Milton Rederick Miller v. the State of Texas

CourtTexas Court of Appeals, 10th District (Waco)
DecidedJune 11, 2026
Docket10-25-00039-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Milton Rederick Miller v. the State of Texas (Milton Rederick Miller v. the State of Texas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Court of Appeals, 10th District (Waco) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Milton Rederick Miller v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

Court of Appeals Tenth Appellate District of Texas

10-25-00039-CR

Milton Rederick Miller, Appellant

v.

The State of Texas, Appellee

On appeal from the 272nd District Court of Brazos County, Texas Judge John L. Brick, presiding Trial Court Cause No. 22-04187-CRF-272

JUSTICE SMITH delivered the opinion of the Court.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Following a jury trial, Milton Rederick Miller was convicted of unlawful

possession of a firearm by a felon. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 46.04. The

jury found two felony enhancement paragraphs to be true and assessed his

punishment at forty-five years in prison. In four issues on appeal, Miller

advances as-applied constitutional challenges under the United States and

Texas Constitutions, contends that the trial court erred in granting his request to represent himself on the first day of trial, and argues that he was denied

access to discovery. We affirm.

As-Applied Constitutional Challenges

In his first and second issues, Miller claims that because the indicted

predicate felony underlying his charge was non-violent and decades old, section

46.04 of the Penal Code was unconstitutional as applied to him under the

Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and

Article I, Section 23 of the Texas Constitution.1 See U.S. CONST. amends. II,

XIV; TEX. CONST. art. I, § 23; TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 46.04. He urges us to

consider Range v. Attorney General of the United States, 124 F.4th 218 (3d Cir.

2024), and to “reject any claim that non-violent alleged predicate felons are not

among ‘the people’ protected by the Second Amendment.” More specifically, he

asks us to find that he is not excluded from Second-Amendment protections “as

a result of his 1987 predicate felony conviction.” We disagree.

RELEVANT BACKGROUND

Miller entered a residence without the occupants’ permission. He

eventually exited the residence after multiple requests. Once outside, Miller

removed a handgun from his waistband, waved it in the air, and scratched his

head with it before wandering off the property. Law enforcement officers

1 Though Miller notes that the Texas Constitution may afford greater protection than the Federal

Constitution, he does not argue that it does so here. We therefore address these two issues together.

Milton Rederick Miller v. The State of Texas Page 2 located Miller down the road from the residence and detained him. Officers

determined that Miller was a convicted felon who was on parole. They arrested

him for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon after locating a loaded

revolver and a BB gun in his waistband.

Miller was indicted for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.2 See

TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 46.04. In the indictment, the alleged predicate felony

was a 1987 conviction for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The

enhancement paragraphs alleged two separate final felony convictions in 1987

and 1990 for burglary of a vehicle.

After Miller was convicted and sentenced, his appellate counsel filed a

motion for new trial asserting his constitutional challenges. The trial court

denied the motion for new trial by written order without a hearing.

ANALYSIS

Section 46.04 of the Penal Code, as relevant here, prohibits a person

convicted of a felony from possessing a firearm at any location other than the

premises at which the person lives.3 See id. § 46.04(a)(2).

2 Miller was also indicted on one count of unlawful carrying of a weapon with a felony conviction. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 46.02. The State abandoned this count at trial.

3 Despite Miller’s parole status at the time, the State did not indict Miller under subsection (a)(1) for

possessing a firearm before the fifth anniversary of his release from parole. See id. § 46.04(a)(1).

Milton Rederick Miller v. The State of Texas Page 3 In New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court

recognized that the “Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an

individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home[,]” and

clarified the proper framework for evaluating Second-Amendment challenges

to regulations restricting that right. 597 U.S. 1, 10, 17-31 (2022). Under

Bruen, courts first determine whether the Second Amendment’s plain text

covers the individual’s conduct. Id. at 24. This includes determining whether

the person challenging the regulation is one of “the people” who holds Second

Amendment rights. See id. at 26, 31-32; see also, Swindle v. State, No. 08-23-

00057-CR, 2023 WL 7171472, at *2 (Tex. App.—El Paso, Oct. 31, 2023, pet.

ref’d) (mem. op., not designated for publication). If so, the conduct is

presumptively protected, and the government must demonstrate that the

challenged regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of

firearm regulation. Bruen, 597 U.S. at 24.

Resolving an as-applied challenge requires a recourse to evidence. Estes

v. State, 546 S.W.3d 691, 698 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018). We first address Miller’s

comparison of his case to Range. The federal statute at issue in Range

regulates possession of firearms by any person who has been convicted in any

court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year,

although State misdemeanors are excluded from that prohibition if they are

Milton Rederick Miller v. The State of Texas Page 4 punishable by a term of imprisonment of two years or less. Range, 124 F.4th

at 223 (applying 18 U.S.C. §§ 921(a)(20)(B), 922(g)(1)). Range’s non-violent

1995 Pennsylvania misdemeanor conviction was punishable by up to five years

in prison. Id. at 222-23. The Third Circuit court determined that the federal

law disarming Range based on that misdemeanor was unconstitutional as-

applied to him. Id. at 228, 232.

However, the facts in Range are clearly distinguishable from the instant

case. The most obvious difference is that Range was convicted of a

misdemeanor and completed his term of community supervision, while Miller

was convicted of a felony and sentenced to prison for it. Id. at 223. Both before

and after Bruen, the Supreme Court has affirmed that “many such

prohibitions, like those on the possession of firearms by ‘felons and the

mentally ill,’ are ‘presumptively lawful[.]’” United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S.

680, 700 (2024) (citing District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 626, 627 n.

26 (2008)). Since Bruen, other Texas intermediate appellate courts have

analyzed facial constitutional challenges to section 46.04 under the Second

Amendment and have uniformly upheld its constitutionality. See, e.g., Ex

parte Huell, 704 S.W.3d 246, 250 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2024, no pet.); Ex

parte Strickland, No. 12-24-00031-CR, 2024 WL 4471121, at *4 (Tex. App.—

Tyler Oct. 9, 2024, pet. ref’d) (mem. op. on reh’g, not designated for

Milton Rederick Miller v. The State of Texas Page 5 publication); Swindle v. State, 2023 WL 7171472, at *5. These courts have

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