Matter of KWG

953 S.W.2d 483, 1997 WL 538764
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 30, 1997
Docket06-96-00081-CV
StatusPublished

This text of 953 S.W.2d 483 (Matter of KWG) 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
Matter of KWG, 953 S.W.2d 483, 1997 WL 538764 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

953 S.W.2d 483 (1997)

In the Matter of K.W.G., a Child.

No. 06-96-00081-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Texarkana.

Submitted August 19, 1997.
Decided September 3, 1997.
Rehearing Overruled September 30, 1997.

*485 Sydney Young, Paris, for appellant.

Karla R. Baugh, Asst. County Atty., Paris, for appellee.

Before CORNELIUS, C.J., and GRANT and ROSS, JJ.

OPINION

CORNELIUS, Chief Justice.

K.W.G. appeals his adjudication of delinquency for having committed the offenses of arson, burglary, and aggravated assault against three individuals. He raises issues of double jeopardy, insufficient evidence, charging error, pleading insufficiency, and improper deadly weapon findings. We affirm the judgment.

On New Year's Eve of 1996, K.W.G., along with two other juveniles, broke into an elementary school building in Lamar County. They vandalized the building and its contents extensively and ultimately set fire to the building, doing more than $700,000.00 damage. Three volunteer firemen who fought the blaze were injured. K.W.G. was charged with burglary, criminal mischief, arson, and three counts of aggravated assault. He was charged and adjudicated pursuant to the violent offender juvenile determinate sentence provisions of Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 53.045 (Vernon 1996).

K.W.G. pleaded true to the criminal mischief, burglary, and arson charges, but the State abandoned the criminal mischief charge, and it was not submitted to the jury. K.W.G. pleaded not true to the aggravated assault charges, and in a jury trial he was found to have committed the offenses as alleged. The court in its disposition order committed K.W.G. to the Texas Youth Commission for ten years on each of the aggravated assaults as determinate sentences, and made a deadly weapon finding as to the aggravated assaults against Bart Hayes and Grady Dobbs. The order assessed an indeterminate sentence on the other charges.

*486 K.W.G. first contends that the adjudications for arson, burglary, and aggravated assault violated the prohibitions against double jeopardy found in the United States and Texas Constitutions[1] because the offenses were part of the same transaction. We reject this contention.

Double jeopardy does not prevent the prosecution of a person for multiple offenses if each offense requires proof of an element that the other offenses do not. Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990); Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932); Phillips v. State, 787 S.W.2d 391 (Tex.Crim.App.1990). Moreover, the prohibition against multiple punishments is not violated if the multiple offenses are prosecuted in one proceeding and the punishments do not exceed the punishments the Legislature intended. Missouri v. Hunter, 459 U.S. 359, 103 S.Ct. 673, 74 L.Ed.2d 535 (1983). And double jeopardy does not prohibit prosecutions for aggravated assault of each of several individual victims, even though the assaults were committed in the same criminal transaction. Aggravated assault is a result-oriented offense that is complete with the injury of a single individual. Phillips v. State, 787 S.W.2d 391.

In this case, the offenses of burglary and arson each required proof of an element that the other did not. Likewise, the three aggravated assaults required proof of an element that the others did not, i.e., the identity of the individual victim. There was no violation of double jeopardy.

K.W.G. also contends that the arson and aggravated assault statutes are in para materia and, therefore, he should have been prosecuted under the more specific statute, i.e., arson. The rule of in para materia provides that when two statutes deal with the same subject, one in a comprehensive way and one with a portion of the same subject in a more definite way, the more specific statute will govern the situation to the exclusion of the more general statute. Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 311.026 (Vernon 1988). Statutes are not in para materia unless they deal with the same subject matter, persons, or purpose. If they are not in para materia, they are construed and applied in accordance with their plain wording. Cheney v. State, 755 S.W.2d 123 (Tex.Crim. App.1988); Ex parte Wilkinson, 641 S.W.2d 927, 931 (Tex.Crim.App.1982); Ex parte Smith, 849 S.W.2d 832 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 1992, no pet.); Taylor v. State, 805 S.W.2d 609, 611 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1991, no pet.).

The arson and aggravated assault statutes do not deal with the same subject matter, persons, or purposes. They deal with entirely different offenses. They are designed to protect different things—the law against arson is designed to prevent injury to property; laws against assault are designed to protect persons. The acts constituting the two offenses are completely different, and they are not in para materia.

K.W.G. next contends there is legally and factually insufficient evidence to support an adjudication of guilt on the three aggravated assault charges.

In determining the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we decide whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could find the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 317-19, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2788-89, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, 573 (1979); Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d 126, 132 (Tex. Crim.App.1996). In reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence, we view all of the evidence without viewing it in the light most favorable to the verdict, and we set aside the verdict only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that it is clearly wrong and unjust. Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d at 135. If reasonable minds could differ about the conclusions to be drawn from the evidence, we will not disturb the conclusion of the fact finder. Clewis v. State, 922 S.W.2d at 135.

A person commits an aggravated assault if he commits an assault and (1) causes serious bodily injury to another or (2) uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the commission of *487 the assault. TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.02(a) (Vernon 1994). The actor must act either intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly.

The petition charged K.W.G. with recklessly causing serious bodily injury to Mike Smith, Bart Hayes, and Grady Dobbs.

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Related

Blockburger v. United States
284 U.S. 299 (Supreme Court, 1931)
In Re WINSHIP
397 U.S. 358 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Missouri v. Hunter
459 U.S. 359 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Grady v. Corbin
495 U.S. 508 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Roberts v. State
766 S.W.2d 578 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)
Dowden v. State
758 S.W.2d 264 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Phillips v. State
787 S.W.2d 391 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Ex Parte Smith
849 S.W.2d 832 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Lewis v. State
529 S.W.2d 550 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1975)
Polk v. State
693 S.W.2d 391 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1985)
McNeal v. State
600 S.W.2d 807 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Taylor v. State
805 S.W.2d 609 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Almanza v. State
686 S.W.2d 157 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Cheney v. State
755 S.W.2d 123 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Ex Parte Wilkinson
641 S.W.2d 927 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1982)
Garcia v. State
791 S.W.2d 279 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Clewis v. State
922 S.W.2d 126 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1996)
L.G.R. v. State
724 S.W.2d 775 (Texas Supreme Court, 1987)
In re A.F.
895 S.W.2d 481 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1995)

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