Ortegon v. State

267 S.W.3d 537, 2008 WL 4223030
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 22, 2008
Docket07-07-0159-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 267 S.W.3d 537 (Ortegon 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
Ortegon v. State, 267 S.W.3d 537, 2008 WL 4223030 (Tex. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

MACKEY K. HANCOCK, Justice.

Appellant, Baldomero G. Ortegon, was convicted of felony driving while intoxicated and sentenced to 25 years confinement in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Through five issues he challenges the legality of his conviction. We affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

Appellant was arrested for the offense of driving while intoxicated on March 2, 2003. Appellant was subsequently indicted for felony driving while intoxicated in March 2003, with two prior driving while intoxicated offenses alleged for felony jurisdictional purposes. There were no other felony convictions alleged for purposes of enhancement of punishment. Thereafter, appellant was re-indicted in August 2005. However, the State again failed to allege any other felony convictions for purposes of enhancement. Trial was scheduled August 17, 2005.

On the date trial was scheduled to begin, the State filed notice of intent to offer prior convictions for purposes of enhancement of sentence. Appellant’s trial counsel had previously filed a request for notice of intent to offer extraneous conduct. At the pre-trial hearing before voir dire, appellant’s trial counsel objected that the notice of intent to offer prior convictions filed by the State had not been timely filed. The trial court sustained the objec *540 tion and ruled that the State could not offer the prior convictions, with the exception of those alleged for felony jurisdiction purposes in the indictment. Thereafter, the State conducted voir dire examination of the jury panel. At the conclusion of the State’s voir dire, the trial court took its noon recess. Shortly before the conclusion of the noon recess, the State’s attorney approached appellant’s counsel and advised that the appellant had a choice to either waive the notice requirement for the use of the prior convictions or the State would seek a dismissal without prejudice and re-indict the case alleging other felony convictions for purpose of enhancement of the sentence. Appellant refused to waive his objection and, when the court reconvened, the State moved to dismiss the indictment without prejudice. Appellant objected to the State being allowed to dismiss without prejudice in order to seek re-indictment. The trial court overruled the objection and the dismissal without prejudice was granted.

Subsequently, the State re-indicted the case alleging three prior felony convictions for purposes of enhancement. Appellant filed a motion to quash the subsequent indictment alleging prosecutorial misconduct or prosecutorial vindictiveness. Prior to a pre-trial hearing on the motion to quash the indictment, appellant caused to be issued two subpoenas for the attorneys who represented the State in the previous trial setting. The State filed a motion to quash the subpoenas and requested the issuance of a protective order. The trial court granted the motion to quash the subpoenas and denied the motion to quash the indictment.

Trial was scheduled for February 26, 2007. During another pre-trial hearing, appellant again urged his motion to quash the indictment and a motion to dismiss alleging that he had been denied a speedy trial. The trial court heard both motions and denied each. The case proceeded to trial. The jury subsequently found appellant guilty of felony driving while intoxicated. Appellant elected to go to the judge for punishment. At the punishment hearing, appellant pleaded “Not True” to the punishment enhancement paragraphs that were read. At the conclusion of the punishment hearing, the trial court found that the first' and third enhancement allegation were true and assessed appellant’s punishment at confinement in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for a term of 25 years. It is from this judgment that appellant appeals.

Appellant contends, through four issues, that the trial court committed reversible error in: 1) failing to quash the indictment for prosecutorial vindictiveness or prosecu-torial misconduct; 2) granting the State’s motion to quash the subpoena of the original two State’s attorneys; 3) denying appellant’s motion to dismiss for want of a speedy trial; and 4) excluding appellant’s affidavit of indigency from one of appellant’s prior driving while intoxicated con-’ victions. By a fifth issue, appellant complains of the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury finding of guilt to the offense of felony driving while intoxicated. We will address the issues as they appeared in the record.

Prosecutorial Vindictiveness

Appellant contends that the actions of the State in dismissing the indictment and seeking re-indictment alleging prior felony convictions for enhancement purposes, after the trial court had sustained appellant’s motion to disallow use of any prior convictions, based on the State not providing prior notice of intent to use those convictions, amounted to prosecuto-rial vindictiveness. Appellant posits that trial court’s ruling on the motion to ex- *541 elude the prior convictions is the exercise of a statutory or constitutional right that shields appellant from trial on an indictment that would subject him to enhanced punishment. With that understanding, appellant contends that the trial court’s overruling the pre-trial motion to dismiss for prosecutorial vindictiveness was reversible error.

In order to sustain his issue, appellant asserts that we must presume prosecutorial misconduct under the fact situation presented. To this end, appellant cites the Court to Neal v. State, 150 S.W.3d 169, 173 (Tex.Crim.App.2004). In Neal, the court essentially held that the presumption that prosecution has been brought in good faith gives way to either a rebuttable presumption of prosecutorial vindictiveness or proof of actual vindictiveness when a decision to prosecute has been brought after a defendant exercises his legal rights. Id. It is of note, however, that in the final analysis the Neal court did not decide the case on the issue prosecutorial vindictiveness, rather, the ultimate issue determined was that appellant had not properly preserved the issue for appeal under the Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 33.1(a). Id. at 179.

A review of the cases that have found judicial or prosecutorial vindictiveness reveals that nearly all are dealing with fact patterns where the defendant has successfully appealed a final conviction or otherwise lawfully requested a higher tribunal to provide a second trial. See North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 723-24, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969) (holding that an announced practice of giving a harsher sentence when a defendant had previously successfully appealed was a violation of due process), See also Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 27, 94 S.Ct. 2098, 40 L.Ed.2d 628 (1974) (finding that a prosecutor’s attempt to discourage trial de novo by a higher court by threatening to re-indict a misdemeanor as felony was a denial of due process).

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

Related

Russell Jay Wilkes v. the State of Texas
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
the State of Texas v. Ivan Gabaldon
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2023
Bobby Culpepper v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2019
State v. Santos Garcia
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018
Patricia Ann Tope v. State
429 S.W.3d 75 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Luis Amaya v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013
Neil Curran v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011
Chaney v. State
314 S.W.3d 561 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Phillip Doyle Chaney v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2010
State v. Rodolfo Delgado
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009
William Hawthorne v. Star Enterprises, Inc.
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003
in Re: Joe L. Lovell, Relator
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
267 S.W.3d 537, 2008 WL 4223030, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ortegon-v-state-texapp-2008.