State v. McKnight

217 S.W.3d 596, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 8923, 2006 WL 2955324
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 18, 2006
Docket04-05-00295-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 217 S.W.3d 596 (State v. McKnight) 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
State v. McKnight, 217 S.W.3d 596, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 8923, 2006 WL 2955324 (Tex. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinions

OPINION

Opinion by

ALMA L. LÓPEZ, Chief Justice.

The State of Texas appeals the trial court’s order granting Albert McKnight’s motion for new trial. The trial court granted the motion for new trial based on alleged charge error concerning the lesser included offense of disorderly conduct. The State contends that the trial court erred in granting the motion for new trial because McKnight did not show he was egregiously harmed by the charge error. McKnight asserts a cross-point contending that the trial court erred in submitting disorderly conduct as a lesser included offense of indecent exposure. We affirm the trial court’s order.

BACKGROUND

McKnight was charged with indecent exposure after an undercover park ranger, Officer Gabriel Escobedo, arrested him for exposing his penis to him in the woods at Brackenridge Park.

The jury charge submitted both the indecent exposure charge and a lesser included offense of disorderly conduct. The relevant portion of the charge relating to disorderly conduct reads as follows:

If you find the defendant Not Guilty of the offense [of] Indecent Exposure, read and consider the following regarding the lesser included offense of Disorderly Conduct:
Our law provides that a person commits an offense if he exposes any part of his genitals and he is reckless about whether another person is present who will be offended or alarmed by his act.
To warrant a conviction of the defendant in this case, you must find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that:
1) the defendant, Albert McKnight, did expose any part of his genitals;
2) at the time defendant exposed his sexual organ, if he did, Gabriel Esco-bedo, was in plain view of the defendant, and within such distance as to be able to see whether the Defendant [italics is handwritten insert] did expose any part of defendant’s genitals; and
3) such exposure of any part of defendant’s genitals by defendant to Gabriel Escobedo, if any, under any circumstances, was conduct that was reckless about whether another is [sic] present who would be offended or alarmed by defendant’s alleged act.
If you have a reasonable doubt as to whether any one or more of the foregoing matters have been established by the evidence, you cannot convict the defendant of the lesser included offense of Disorderly Conduct.
Now, if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about November 29, 2003, in Bexar County, Texas, the defendant, Albert W. McKnight, did intentionally or knowingly expose any part of his genitals to [599]*599Gabriel Escobedo, while the said Gabriel Escobedo was present and in plain view of the defendant and within such distance of the defendant as to be able to then and there see any part of the defendant’s genitals, and if you further find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant’s act of exposing any part of his genitals, if he did, in Gabriel Escobedo’s presence and in plain view of Gabriel Escobedo, and within such distance as that Gabriel Es-cobedo was then and there able to see any part of his [sic] defendant’s genitals, was conduct that established that defendant was reckless about whether another person was present who would be offended or alarmed by said act of exposure, then you will find the defendant guilty of the lesser included offense of Disorderly Conduct.

The jury convicted McKnight of disorderly conduct. McKnight filed a motion for new trial asserting that the jury had been misdirected about the law because: (1) the charge omitted the “public place” element with regard to the disorderly conduct offense; (2) the charge contained the phrase “any part of his genitals” as opposed to the term “genitals” in the disorderly conduct charge; and (3) disorderly conduct is not a lesser included offense of indecent exposure and no evidence was presented to establish that McKnight was guilty only of disorderly conduct. The trial court granted the motion for new trial, handwriting the following as its reason on the typewritten order, “Due to error in the portion of [the] jury charge related to Class C lesser included offense of Disorderly Conduct.”

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The State concedes that the trial court erroneously omitted the “public place” element of the disorderly conduct offense in the jury charge, thereby misdirecting the jury about the law. See Tex. R.App. P. 21.8(b) (providing that defendant must be granted a new trial when the court has misdirected the jury about the law). Both the State and McKnight contend that this court must determine whether the trial court acted within its discretion in granting the new trial by determining whether the erroneous jury charge resulted in harm under the standards set forth in Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157, 171 (Tex.Crim.App.1984). We disagree that the trial court’s discretion to grant a new trial in a case is governed by Almanza.

An appellate court reviews a trial court’s ruling on a motion for new trial under an abuse of discretion standard. Charles v. State, 146 S.W.3d 204, 208 (Tex.Crim.App.2004). We do not substitute our judgment for that of the trial court, but rather we decide whether the trial court’s decision was arbitrary or unreasonable. Id. A trial court abuses its discretion when no reasonable view of the record could support the trial court’s ruling. Id.

In State v. Belcher, 183 S.W.3d 443, 447 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2005, no pet.), the appellate court posed the following question, “For the trial court to have properly granted Belcher’s motion for new trial, did Belcher have to show properly preserved error that would have entitled him to reversal on appeal from his conviction had the trial court not granted a new trial?” The court noted the State’s argument that the trial court erred in granting a new trial because Belcher did not show properly preserved, reversible error. Id. The court then noted:

None of the cases cited by the State hold that a trial court may grant a new trial only after the movant shows error that would require reversal upon appeal from the conviction in question. The [600]*600State’s argument misses the mark by equating the standard of review on direct appeal from a conviction with the trial court’s exercise of discretion in determining whether to grant a motion for new trial.

Id. at 448.

Similarly, in State v. Trevino, 930 S.W.2d 713, 716 (Tex.App.-Corpus Christi 1996, pet. ref'd), the State argued that the trial court abused its discretion in granting a new trial “because appellee waived any error by fading to timely object or request an accomplice witness instruction, and the omission of the instruction did not cause him to suffer egregious harm.” The appellate court rejected this standard asserting, “We believe that when a trial judge determines that justice has not been done, he has not only the power but also the obligation to order a new trial.”

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Related

State v. Gilbert Sanchez
393 S.W.3d 798 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)
State v. McKnight
213 S.W.3d 915 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
State v. McKnight
217 S.W.3d 596 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
217 S.W.3d 596, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 8923, 2006 WL 2955324, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mcknight-texapp-2006.