Korey Adeleye v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided February 7, 2013·No. 01-10-00882-CR·Published

Opinion

Opinion issued February 7, 2013

In The

Court of Appeals

For The

First District of Texas

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Korey Adeleye pleaded guilty to two separate offenses of aggravated robbery without an agreed punishment recommendation. 1 With respect to each offense, the trial court deferred adjudication of appellant’s guilt and placed him on community supervision for 10 years. Based on the State’s later-filed motions to adjudicate, the trial court revoked appellant’s community supervision, found appellant guilty, and sentenced him to 20 years in state prison in each case. The trial court granted appellant’s motion for new trial regarding punishment only. Following the new punishment trial, the trial court again sentenced appellant to 20 years in prison in each case with the sentences to run concurrently. Raising the same two issues in each appeal, appellant contends that (1) he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the adjudication hearing, and (2) the trial court erred because it did not conduct an inquiry into appellant’s competency.

We affirm the judgment in each appellate cause.

Background

In late 2008 and early 2009, appellant participated in the commission of five aggravated robberies in Harris County and one aggravated robbery in Brazoria County. With regard to each offense, appellant and his associates robbed store employees at gunpoint. Appellant was 15 years old at the time. He later admitted

1 See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 29.03 (Vernon 2011).

to police that he committed the robberies as a member of a gang, the 52 Hoover Crips. In two of the robberies, appellant had been the person wielding the gun.

The Harris County juvenile court ordered a full investigation of the offenses and appellant’s circumstances, along with a diagnostic study and social evaluation of appellant. After receiving the results of the investigation and conducting a hearing, the juvenile court found appellant had “sufficient sophistication and maturity” to have aided in his defense and to be responsible for his conduct. The juvenile court waived jurisdiction and certified appellant to stand trial as an adult.

Appellant waived indictment, and the State charged appellant in separate informations with the offense of aggravated robbery with respect to the Harris County offenses. The State dropped three of the aggravated robbery charges against appellant. Without an agreed punishment recommendation, appellant pleaded guilty to the two remaining charges of aggravated robbery. Following the preparation of a presentence investigation report, the trial court placed appellant on deferred adjudication community supervision for 10 years in each case.

Four months later, the State filed a motion to adjudicate appellant’s guilt in each case. The State alleged that appellant had violated 10 separate conditions of his community supervision. The State asserted that those violations included appellant’s commission of a new criminal offense and appellant’s communicating with gang members.

The trial court held a hearing on the State’s motions. At the end of the hearing, the trial court found that appellant had violated the terms and conditions of his community supervision by committing the offense of terroristic threat and by communicating with gang members. The trial court adjudicated appellant’s guilt. Without conducting a punishment hearing, the trial court immediately sentenced appellant to 20 years in prison in each case with the sentences to run concurrently.

In the juvenile court proceedings and at the adjudication hearing, appellant had been represented by Kathleen Robbins. Following the adjudication hearing, appellant obtained new counsel. New counsel filed a motion for new trial in which they asserted that appellant was entitled to a new punishment hearing because he had not received a separate punishment hearing following the adjudication hearing. New counsel also asserted that appellant’s previous attorney had rendered ineffective assistance of counsel at the adjudication hearing. The motion alleged that Robbins had failed to call available witnesses to testify at the adjudication hearing, whose testimony would have been helpful to him. Appellant also asserted “no investigation was done by counsel of record into mitigation evidence that would have been favorable to the defense and no objection was made by counsel as to the complete lack of a punishment hearing.”

The trial court signed an order granting appellant’s motion for new trial with respect to a new punishment hearing. In the order, the trial court made a finding

that appellant had received effective assistance of counsel at the adjudication hearing but was entitled to a new punishment hearing.

Appellant’s counsel then filed an ex parte motion for appointment of a mental health and retardation expert to review appellant’s records and interview him before the new punishment hearing. Counsel stated that they had “discovered that there was a complete psychological and social history done on [appellant] in his case in Brazoria County during his adult certification proceedings.” Counsel stated they saw documents, including recent IQ tests that indicated that appellant has an overall functional score of approximately 61 IQ, “placing him in the mildly retarded range.” Counsel averred that appellant’s “mental acuity, intelligence and overall psychological history will be at issue” at the punishment hearing. Counsel also filed, under seal, a copy of the evaluations and IQ testing that had been ordered in the juvenile court proceedings.

The trial court granted appellant’s motion for psychological testing. With the funds obtained for a court-appointed expert, appellant retained Dr. Steven Rubenzer to evaluate appellant. The trial court also granted appellant a continuance of the punishment hearing to permit the doctor to evaluate appellant. When the punishment hearing began on September 17, 2010, appellant’s counsel orally moved for a continuance stating that Dr. Rubenzer had not been able to evaluate appellant. Counsel explained that appellant had been in jail in Brazoria

County and that there had been logistical problems transferring appellant to Harris County. These logistical issues had prevented Dr. Rubenzer from meeting with appellant.

The trial court noted that it had granted an earlier continuance to facilitate the psychological evaluation. The court also stated that, for purposes of assessing appellant’s punishment, in addition to newly introduced evidence, it would consider evidence previously admitted in the proceedings, including the presentence investigation (PSI) report and testimony introduced at the adjudication hearing. The trial court noted that a psychological evaluation had previously been completed on appellant, and that such evaluation was discussed in the PSI report.

The trial court also noted that, because it was in trial in another case, it would not complete the punishment hearing that day. It stated that the punishment hearing would resume the next week on September 21, 2010. The court told appellant’s counsel that this would allow Dr. Rubenzer time to evaluate appellant.

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