Joshua Wade Robinson v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 31, 2023
Docket06-22-00047-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Joshua Wade Robinson v. the State of Texas (Joshua Wade Robinson 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
Joshua Wade Robinson v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

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

No. 06-22-00047-CR

JOSHUA WADE ROBINSON, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 188th District Court Gregg County, Texas Trial Court No. 49922-A

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

Joshua Wade Robinson was convicted by a Gregg County jury of aggravated sexual

assault1 of K.A., a child,2 and was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. On appeal,

Robinson claims that the trial court erred in admitting, over his hearsay objections, the victim’s

notebook, an accusatory email, and certain trial testimony. Robinson claims that these alleged

errors amounted to cumulative error that placed the integrity of the jury’s verdict in doubt.

Because we find no error in the admission of the disputed evidence, we affirm the trial court’s

judgment.

I. Background

In September 2015, the Gregg County Sheriff’s Department (GCSD) received a report

that ten-year-old K.A. had been sexually abused.3 The report was based on the allegations of

K.A.’s ten- and eleven-year-old school friends. When K.A. was interviewed by the Children’s

Advocacy Center (CAC), she told the forensic interviewer that Robinson, her stepfather, cheated

on her mother and that she was afraid of him, but she did not make an outcry.

A short time after the initial interview—on the same day—K.A. was interviewed a

second time after having made an outcry to her parents. During the second CAC interview, K.A.

1 TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.021(a)(2)(B). 2 We identify the victim by initials to protect her privacy. See TEX. R. APP. P. 9.10(a). 3 Although Robinson has not challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction, the nature of his appellate complaints requires a discussion of the evidence offered at trial.

2 stated that Robinson touched her vagina on one occasion with his hand.4 K.A. told the

interviewer that the incident happened in the summer at the apartment that Robinson shared with

his brother. Following the second interview, the GCSD investigated the allegation of abuse.

Robinson denied the allegation in his interview with Craig Harrington, an investigator

with the GCSD.5 Robinson instead suggested that there might have been some inappropriate

behavior by K.A.’s biological father.6 During the course of his investigation, Harrington also

obtained recorded interviews of K.A.’s maternal aunt and Adrian Lumpkins.7 Both witnesses

indicated that Robinson did not sexually abuse K.A.

K.A.’s aunt stated in her interview that she overheard K.A.’s grandmother tell K.A., “It’s

okay, baby girl, Mimi’s going to take care of this because I don’t like him either.” K.A.’s aunt

also talked to K.A. about the allegations, and K.A. indicated that “Mimi . . . told her if she started

saying bad things about [Robinson] he would just go away.” The aunt also claimed that Mimi

was upset with Robinson because he had cheated on her daughter (K.A.’s mother) and that, if

K.A.’s mother and Robinson reunited, Mimi would have to find a new place to live. The aunt

believed that K.A. fabricated the abuse allegations.

4 K.A. demonstrated how Robinson touched her by holding out her hand “with her fingers straight and mov[ing] her hand around in small circles.” K.A. did not make claims of oral sex or any other type of inappropriate touching. 5 Robinson voluntarily came in for the interview and understood that he could leave at any time. 6 Although Harrington was made aware of allegations that K.A.’s biological father drank, dated multiple women around K.A., and would let her wear clothes “maybe deemed inappropriate,” there was no evidence or allegations of sexual or physical abuse. 7 Lumpkins was, at the time of the interview, Robinson’s employer’s wife. She and K.A.’s mother were long-term friends. 3 In her interview, Lumpkins stated that she did not believe the abuse allegations. She

explained that she overheard K.A. state that, if her mother got back together with Robinson, they

would have to move again. Harrington was not aware of any connection between K.A.’s aunt

and Lumpkins.

K.A., who was seventeen at the time of trial, testified that her mother married Robinson

before K.A. started kindergarten. K.A. recalled going to the CAC when she was in elementary

school. She did not want to talk to the CAC interviewer, but she eventually told her a little bit of

what happened. After the CAC interviews, she did not have to see Robinson very often.

K.A. explained that the first time Robinson touched her was the summer before first

grade in a shed behind the family home.8 K.A. had been playing in the sprinkler and was

wearing a swimsuit. K.A. and Robinson were talking inside of the shed when he touched her

vagina with his mouth after he had taken her swimsuit bottom off. Robinson then made K.A. put

her hand on the Bible and swear that she would not let him “do those things to [her] anymore.”

K.A. testified that “this [went] on for . . . [m]ultiple years.” K.A. stated that Robinson touched

her again “[a]lmost every day” after that. At one point, Robinson inserted his fingers in K.A.’s

vagina. K.A. testified that Robinson gave her marihuana multiple times in the shed as well.

The abuse eventually led to K.A. performing oral sex on Robinson multiple times

beginning when K.A. was in the second or third grade. K.A. denied that Robinson ever put his

penis in her vagina. When questioned further, however, K.A. admitted that Robinson forced her

8 K.A. clarified that the touching at the apartment was not the first incident of abuse. K.A. admitted that she was untruthful in the second CAC interview because she told the interviewer that the touching only happened once, when it had actually happened many times. 4 to have intercourse multiple times before she was ten years old. K.A. testified that the abuse

ended when she was ten or eleven and in the fifth grade because Robinson no longer lived in the

home.9

Around that same time, K.A. told her school friends about the abuse but asked them not

to tell anyone about it. She also told her stepsister and one of her other friends about the abuse.

After that, rumors began to circulate around school about the abuse. K.A. recalled getting a text

message from a friend in 2017 asking who the abuser was and what she could do to stop it. K.A.

responded to the text message denying the truth of the rumors because she wanted the rumors to

stop.

In 2018, K.A. gave a third CAC interview after her mother discovered a notebook in her

closet in which K.A. had written about the abuse.10 K.A., who was thirteen at the time of the

interview, contradicted information that she had given in the previous interviews. In the third

interview, K.A. mentioned the abuse in the shed for the first time. She also disclosed that

Robinson forced her to perform oral sex on him on multiple occasions and that he forced her to

“ha[ve] sex.”

According to K.A., she did not tell the interviewer about “every single time it happened”

and admitted that she was untruthful in her first interview when she denied having been

inappropriately touched by anyone. She was afraid of what would happen if she told the truth

during that interview and explained that, as she progressed through the healing process, she was

9 Despite this testimony, K.A.

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