Prichard v. State

533 S.W.3d 315
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 28, 2017
DocketNO. PD-0712-16
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 533 S.W.3d 315 (Prichard v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Prichard v. State, 533 S.W.3d 315 (Tex. 2017).

Opinions

OPINION

Alcala, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court

in which Keasler, Richardson, Newell, and Walker, JJ., joined.

This case addresses whether a deadly weapon finding is permissible for the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon against a nonhuman. In his petition for discretionary review, Robert Monte Prichard, appellant, argues that a deadly weapon finding is improper when the only thing injured or killed as a result of a defendant’s criminal conduct is an animal rather than a human being. Rejecting that argument, the- court of appeals upheld a deadly weapon finding in this case in which appellant was convicted of animal cruelty and the deadly force was directed only against a dog. See Prichard, v. State, No. 05-14-01214-CR, 2016 WL 1615641, at *1 (Tex. App.—Dallas April 20, 2016) (mem. op., not designated for publication). We conclude that the language of the deadly weapon statute is ambiguous with respect to whether a deadly weapon finding may be made for weapons used or exhibited against nonhumans, and thus, we must consider extra-textual factors to discern the Legislature’s intent as to this matter. We determine that an analysis of those factors supports our determination that a deadly weapon finding may be made for human victims only. We, therefore, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

I. Background

While purportedly disciplining his pet dog, appellant killed her by repeatedly hitting her head with a shovel and then drowning her in a swimming pool. He was indicted for the state-jail felony of cruelty to a non-livestock animal. See Tex. Penal Code § 42.092(b)(1), (c). In a separate paragraph, the indictment also alleged that the shovel and pool water, singly or in combination, constituted the use of a deadly weapon in the commission of the offense.1 A jury convicted appellant of the offense as charged in the indictment and, in a special issue in the verdict form, made [318]*318a finding that appellant had used a deadly weapon. This finding made the state-jail felony offense punishable within the punishment range for a third-degree felony. See id. § 12.35(c). The jury sentenced appellant to six and one-half years’ imprisonment. Thé trial court’s judgment reflected that appellant hád been convicted of a third-degree felony and the judgment showed an affirmative finding of a deadly weapon. ■■

On appeal, appellant' argued that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s deadly weapon finding because that finding should be limited only to human victims arid no evidence showed that a human had been harmed or placed at risk of harm as a result of appellant’s'conduct. Appellant challenged the deadly weapon finding primarily based on three theories.

.First, appellant asserted that, although the statutory definition of a “deadly weapon" does not specifically address “‘the death or serious bodily injury of a person,” a common-sense reading of the statute implies that it applies only to people. He argued that interpreting “death or serious bodily injury” as including nonhumans would lead to absurd consequences not intended by the Legislature, such as deadly weapon findings for a reckless driver who runs over someone’s pet snake- or pet rat or hits a tree knocking off branches or leaves. The court of appeals did not perform any statutory analysis’ to decide if the plain language permitted a deadly weapon finding in this case, nor did it respond to appellant’s absurd-results argument. The court of- appeals ■ generally rejected this argument by explaining that, because appellant did'not dispute that his use of the shovel and pool water caused the dog’s death as he intended, the deadly weapon special issue had been properly submitted and the evidence was sufficient.to support the deadly weapon finding. Prichard, 2016 WL 1615641, at *2-3. The court concluded that the “pertinent inquiry with respect to whether a deadly weapon-was used, the issue here, is whether the weapon achieved or facilitated the intended result.” Id. at *2 (emphasis original).

Second, appellant argued that permitting a deadly weapon finding for death to a nonhuman would result in transforming what the Legislature had designated as a state-jail-felony offense of cruelty to animals into a third-degree felony. The court of appeals rejected this argument by explaining that the punishment range for the offense would remain a state-jail felony if the death or serious bodily injury of an animal was committed by omission. Id.

Third, appellant suggested that this Court’s precedent already limits a deadly weapon finding to situations involving injury or death to humans only. The court of appeals reviewed this Court’s precedent and determined that it was silent as to the inclusion or exclusion of nonhumans for deadly weapon findings. Id.

After rejecting appellant’s arguments, the court of appeals reformed- the trial court’s judgment to reflect that appellant had actually been convicted of a state-jail felony, as opposed to a third-degree felony, and that he had pleaded not true to the deadly weapon allegation. Id. at *3, After modifying appellant’s judgment, the court of appeals affirmed his conviction. Id.

In his petition for discretionary review, appellant reasserts his three arguments that he made to the court of appeals that contend that a deadly weapon finding may be made only when the use or exhibition of the deadly weapon is ’against a human victim. First, he argues that it “defies a common-sense reading of the statute to assume that ‘deadly weapon’ findings can apply to all living things.”..He suggests that to permit a deadly weapon finding in this case would result in absurd conse[319]*319quences, such as permitting a deadly weapon finding in a felony DWI case when a defendant runs over someone’s pet snake or pet rat, or in a felony criminal mischief case for causing the death of a tree. Furthermore, conceding that many people consider dogs as family members, appellant notes that dogs are nonetheless considered property in Texas and should not be equated with human victims.

Second, appellant also repeats his prior arguments that permitting a deadly weapon enhancement functionally makes animal cruelty a third-degree felony rather than, as the Legislature intended, a state-jail felony. He also contends that permitting a deadly weapon finding renders superfluous a section of the animal cruelty, statute that enhances punishment for repeat offenses. See Tex. Penal Code § 42.092(c).

Third, although he acknowledges that this Court has never expressly addressed whether a deadly weapon finding must be limited to offenses involving humans, appellant. suggests that this Court’s precedent implies that limitation'. In response, the State argues that the plain text of the definition of “deadly weapon” is broad enough that it permits a deadly weapon finding for serious bodily injury or death to animals. The State also maintains that the court of appeals properly rejected appellant’s arguments on their merits.

II. Analysis

Appellant’s sufficiency challenge turns on the legal meaning of the deadly weapon statute.

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Bluebook (online)
533 S.W.3d 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prichard-v-state-texcrimapp-2017.