Steven Wayne Cooper A/K/A Steve Cooper v. State

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 30, 2010
Docket02-08-00136-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Steven Wayne Cooper A/K/A Steve Cooper v. State (Steven Wayne Cooper A/K/A Steve Cooper 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
Steven Wayne Cooper A/K/A Steve Cooper v. State, (Tex. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

02-08-136-CR

COURT OF APPEALS

SECOND DISTRICT OF TEXAS

FORT WORTH

NO. 02-08-00136-CR

STEVEN WAYNE  COOPER A/K/A STEVE COOPER

APPELLANT

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

STATE

------------

FROM THE 355TH DISTRICT COURT OF HOOD COUNTY

OPINION

I.  Introduction

In three issues, Appellant Steven Wayne Cooper a/k/a Steve Cooper appeals his convictions and sentences for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault.  We affirm.         

II.  Factual and Procedural History

A.  Factual Background

          On June 14, 2007, Evelyn Cooper went to the Hood County Sheriff’s Office to report threats Cooper had made to her the night before.  Hood County Captain Clint Pullin took her report and advised her to seek a protective order.  Cooper was waiting for Evelyn when she came home.

          The next day, Nancy and Ronald Lock encountered Evelyn and Cooper at a convenience store.  Evelyn was bloody and severely beaten up, she was crying blood, and “[h]er whole face was black and blue.”  Ronald did not recognize her at first, although he had known Evelyn most of his life.  Photographs of Evelyn’s injuries were admitted and published to the jury.  She suffered fractures of her facial bones and both of her eyes were blackened.

Evelyn told Nancy that Cooper was inside the house when she came home and that he told her she was going to die and that he knew from watching forensic television shows how to get away with it.  Ronald said that Evelyn told them that Cooper tied her to a chair, beat on her with a pipe, hit her in the face and ribs, and only untied her because he had run out of beer and needed to go to the convenience store.

Evelyn stated that she could not swear that Cooper hit her with a pipe, but he did hit her in the face with his fist and tie her up with electrical wire and duct tape, and he told her that she was going to be with her mother, who had passed away two years before.  She testified that Cooper had a drinking problem and would sometimes become abusive, although he never hit her until June 2007.[1] Evelyn also testified that Cooper had some mental problems—he was bipolar and schizophrenic—and that, when he drank, the mental problems worsened.

          Ronald fought Cooper to keep him away from Evelyn.  After Ronald “took him down to the ground,” Cooper got up, got into his car, and took off.  Lieutenant Bill Haynes testified that authorities found Cooper’s abandoned vehicle and had to track Cooper with a police dog.  Cooper fought the deputies as they tried to take him into custody.  The deputies found a rifle in the back seat of Cooper’s vehicle during an inventory search.

B.  Procedural Background

          In September 2007, a grand jury returned an indictment on Cooper for the following alleged acts, occurring on or about June 15, 2007:

·        Count 1:  Intentionally or knowingly causing bodily injury to Evelyn Cooper by striking her in her stomach and left breast area while using or exhibiting a deadly weapon (metal pipe);

·        Count 2:  Intentionally or knowingly causing serious bodily injury to Evelyn Cooper by repeatedly striking her in the face and head with his fists.

·        Count 3:  Intentionally or knowingly possessing a firearm after he had been convicted of felony DWI on April 1, 2004;

·        Count 4:  Intentionally fleeing, using a vehicle, from James Cromwell, a peace officer who was attempting to lawfully arrest or detain him.

The indictment also included one enhancement paragraph (an August 10, 2004 felony DWI conviction) and three habitual offender counts:  a February 10, 1995 felony criminal mischief conviction; a May 7, 1991 felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon conviction; and a May 24, 1991 felony bodily injury to a child conviction.  

          In October 2007, the trial court found Cooper incompetent and sent him to a state hospital to regain competency for trial.  Once returned to the trial court, Cooper pleaded guilty to counts 1 and 2, and the jury assessed sixty years’ confinement for count 1, after finding that a deadly weapon had been used, and twenty-five years’ confinement for count 2.  The trial court set the sentences to run concurrently.  

III.  Mental Competence

In his first two issues, Cooper argues that the trial court erred by accepting his guilty plea and by trying him without first determining that he was competent to stand trial.

A. 

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Bluebook (online)
Steven Wayne Cooper A/K/A Steve Cooper v. State, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steven-wayne-cooper-aka-steve-cooper-v-state-texapp-2010.