jose Ines Hernandez v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

NUMBER 13-22-00196-CR

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG

JOSE INES HERNANDEZ, Appellant,

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

On appeal from the 396th District Court of Tarrant County, Texas.

MEMORANDUM OPINION Before Justices Benavides, Longoria, and Tijerina Memorandum Opinion by Justice Tijerina

Appellant Jose Ines Hernandez was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a

child, a first-degree felony, and he was sentenced to forty-five years’ confinement. See

TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 21.02(b). By four issues, Hernandez contends that the trial

court’s charges to the jury were erroneous and harmful because the trial court:

(1) instructed the jury to speculate to find him guilty; (2) allowed the jury to convict him of both lesser-included offenses; (3) refused Hernandez’s request to include an instruction

that he would have to register as a sex offender; and (4) “erred in releasing the personal

information of the jurors to the attorneys for the state.” We affirm.1

I. PERTINENT FACTS

The State indicted Hernandez for three offenses: continuous sexual abuse of a

child under fourteen, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and indecency with a child. 2

At the conclusion of the guilt-innocence phase, the trial court granted the State’s request

to include in the jury charge aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a

child as lesser-included offenses of the greater offense of continuous sexual abuse of a

child under fourteen. Thus, the jury should have been instructed that it must either find

Hernandez guilty of the greater offense or one of the lesser-included offenses. However,

the charge did not do so.

The trial court’s jury charge also included the following:

While you should consider only the evidence, you are permitted to draw such reasonable inferences from the testimony and exhibits as you feel are justified in the light of common experience. In other words, you may make deductions and reach conclusions that reason and common sense lead you to draw from the facts which have been established by the evidence.

The jury acquitted Hernandez of the greater offense of continuous sexual abuse

of a child under fourteen. The jury found Hernandez guilty of both lesser-included

offenses of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child. The next day,

1 This case was transferred from the Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, Texas pursuant to a

docket equalization order issued by the Texas Supreme Court. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 73.001. 2 The State moved to waive counts two and three for the offenses of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child. Instead, choosing to offer those offenses as lesser-included offenses of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

2 outside the jury’s presence, the trial court announced,

At the conclusion of the trial yesterday, the jury having found the defendant guilty of aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child, based upon the way the Court submitted the charges to the jury in the Court’s Charge, I believe that the finding of guilt on the indecency case is double jeopardy and would propose to—[in] the Court’s opinion[,] I need to vacate that conviction.

The trial court informed the parties that it intended to “advise the jury that [it] was

vacating that conviction but not give them the reason why . . . until after the end of the

trial, and submit punishment to the jury only on the aggravated sexual assault of a child

conviction which is the more serious conviction.” The trial court asked if there were any

objections, and both sides stated, “No,” and announced ready for the jury.

Prior to the punishment phase of trial, the trial court told the jury that it had vacated

its indecency with a child conviction and that the jury would be assessing punishment for

the aggravated sexual assault of a child offense only. A hearing on punishment

commenced. At the punishment charge conference, Hernandez requested that the trial

court include an instruction informing the jury that he would have to register as a sex

offender. The trial court denied that request. The jury heard the evidence on punishment

and sentenced Hernandez to forty-five years’ confinement for aggravated sexual assault

of a child. See id. This appeal followed.

II. SPECULATION

By his first issue, although acknowledging that the instruction follows the Texas

Jury Pattern Charge, Hernandez complains that the instruction stating that the jury could

use “common sense” caused egregious harm because it improperly allowed or even

“invited” the jury “to resolve the case on speculation.” The State replies that the instruction

3 is proper and there is nothing in the record supporting a conclusion that the instruction

caused the jury to speculate in this case.3

This complained-of instruction specifically states: “you may make deductions and

reach conclusions that reason and common sense lead you to draw from the facts which

have been established by the evidence.” This instruction, as recognized by both sides,

undisputedly tracks the instructions set forth in the Texas Pattern Jury Charges and is a

correct statement of the law. See Markwell v. State, 641 S.W.3d 530, 533 (Tex. App.—

Austin 2022, pet. ref’d) (citing Common Pattern Jury Charges, State Bar of Tex., Texas

Criminal Pattern Jury Charges: Instruction CPJC 2.1). The complained-of instruction

incorporates relevant statutory authority from the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. See

id. (citing TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. arts. 36.13 (“Unless otherwise provided in this

Code, the jury is the exclusive judge of the facts, but it is bound to receive the law from

the court and be governed thereby.”), 38.04 (providing, in relevant part, that “[t]he jury, in

all cases, is the exclusive judge of the facts proved, and of the weight to be given to the

testimony”)) (concluding that the same language incorporates Texas law and is not a

comment on the weight of the evidence).

Moreover, “common sense” is defined as “sound and prudent judgment based on

a simple perception of the situation or facts.” See Common Sense, MERRIAM WEBSTER’S

DICTIONARY, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/common%20sense, (last

visited on March 8, 2023). Thus, we conclude that there is nothing about the use of the

3 We note that, if no error occurred, we need not address harm. See Tolbert v. State, 306 S.W.3d 776, 779 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010) (“A finding that the trial court did not commit error precludes any harm analysis under Almanza [v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157, 171 (Tex. Crim. App. 1985)].” (citing Posey v. State, 966 S.W.2d 57, 61 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998))).

4 term “common sense” that conveyed to the jury that it should have speculated about the

facts or Hernandez’s guilt. Therefore, we are unpersuaded by Hernandez’s contention

that this instruction caused the jury to speculate about the facts or his guilt. We overrule

Hernandez’s first issue.

III. LESSER-INCLUDED OFFENSES

By his second issue, Hernandez contends that the trial court erroneously allowed

the jury to find him guilty of both lesser-included offenses. The State concedes error but

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