Priego v. State

658 S.W.2d 655, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4886
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 17, 1983
Docket08-81-00108-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 658 S.W.2d 655 (Priego 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
Priego v. State, 658 S.W.2d 655, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4886 (Tex. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

OPINION

WARD, Justice.

This is an appeal from a two-count conviction for injury to a child. On motion by the defense, a four-count indictment and an eleven-count indictment were consolidated for trial. Since the constituent counts of each indictment reflected alternative theories of the offense, only one conviction could obtain under each indictment. The various indictment counts and resulting charge counts are outlined on the accompanying chart. The jury convicted Appellant of Count 3 under Indictment 34980 (a third degree felony) and Count 2 of the charge relating to Indictment 34981 (also a third degree felony). The jury assessed punishment at three years confinement on each count. We reverse and remand as to In[657]*657dictment No. 34981. We affirm the conviction in Indictment No. 34980.

Indictment 34980 dealt with burns received by the Appellant’s daughter, Angelica Priego, by immersion in scalding water on September 6, 1979. The indictment alleged two counts of causation by act and by omitting a parental duty to obtain prompt medical attention. Indictment 34981 com cerned the ultimate death of the child on June 23, 1980. Eleven alternative counts presented various combinations of mental culpability, degree of injury and nature of breach of parental duty.

Ground of Error No. One alleges that all of the indictment counts alleging omission of parental duty should have been quashed in response to pretrial defense motion. The alleged deficiency is the failure of those counts to specifically state that Appellant was the parent of the victim. Ronk v. State, 544 S.W.2d 123 (Tex.Cr.App.1976), is the only applicable case law and does not address this error directly. Ronk. states that successful prosecution under the omission provisions of Penal Code sec. 22.04 (Injury to a Child) necessitates a statutory duty on the part of a defendant to act. Such a duty does rest with a parent under Family Code secs. 11.01 and 12.04 (Vernon 1975). See also Penal Code sec. 6.01. The duty only exists between the parent and his or her child. The indictment counts consistently identify the victim as Angelica Priego, a child fourteen years of age or younger, and allege that Appellant Virginia Priego omitted provision of prompt medical treatment at a time when she was “a parent and had the legal duty to provide the said ANGELICA PRIEGO” with such care. Appellant contends that under this indictment, failing to expressly state a parental relationship to this victim, parenthood alone would permit conviction regardless of the relationship to the victim. The critical pleading requirement in omission cases is the identification of the nature of the duty the State is relying upon to sustain criminal liability. The indictment here satisfies that requirement. By Appellant’s own analysis, the only parental duty existing under our laws is that between a parent and that parent’s child. The indictment would have been sufficient if it had alleged the omission and expressly stated that Appellant was the parent of this child. Instead, it alleged omission, parenthood and duty to this child. Reasonably read as a whole, parenthood and duty to the particular child is equivalent to saying parent of that child. The ground of error is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Two is without merit. It alleges insufficient descriptive averments of the injuries sustained by the child. The degree of injury is sufficiently identified to define the categories of offense and ranges of punishment. The injuries themselves are not acts of the Appellant requiring greater specificity of pleading. Gorman v. State, 634 S.W.2d 681 (Tex.Cr.App.1982); Thomas v. State, 621 S.W.2d 158 (Tex.Cr.App.1981); Ferguson v. State, 622 S.W.2d 846 (Tex.Cr.App.1981); Townsley v. State, 538 S.W.2d 411 (Tex.Cr.App.1976); Neal v. State, 384 S.W.2d 715 (Tex.Cr.App.1964). Bodily injury and serious bodily injury are statutorily defined in Penal Code sec. 1.07(a)(7) and (34). Disfigurement and serious physical deficiency or impairment are readily susceptible to lay definition. Ground of Error No. Two is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Three challenges Counts 2, 3, 5 and 7 of Indictment 34981 (Counts 2 and 3 of the charge pertaining to that cause) for failure to plead the acts relied upon by the State as constituting recklessness or criminal negligence. Tex.Code Crim.Pro.Ann. art. 21.15. The contention is without merit. Each count indicates that Appellant omitted her parental duty to immediately seek or attempt to obtain proper medical treatment “after finding the said ANGELICA PRIEGO in need of immediate medical care.” Further pleading as to how she became aware of the need or the seriousness of the need would be evidentiary pleading beyond the requirements of Article' 21.15. The pleading is consistent with the constituent elements of recklessness and criminal negligence as set [658]*658out in Penal Code sec. 6.03(c) and (d). Ground of Error No. Three is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Four is groundless. Counts 2 and 3 of Indictment 34981 were joined disjunctively in a single count of the charge. They differed only in the alleged level of mental culpability. Under Penal Code sec. 22.04, they both carry the same categorization as third-degree felonies, with the same range of punishment. The disjunctive submission permits only one conviction. The procedure was proper. Cowan v. State, 562 S.W.2d 236 (Tex.Cr.App.1978); Brantley v. State, 522 S.W.2d 519 (Tex.Cr.App.1975). Ground of Error No. Four is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Five alleges error in failure to instruct the jury as to the time of death presumption under Article 38.32 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The proper predicate of entry by the attending physician was not laid. The requested instruction was improperly phrased as a binding presumption. See Tex.Penal Code sec. 2.05(2). This was not a defensive issue necessary for submission since the time of death, as established in the death certificate, was at best a neutral fact in assessing Appellant’s breach of duty. Ground of Error No. Five is overruled.

Ground of Error No. Six is sustained under Cumbie v. State, 578 S.W.2d 732 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). Count 2 of the charge relating to Indictment 34981 improperly expanded Appellant’s liability beyond the pleadings. The indictment counts alleged that she omitted to immediately seek or attempt to obtain proper medical treatment. The charge held her liable for omitting to promptly obtain medical treatment. The difference is between effort and results. Immediate effort on her part would relieve her of liability under the indictment, but failure to obtain prompt results despite effort would still result in liability under the charge. The ground of error is sustained.

Ground of Error No.

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Priego v. State
658 S.W.2d 655 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1983)

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658 S.W.2d 655, 1983 Tex. App. LEXIS 4886, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/priego-v-state-texapp-1983.