Love v. State

730 S.W.2d 385, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 7480
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 29, 1987
Docket2-85-129-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 730 S.W.2d 385 (Love v. State) 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
Love v. State, 730 S.W.2d 385, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 7480 (Tex. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

FENDER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for aggravated sexual abuse under former TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 21.05 (Vernon 1974) (as amended by Act of May 25, 1981). 1 After the jury found appellant, Hershel Floyd Love, guilty, evidence was offered that he had been in the penitentiary for six previous felonies and had been convicted for simple assault in Hood County. The jury found that a single enhancement paragraph was true, and assessed punishment at life in the Texas Department of Corrections.

We affirm.

Evidence at trial showed that on August 29, 1983, appellant robbed and terrorized a group of five people who were playing dominoes at the home of Oleta Nichols in Hood County, Texas. In addition to robbing the parties, the defendant forced one of the persons, D_C_, to submit to anal intercourse a number of times.

In his first point of error appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to quash the indictment. Appellant urges that although the indictment sufficiently alleged an offense, it failed to adequately particularize the conduct which would be relied upon by the State to show appellant’s violation of the law. Specifically, appellant complains that the indictment was deficient in that it failed to indicate against which of the statutory meanings of “without consent” appellant should defend.

The aggravated sexual abuse statute in effect at the time, states as follows:

(a) A person commits an offense if he commits sexual abuse as defined in Section 21.04 of this code ... and he:
[[Image here]]
(2) by acts, words, or deeds places the victim in fear of death, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping to be imminently inflicted on anyone; or
(3) by acts, words, or deeds occurring in the presence of the victim threatens to cause death, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping to be inflicted on anyone ...

See id. Former section 21.04, in relevant part, provided as follows:

(a) A person commits an offense if, without the other person’s consent and with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, the actor:
(1) engages in deviate sexual intercourse with the other person, not his spouse, whether the other person is of the same or opposite sex....
*391 [[Image here]]
(b) The intercourse is without the other person’s consent under one or more of the following circumstances:
[(1) through (7) provide different definitions of lack of consent.]

TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 21.04 (Vernon 1974). 2

The indictment alleged that appellant: [D]id then and there intentionally, with intent to arouse and gratify the sexual desire of said defendant, by threats and force, without the consent of [D_C_] engage in deviate sexual intercourse with the said [D_ C_] by then and there placing his genitals in contact with the anus of the said [D_C_] who was not his spouse, and in the course of said criminal episode the defendant, in the presence of [D_ C_], by acts, words, and deeds threatened to cause death and serious bodily injury to be inflicted on [D_ C_] and the defendant by acts, words, and deeds placed [D_ C_] in fear of death and serious bodily injury to be imminently inflicted on [D_ C_]_

This same issue was raised in Arnold v. State, 679 S.W.2d 156, 160-61 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1984, pet. ref d). The appellant in Arnold also alleged that his indictment was insufficient because it did not allege which of the seven circumstances listed in former TEX.PENAL CODE ANN. sec. 21.-02(b) (Vernon 1974) (as amended by Act of May 15, 1975), 3 applied to the facts of his case to establish lack of consent. The court in Arnold held that the indictment was sufficient to allege aggravated rape in that “[t]he allegation that appellant compelled submission ‘by threatening serious bodily injury to be imminently inflicted’ was sufficient to allege how the intercourse was without the consent of the victim.” See Arnold, 679 S.W.2d at 160-61; see also Johnson v. State, 628 S.W.2d 654, 655 (Tex.Crim.App.1981). The indictment in this case alleges the facts and circumstances of the offense which made the act of sexual intercourse nonconsensual. The allegations concerning the threats were sufficient to place appellant on notice of the kind of lack of consent upon which the State would base its case. See Johnson, 623 S.W.2d at 656. Appellant’s first point of error is overruled.

In his second point of error appellant contends that the trial court erred in denying appellant’s motion to quash the jury panel. The record reflects that certain prospective jurors “spread the word” to an undetermined number of other members of the panel during a recess between the State’s voir dire examination, that appellant was being tried a second time due to a technical defect in the verdict at a prior trial. 4

Appellant contends that the trial court should have granted his challenge to the entire panel, because he could not assure himself of the most successful use of his peremptory challenges. Appellant asserts there was no means by which he could accurately determine the bias of those who had heard the discussions, since pointed questions would only run the risk of influencing or informing the prospective jurors more.

The record reflects that fifteen jurors indicated they had heard some discussion *392 about the case at the courthouse that day. Defense counsel questioned each of these jurors individually, asking each of them whether their knowledge that the case involved a retrial would put appellant at a disadvantage with them, and whether they could presume him innocent. The trial judge permitted individual voir dire of each juror who admitted that the case had been discussed at the courthouse. Defense counsel did not request any additional peremptory challenges. There is no showing in the record that appellant was required to accept any particular juror who was objectionable to him. See Payton v. State, 572 S.W.2d 677, 680 (Tex.Crim.App.1978) (opinion on reh’g).

In Gordy v. State, 159 Tex.Cr.R. 390, 264 S.W.2d 103 (1953), on voir dire examination of the jury panel by the defendant’s counsel, a member of the jury panel answered that nothing he had read or heard about the case would influence his verdict, but the fact that defendant had been previously convicted would do so. It was not shown that that juror had served on the case, but the defendant urged that all of the panel members thus received information to the effect that he had been previously convicted of a similar offense. The Court of Criminal Appeals said:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gobert, Milton Dwayne
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2011
Fausto Reyes v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008
Rodriguez, Jose Antonio v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002
Jimmie Gene Hindman v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2001
Jesse S. Villanueva v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000
Bledsoe v. State
21 S.W.3d 615 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000)
In re J.A.W.
976 S.W.2d 260 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1998)
Matter of Jaw
976 S.W.2d 260 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1998)
State v. Meade
474 S.E.2d 481 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1996)
Ojeda v. State
916 S.W.2d 609 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1996)
Ramirez v. State
897 S.W.2d 428 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)
Baker v. State
887 S.W.2d 227 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)
Pachecano v. State
881 S.W.2d 537 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)
Handspur v. State
792 S.W.2d 239 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Porter v. State
757 S.W.2d 889 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Porter v. State
519 So. 2d 1230 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1988)
United States v. Thomas Earl Darveaux
830 F.2d 124 (Eighth Circuit, 1987)
State v. Granberry
530 S.W.2d 714 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
730 S.W.2d 385, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 7480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/love-v-state-texapp-1987.