Salazar v. State

31 S.W.3d 726, 2000 WL 1520832
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 22, 2000
Docket13-99-656-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 31 S.W.3d 726 (Salazar 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
Salazar v. State, 31 S.W.3d 726, 2000 WL 1520832 (Tex. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION ON MOTION FOR REHEARING

Opinion by Justice CHAVEZ.

Appellant Albert Salazar was indicted for molesting the six-year-old brother and seven-year-old sister of a high school student whom he visited about once a week to give saxophone lessons. He was found guilty of two counts of indecency with a child, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, and one count of attempted aggravated sexual assault. 1

This 'Court previously held that appellant was not properly admonished as required by Boykin v. Alabama, 395 U.S. 238, 89 S.Ct. 1709, 23 L.Ed.2d 274 (1969), when he pleaded guilty to the two indecency with a child allegations, and one of the aggravated sexual assault allegations. We further held that appellant was improperly convicted on the other aggravated sexual assault allegation because there was insufficient proof to corroborate appellant’s extra-judicial confession. Appellant did not contest the attempted aggravated sexual assault conviction. The State has now filed a motion for rehearing.

We grant the motion for rehearing, withdraw the opinion heretofore entered, and substitute this opinion in its place. We affirm in part and reverse and render in part.

When the trial started, appellant pled guilty to three of the five charges. The court continued with a trial on the merits on the two charges to which appellant pleaded not guilty without making any *728 admonishments to him of his right against compulsory self-incrimination, his right to trial by jury, and his right to confront his accusers when he made his guilty pleas. He argues that before the trial court submitted the three guilty pleas to the jury, it was required to admonish him about the consequences of his three guilty pleas and elicited a showing that he intelligently and knowingly waived his right against compulsory self-incrimination, his right to trial by jury, and his right to confront his accusers.

A defendant who enters a plea of guilty simultaneously waives several constitutional rights, including his right against compulsory self-incrimination, his right to trial by jury, and his confrontation right. See Boykin, 395 U.S. at 243 n. 5, 89 S.Ct. 1709. For such a plea to be valid under the due process clause, it must be an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege. See id. A waiver of these rights cannot be presumed from a silent record; the record must affirmatively show that appellant’s plea was voluntary and understandingly entered. See id.

Appellant points out that the right exercised by appellant to be sentenced by a jury is provided only by the code of criminal procedure, and not by the Texas or federal constitutions. The federal constitutional right to trial by jury does not include the right to have a jury at the punishment phase of trial. Parrish v. Beto, 414 F.2d 770 (5th Cir.1969); Ex parte Marshall, 72 Tex.Crim. 83, 161 S.W. 112, 113 (1913). In Texas, there is both a constitutional right to a jury trial and a statutory right to a jury trial. Tex. Const. art. I, § 10 (Vernon 1997); Tex.Code CRIm.PROc.Ann. arts. 1.12, 1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 37.07 (Vernon 1977 & Supp.2000). However, the Texas Constitutional right to a jury trial does not include the right to have the jury assess punishment. Ex parte Moser, 602 S.W.2d 530, 533 (Tex.Crim.App.1980); Bullard v. State, 548 S.W.2d 13, 16 (Tex.Crim.App.1977); Ex parte Marshall, 161 S.W. at 113. The statutory right does include the right to have the jury assess punishment. See Tex.Code Crim.PROc.Ann. arts. 1.12, 1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 37.07 (Vernon 1977 & Supp.2000). Appellant was therefore exercising his statutory right to assessment of punishment by a jury.

Appellant argues that he was exercising his statutory right to have punishment assessed by a jury, that he waived his federal and state constitutional rights to a jury trial, and that therefore he should have been admonished of his rights as required by Boykin. This argument conflicts with the law explained in Williams v. State, 2 and followed by this Court in Garcia v. State, 877 S.W.2d 809, 812 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1994, pet. ref'd).

The jury assessed punishment after appellant pleaded guilty and after he was tried on the charges to which he did not plead guilty. The State cites Garcia to support its case that because appellant’s plea was before a jury, appellant received a jury trial, and therefore the requirements of Boykin v. Alabama were unnecessary. In Garcia, a trial court did not admonish an appellant of his right against compulsory self-incrimination, his right to trial by jury, and his confrontation right. Garcia, 877 S.W.2d at 812. This Court stated, “Any plea before a jury has always been considered a jury trial” and upheld the judgment of the trial court. Id.

Appellant argues that only pleas in capital cases before a jury constitute jury trials, that Garcia (a non-capital case) relied on a case that dealt only with capital cases, and therefore we should overrule this Court’s decision in Garcia and reverse the judgement of the trial court. See Williams, 674 S.W.2d at 318. In Williams, a defendant was not admonished of his right against compulsory self-incrimination, his right to trial by jury, and his confrontation right when he pleaded guilty *729 to capital murder and the jury assessed his punishment. Id. at 319-20. Appellant points out that the court of criminal appeals stated in Williams that “a plea of guilty before a jury in a capital case constitutes a trial by jury.” Id. at 319. However the Williams opinion also explains, “Clearly any plea before a jury has always been considered a jury trial.” Id. at 318. The discussion in Williams regarded the statutory right to a jury trial, and here, as in Williams, appellant exercised his statutory right to a jury trial.

Appellant points out that unlike non-capital cases and federal capital cases, in state capital cases only a jury may assess the death penalty. TexCode CrimProC. Ann. arts. 1.13, 1.14 (Vernon Supp.2000). But this does not mean there should be a difference in the proceedings for entering a plea in capital cases and non-capital cases. Williams provides some history of the right in Texas to plead guilty before a jury.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
31 S.W.3d 726, 2000 WL 1520832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salazar-v-state-texapp-2000.