Rhea v. State

181 S.W.3d 478, 2005 WL 3028917
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 1, 2006
Docket06-05-00007-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 181 S.W.3d 478 (Rhea 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
Rhea v. State, 181 S.W.3d 478, 2005 WL 3028917 (Tex. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice CARTER.

In what seemed to be a sudden change of strategy, Johnny Lee Rhea pled guilty to two charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child and to two charges of indecency with a child. A Liberty County jury assessed punishment of thirty-five years for each aggravated sexual assault conviction and twenty years for each indecency with a child conviction. 1 The trial court ordered that the sentences run concurrently. Rhea now appeals, contending the trial court committed reversible error by failing to admonish him in accordance with Tex.Code Ceim. PROC. Ann. art. 26.13. We affirm the conviction.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Initially, Rhea insisted on pleading not guilty to the four counts alleging sexual abuse of his stepdaughter. During voir dire, the trial court excused the jury panel and allowed Rhea to consider, and ultimately reject, the State’s final negotiated plea offer. In fact, he persisted in his plea of not guilty until after a jury was empaneled. Following Rhea’s rejection of the State’s final offer, defense counsel requested permission to make a record of his and Rhea’s conversation. In the following lengthy exchange, defense counsel confirmed he and Rhea had discussed the range of punishment to which he was subject, Rhea’s plea options, the sex offender registration requirement, and the limitations on his right to appeal connected with a plea of guilty:

[Defense counsel]: Mr. Rhea, you and I have just momentarily talked. We’ve had a chance to see a portion of the panel members’ answers to the prosecutor’s questions, particularly in light of *481 how they feel about punishment on child abuse cases. You have filed a motion for probation in this case, and I know that you are hoping to get probation, but it will be totally up to the jury.
[Rhea]: I understand.
[Defense counsel]: Do you understand that?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir, I do.
[Defense counsel]: The prosecutor has reopened the offer of 40 years. I have indicated to you my concerns that the possibility of probation is very, very slight, you know, once all of the evidence is out.
[Rhea]: Uh-huh.
[Defense counsel]: Now, whether I can sway a jury to that point or whether I can sway them something under 40 years, only time can tell. Do you understand that?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir, I do.
[Defense counsel]: If after everything I’ve put into it does not work, the jury can come back with 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years, 99 or life, and at that point there’s no hiring King’s X, I want to do the 40. There’s no way.
[Rhea]: I understand that.
[Defense counsel]: Now, you and I have been working on our trial’s strategy over these last few months, correct?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir.
[Defense counsel]: Now, do you understand that you have a right to plead not guilty and have the prosecutor pull all its witnesses in and make them testify and confront them and cross — examine them and see if I can persuade the jury that you did not in fact do what you’re accused of. You understand?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir.
[Defense counsel]: Okay. And if you enter a plea of guilt before the jury and the State presents just a teeny tiny bit of evidence that supports that plea, the Judge has no choice but to instruct the jury that they must find you guilty. Do you understand that?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir, I do.
[Defense counsel]: Okay. You do understand if a Judge instructs the jury to find you guilty, the jury has no choice but to find you guilty. Okay?
[Rhea]: Yes.
[Defense counsel]: Okay. All right. You understand you have a right not to have to testify. You know, you don’t have to get up there on the witness stand if you don’t want to. Nobody can force you. And if you do not take the stand, the Judge must tell the jury you are not to take that as any evidence of guilt. You understand?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir, I do.
[Defense counsel]: Okay. Now, if you were to take it and enter a plea of guilty to the jury and the State presents just a little bit of evidence to support that-that plea, do you understand that from a real practical standpoint there would be no way an appeal will change the issue of whether or not you are guilty? If you enter a plea, we go forward, the State presents some sort of evidence to support that plea, the jury finds you guilty and assesses some punishment, that as far as the issue of whether you are guilty or not guilty from a real practical standpoint, there will be virtually no grounds for appeal. And there might be some technical things to play with, but from a realistic aspect. Do you understand?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir, I do.
[Defense counsel]: Now, if you go that way and the jury decides they want to go 99 years or life, then the only thing that an appeal could be based on is if the Judge did something wrong in allowing *482 some evidence in or keeping some evidence out that should have been brought in; otherwise, you’re just stuck with whatever happens. Do you understand?
[Rhea]: Yes, sir, I do.
[Defense counsel]: Okay. Now, you and I have talked and I’ve recommended to you that you enter a plea of guilty based on my assessment of the facts, what you’ve described to me in our private conversations, and that is also based on the trial tactic that if you come clean to the jury and the jury can sufficiently see remorse that the punishment might — and I say “might” — be lighter than what they would give someone who they think is trying to deny everything and not trying to change. And I think we heard one or two of the panel members talk about somebody that has changed, you know, if they’ve changed then their views would be different. However, this is just my recommendation and it’s got to be your final choice because this is your life that we’re dealing with. I have no crystal ball.
[Rhea]: Okay. So I can plead not guilty or guilty.
[Defense counsel]: You have a decision to plead either not guilty or guilty, to take the stand or not take the stand.
THE COURT: Or no contest.
[Defense counsel]: You do have the right to plead no contest if you choose to do that.
[Rhea]: I don’t understand no contest.

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Bluebook (online)
181 S.W.3d 478, 2005 WL 3028917, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rhea-v-state-texapp-2006.