Nathan G. Mims v. State

434 S.W.3d 265, 2014 WL 1641927, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4450
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 24, 2014
Docket01-13-00170-CR, 01-13-00171-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 434 S.W.3d 265 (Nathan G. Mims 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
Nathan G. Mims v. State, 434 S.W.3d 265, 2014 WL 1641927, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4450 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

REBECA HUDDLE, Justice.

Appellant Nathan Mims was charged by indictment with evading arrest, two counts of burglary of a habitation, aggravated assault against a public servant, and possession of marijuana. The State dismissed the aggravated assault against a public servant and possession of marijuana charges on the day of the trial — proceeding to trial only on the charges of burglary of a habitation and evading arrest in a motor vehicle. Mims pleaded guilty to evading arrest, and a jury found Mims guilty of one count of burglary of a habitation. Mims was sentenced to ten years in prison for evading arrest and 16 years for burglary of a habitation, and he appealed both judgments. Finding no error, we affirm. 1

Background

On May 29, 2012, Irving Guenther was sleeping upstairs in his parents’ home when he heard someone breaking down the front door. He screamed, “what’s going on” from upstairs. Irving testified that as soon as the intruder heard him scream, he ran, got in his car, and drove away. Irving ran outside to look at the license plate of the car, made eye contact with the burglar, and called the police. After Irving called 911, Mims led multiple vehicles from the Fort Bend County Sheriffs office, Fort Bend County Constable Precinct 4, Sugar Land Police, and Texas Department of Public Safety on a car chase, at one point driving through someone’s front and backyard, before he was apprehended.

Irving testified that he had not invited anyone over to the house that morning. He identified Mims as the intruder in a photo lineup and at trial.

Irving’s mother, Araeeli, testified that she locked the front door before she left for work that morning. She also testified that she never gave Mims permission to be in the home, but acknowledged that Mims knew her son Kirk, who no longer lived in the home, and that Kirk may have given Mims permission.

Section 38.04 of the Texas Penal Code

In his sole point of error in- appellate cause number 01-13-00171-CR, Mims contends that section 38.04 of the Texas Penal Code, the evading arrest statute, is unconstitutional because it “legislates two differ *269 ent levels of crime and punishment for the same conduct.” 2

A. Standard of Review

An “analysis of a statute’s constitutionality must begin with the presumption that the statute is valid and that the Legislature did not act arbitrarily or unreasonably in enacting it.” State v. Rosseau, 396 S.W.3d 550, 557 (Tex.Crim.App. 2013) (citing Rodriguez v. State, 93 S.W.3d 60, 69 (Tex.Crim.App.2002)). The individual challenging the statute has the burden to establish its unconstitutionality. Id. (citing Lykos v. Fine, 330 S.W.3d 904, 908 (Tex.Crim.App.2011)). To prevail on a facial challenge, a party must establish that the statute always operates unconstitutionally in all possible circumstances. Rosseau, 396 S.W.3d at 557. “A facial attack upon a penal statute is solely and entirely a legal question and is always subject to de novo review.” Karenev v. State, 281 S.W.3d 428, 435 (Tex.Crim.App.2009).

B. Applicable Law

Under Texas Penal Code section 38.04(a), a person commits the offense of evading arrest or detention if he “intentionally flees from a person he knows is a peace officer or federal special investigator attempting lawfully to arrest or detain him.” Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 38.04(a). Before May 23, 2011, section 38.04(b) governed whether the offense was punishable as a state jail felony or a felony of the third degree, as follows:

(1) a state jail felony if:
(A) the actor has been previously convicted under this section; or
(B) the actor uses a vehicle while the actor is in flight and the actor has not been previously convicted under this section;
(2) a felony of the third degree if:
(A) the actor uses a vehicle while the actor is in flight and the actor has been previously convicted under this section; or
(B) another suffers serious bodily injury as a direct result of an attempt by the officer from whom the actor is fleeing to apprehend the actor while the actor is in flight ....

Act of May 27, 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., ch. 1400, § 4, sec. 38.04, 2009 Tex. Gen. Laws 4385, 4385-86.

On May 23, 2011, Senate Bill 496 amended subsections (b)(1) and (b)(2) to provide that a violation of 34.08(a) was:

(1) a state jail felony if:
(A) the actor has been previously convicted under this section; or
(B) the actor uses a vehicle or watercraft while the actor is in flight and the actor has not been previously convicted under this section;
(2) a felony of the third degree if:
(A) the actor uses a vehicle or watercraft while the actor is in flight and the actor has been previously convicted under this section; or
(B) another suffers serious bodily injury as a direct result of an attempt by the officer from whom the actor is fleeing to apprehend the actor while the actor is in flight ....

Act of May 23, 2011, 82d Leg., R.S., ch. 391, § 1, sec. 38.04, 2011 Tex. Gen. Laws 1046,1046-47

However, four days later, on May 27, 2011, Senate Bill 1416 amended subsections (b)(1) and (b)(2) again, to remove (b)(1)(B) entirely, and to amend (b)(2)(A) *270 and add (b)(2)(C). Senate Bill 1416 provided that a violation of 34.08(a) was:

(1) a state jail felony if:£
[-(A)-} the actor has been previously convicted under this section; [or
[(B) the actor uses a vehicle -or-watercraft while the-actor-is in flight and the actor has not -been-previously convicted under this section^]
(2) a felony of the third degree if:
(A) the actor uses a vehicle or watercraft while the actor is in flight [and the actor has been-previously convicted-under-this-sect-ion]; ⅛⅜
(B) another suffers serious bodily injury as a direct result of an attempt by the officer from whom the actor is fleeing to apprehend the actor while the actor is in flight; or
(C) the actor uses a tire deflation device against the officer while the actor is in flight ....

Act of May 27, 2011, 82d Leg., R.S., ch. 920, § 3, sec. 38.04, 2011 Tex. Gen. Laws 2321, 2322.

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Bluebook (online)
434 S.W.3d 265, 2014 WL 1641927, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nathan-g-mims-v-state-texapp-2014.