Smith v. State

238 S.W.3d 512, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 9961, 2007 WL 2897932
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided September 28, 2007·No. 01-05-00444-CR·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

OPINION

ELSA ALCALA, Justice.

Appellant, Schuyler Davis Smith, appeals from a judgment convicting him of the first-degree felony of aggravated sexual assault of a child. See Tex. Pen.Code Ann. § 22.021(a)(2)(b) (Vernon Supp.2006). Appellant pleaded guilty to the court without a plea agreement with the State. After an evidentiary hearing, the court sentenced appellant to 40 years’ confinement in prison. In two issues, appellant contends that he is entitled to a new sentencing hearing because the trial court abused its discretion by (1) admitting the clinical records of appellant’s minor daughter who was not the victim of the offense and was not named in the indictment and (2) admitting hearsay evidence suggesting that appellant put sleeping medicine in complainant’s chocolate milk on the evening of the offense. We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the clinical records of appellant’s daughter. We also conclude appellant was not harmed by admission of the hearsay statement because the same or similar evidence was admitted without objection. We affirm.

Background

On March 26, 2004, appellant’s two daughters, T.S. and D.S., had two friends, V.B. and A.M., spend the night. During the night, V.B., who was 18 years old at the time, awoke to find appellant kneeling at her feet, sexually assaulting her. The next morning, V.B., who was upset, told Tracy Smith that she needed to go home. Tracy was appellant’s wife and T.S. and D.S.’s mother. A few days later, V.B. reported the incident to her school counselor, who called V.B.’s mother to request a meeting. Before the meeting occurred, however, V.B.’s mother became aware of the sexual assault through a phone call from a relative. The relative told V.B.’s mother that V.B. had told an aunt over the telephone about the assault. The next day, the school counselor told V.B.’s mother about the incident. The school counsel- or also reported the offense to the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (TDPRS).

A TDPRS caseworker interviewed V.B. V.B. reported that after she had fallen asleep, she felt something hurt her. V.B. described the assault by relating that appellant penetrated her female sexual organ with his male sexual organ after he moved her shorts and panties to the side. The medical examination of V.B. revealed trauma “consistent with type(s) of acts described or time lapse since the last incident of abuse.”

*514 A.M., another child present that night, also reported inappropriate conduct by appellant. She was interviewed by Detective Wright of the Alvin Police Department and a TDPRS caseworker. A.M. reported that appellant came into the bedroom where she was sleeping. Appellant tried to get her to roll over onto her stomach by telling her that he had a magic finger. When A.M. refused to roll over, appellant kissed her on the cheek and told her to keep it a secret. Appellant then returned several times throughout the night to kiss her. In the interviews of T.S. and D.S., they each denied that appellant ever touched them inappropriately.

On two occasions, Detective Wright went to appellant’s house to speak with him about the complaints against him. During the first visit, appellant denied the offense. On the second visit, appellant was evasive, refusing to answer direct questions. Appellant asked if there was any medical evidence to support the accusation. Believing that discussing the case with appellant at his house was not productive, Detective Wright asked him to call her to arrange a time to come to her office to speak to her, but appellant never called.

Although he denied the offense during the police interview, appellant “broke down and confessed” to his wife, admitting that he touched V.B.’s “private parts.” Appellant claimed, however, that he only used his hand to touch V.B. He also admitted to “scaring” A.M., touching M.B., a six-year old girl, and touching C.N., a nine-year old girl. Appellant said that he never touched T.S. or D.S. Tracy reported appellant’s statements to authorities, who charged appellant with the aggravated sexual assault of V.B.

Several months later, Tracy became concerned over the subject lines in some emails on the computer appellant used. She turned the computer over to Detective Wright. An examination by the Alvin Police Department’s computer forensics detective revealed that of the over 25,000 images on the hard drive, he found “seven images that [he] believed to be underaged or child pornography.” In addition, he found on the hard drive five common terms used on the internet to search for or describe child pornography, many of which were associated with a user name that corresponded to appellant. The detective also found 600 other files that he marked “of interest” because they were pornographic.

Appellant pleaded guilty without any agreement with the State regarding punishment. V.B., Tracy, and Detective Wright were among the witnesses who testified at the punishment hearing. The State offered State’s Exhibit 3, the offense report, into evidence at the beginning of the hearing. Defense counsel affirmatively stated, “No objections, your honor.” The State also offered clinical records of T.S.’s counseling as State’s Exhibit 4. Appellant objected that the records were not relevant because victim impact evidence from T.S. was inadmissible since T.S. was not the victim named in the indictment and there was “no credible evidence that an offense had been committed against [T.S.].” The State responded that the records were admissible as extraneous offense evidence because “[T.S.] has been a victim of [appellant].” The trial court overruled appellant’s objection.

Appellant offered into evidence Defense Exhibit 1, which was a report done at his request by a certified sex therapist. The report stated that, although appellant admitted his conduct, he “does not fully understand the dynamics involved in his offenses.” The therapist opined that appellant may be “less likely to control his impulses.” The report also states that some factors that might indi *515 cate appellant’s risk of re-offending were his “minimization of all personal responsibility for the offense” and his “limited to little remorse or empathy expressed for his victim.”

Victim Impact Evidence

In his first issue, appellant contends that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting into evidence the psychiatric and psychological records of appellant’s daughter, T.S., who was not named in the indictment. Appellant does not identify any particular statements made by T.S.

At a sentencing hearing, “evidence may be offered by the [S]tate and the defendant as to any matter the court deems relevant,” including extraneous offense evidence. Tex.Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 37.07, § 3(a)(1) (Vernon 2006). Extraneous offenses admitted at sentencing may be unadjudicated offenses. See id.

The records introduced by the State contain evidence of extraneous offenses committed against T.S. More specifically, T.S. said that appellant “pushed her hard and made her hit her head.” T.S. also said that appellant was “mean” and “push[ed] her into a wall.” T.S. described these events as “abuse” by appellant. The records also show that “[D.S.] said that ...

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Smith v. State, 238 S.W.3d 512, 2007 Tex. App. LEXIS 9961, 2007 WL 2897932 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

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