Rickerson v. State

138 S.W.3d 528, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 4884, 2004 WL 1193884
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 1, 2004
Docket14-03-00548-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 138 S.W.3d 528 (Rickerson 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
Rickerson v. State, 138 S.W.3d 528, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 4884, 2004 WL 1193884 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

WANDA McKEE FOWLER, Justice.

The jury convicted appellant of sexual assault and the trial court assessed punishment at fifty years’ confinement in the *530 Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division. Appellant contends (1) there was a material variance between the indictment and the proof at trial and (2) the trial court erred by admitting evidence of two extraneous sexual assaults. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On June 3, 2002, the complainant and her uncle went to a bar in College Station. The complainant met appellant at the bar. When the bar closed, a friend of appellant drove the complainant and her uncle from the bar to their motel. Appellant rode with them, and asked to be left at the motel. The complainant went to her room, while appellant helped her uncle to his room because he was heavily intoxicated.

The complainant left her room to go to the ice machine. Appellant met her there and asked her to go talk with him. When she refused, he dragged her to the back of the motel. She attempted to flee, but appellant threw her to the ground, got on top of her, and began removing her pants. When she started to scream, appellant choked her and rendered her unconscious by slamming her head against the concrete. When she awoke, appellant had finished removing her pants and underwear and was dragging her to a wooded area near the motel, where he sexually assaulted her.

ANALYSIS

I. Variance between the Indictment and the Proof at Trial.

In his first issue, appellant contends there was a material variance between the identification of the complainant in the indictment and the proof at trial. The indictment and jury charge both identified her as “Jane Doe 02-005831,” but at trial, she answered affirmatively when asked if she was “the Jane Doe who’s referred to in the indictment as ‘Jane Doe 02-005821.’” Appellant, appellant’s counsel, and the prosecutor othervrise referred to her by her legal name.

A variance between an indictment and the proof at trial will be fatal to a conviction only if it is material. Gollihar v. State, 46 S.W.3d 243, 257 (Tex.Crim.App.2001). A variance is material if it prejudices the defendant’s substantial rights. Id. at 247-48. A defendant’s substantial rights are prejudiced if (1) the indictment failed to inform the defendant of the charge against him sufficiently to allow him to prepare an adequate defense at trial or (2) the indictment would subject the defendant to the risk of being prosecuted later for the same crime. Id. at 248.

Appellant does not allege that the indictment failed to sufficiently inform him of the charge against him, and there is no indication in the record that appellant was misled by the indictment or surprised by the proof at trial. See id. at 258. Nor is appellant in danger of being prosecuted again for the same assault proved at trial; the entire record is examined for double jeopardy purposes, not just the indictment. See id. (citing United States v. Apodaca, 843 F.2d 421, 430 n. 3 (10th Cir.1988)); Ex parte Goodbread, 967 S.W.2d 859, 860 (Tex.Crim.App.1998). The record is quite clear that the person on trial for this offense was appellant. Because appellant’s substantial rights were not prejudiced, the variance was not material. We overrule appellant’s first point of error.

II. Evidence of Extraneous Offenses.

In his second and third issues, appellant contends the trial court erred by admitting evidence of two extraneous sexual assaults committed against girls under the age of *531 seventeen. 1 Appellant argues that the extraneous assaults were inadmissible because (1) the assaults lacked similarity to the charged offense,, and (2) the probative value of the assaults was outweighed by their prejudicial effect because the assaults involved children.

A. Rule 404(b).

First, appellant argues that the evidence of extraneous sexual assaults was inadmissible because the assaults lacked similarity to the charged offense. We will reverse a trial court’s decision to admit evidence of an extraneous offense only upon a clear abuse of discretion. See Santellan v. State, 939 S.W.2d 155, 169 (Tex.Crim.App.1997).

Evidence of an extraneous offense is admissible if it is relevant to show intent. Tex.R. Evm 404(b); Santellan, 939 S.W.2d at 168-69. Intent is contested when a defendant accused of sexual assault raises the defensive theory of consent. Webb v. State, 995 S.W.2d 295, 298 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Disk] 1999, pet. ref d). Because appellant raised the defensive theory of consent, the evidence of the extraneous offenses is admissible if it is relevant to show intent.

Relevance to show intent is derived from the “doctrine of chances.” Plante v. State, 692 S.W.2d 487, 491-92 (Tex.Crim.App.1985); Brown v. State, 96 S.W.3d 508, 512 (Tex.App.-Austin 2002, no pet.). As the Court of Criminal Appeals has explained:

Where the material issue addressed is the defendant’s intent to commit the offense charged, the relevancy of the extraneous offense derives purely from: the point of view of the doctrine of chances — the instinctive recognition of that logical process which eliminates the element of innocent intent by multiplying instances of the same result until it is perceived that this element [i.e. innocent intent] cannot explain them all....
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... It is not ... necessary to look for a general scheme or to discover a united system in all the acts; the attempt is merely to discover the intent accompanying the act in question; and the prior doing of other acts, whether clearly a part of a scheme or not, is useful as reducing the possibility that the act in question was done with innocent intent. The argument is based purely on the doctrine of chances, and it is the mere repetition of instances, and not their system or scheme, that satisfies our logical demand.
Yet, in order to satisfy this demand, it is at least necessary that prior acts should be similar.

Plante, 692 S.W.2d at 491-92 (quoting 2 John H. WigmoRE, Evidence § 302 (Chad-bourn rev.1979) (emphasis in original)). Although there must be a similarity between the charged offense and an extraneous offense, the similarity required is less than when identity is the issue.

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Bluebook (online)
138 S.W.3d 528, 2004 Tex. App. LEXIS 4884, 2004 WL 1193884, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rickerson-v-state-texapp-2004.