Tadlock v. State

484 S.W.3d 560, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 775, 2016 WL 323554
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 27, 2016
DocketNo. 06-15-00049-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 484 S.W.3d 560 (Tadlock 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
Tadlock v. State, 484 S.W.3d 560, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 775, 2016 WL 323554 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Memorandum Opinion by

Justice Burgess

Kelly Ray Tadlock (Tadlock) was originally charged pursuant to two separate indictments, both alleging the 'offense of indecency with a child by contact. The first indictment charged Tadlock with the offense against a six-year-old female, whom we will call A.J,1 The second indictment charged him with the same offense against AJ.’s older sister, whom we will call S.J.2 See Tex.R.Aep. P.- 9.10. After a bench trial, the trial court convicted Tad-lock of the offense against-A. J. only and sentenced him to twenty years’ imprisonment..

On appeal, Tadlock contends (1) that there was insufficient evidence to prove the charged offensés and (2) that the trial court erred when it did not sua sponte conduct a competency hearing. For the reasons stated below, we overrule Tad-lock’s points of error and affirm the trial court’s judgment.

I. The Evidence Was Legally Sufficient to Support the Trial Court’s Finding of Guilt

A. Evidence

1. Relationship of the Parties and the Outcry Statements

Katherine Yates3 is A.J. and S.J.’s mother. At trial, Yates- testified that prior to the incident at issue, she considered Tadlock as “basically being family.” A.J. and S.J. referred to Tadlock as their uncle, or “Uncle Kelly.” Yates described Tad-lock’s relationship with A.J. and S.J. as being very close. While Yates’ husband, John Yates (John) was away,4 Tadlock would occasionally watch the girls. When Tadlock came to Yates’ home for dinner, he would usually spend the night.

[562]*562On July 15, 2014, the night of the alleged incident, Tadlock spent the night at Yates’ home. The next day, Yates, along with A.J. and S.J., took Tadlock back to his apartment. When they arrived back at their house about three o’clock in the afternoon, A.J. and S.J. told Yates that “Uncle Kelly was talking about sex with them.” Yates asked the girls the context in which Tadlock had talked to them about sex. S.J. responded, “He was talking about you and Daddy and him and Aunt Kay.”5 A.J. told Yates that Tadlock “had touched her on her vagina[6] and made her touch him on his penis.” A.J. also told Yates that the “touching” was “over the clothes” and that she had tried to “get away.” Yates testified that, according to A.J., Tadlock told her not to tell anyone that he had touched her, because if she did, “they [would] call the cops on him.”

S.J. told Yates that Tadlock had also touched her over her clothes and made her touch him. Yates testified that when S.J. described Tadlock’s behavior toward her, A.J. stated, “[T]hat didn’t happen.” S.J. responded that it was “not the first time it [had] happened to her.” When Yates asked S.J. when it had happened before, she told Yates that it had happened a month ago at Yates’ home.

2. Response to the Outcry Statements and Law Enforcement Involvement

After talking to the girls, Yates telephoned her mother, Cindy, for advice on how to proceed. Cindy asked Yates to come to her house so they could discuss the situation. Before leaving to go to Cindy’s residence, Yates called Tadlock and asked him “why [she] was ... being told that he had touched [the girls].” Tadlock immediately told her that he had not done anything to the girls.

Shortly after speaking to Tadlock on the telephone, Yates went to his apartment to retrieve some dishes and return a blanket. Yates testified ■ that when she arrived at Tadlock’s apartment, she and Tadlock had a brief discussion as they exchanged the blanket and dishes through the door. During this brief encounter, Tadlock told Yates that he had only talked to the girls about marriage. Yates responded that she was “not going to ignore [her] children.” Tadlock then asked Yates if she was going to call the police. Yates responded that she was not sure if she would or not and that she was not sure if her mother would contact them or not. A.J. and S.J. remained in Yates’ vehicle during the exchange.

Yates eventually took A.J. and S.J. over to Cindy’s home to discuss the situation. A.J. and S.J. told Cindy and Charles, Cindy’s husband, what Tadlock had done to them. Cindy contacted law enforcement.

At approximately ten o’clock that evening, Sulphur Springs Police Officer Jason Reneau received a call from dispatch about a possible sexual assault of a child. After arriving at Charles and Cindy’s home, Yates informed Reneau that the alleged offenses occurred while she was at work.7 Cindy spoke with Reneau briefly and told him that Tadlock had some mental issues. Reneau did not take statements from A.J. and S.J. because department policy prohibits officers from speaking to juveniles in instances where they have made an outcry statement alleging sexual abuse. Follow[563]*563ing his brief investigation, Reneau informed Yates that he would forward the case to an investigator.

3. Trial Testimony

a.Neighbor Angela Reynolds

Angela Reynolds, who lived across the street from Yates, A.J., and S.J., testified that sometime during July 2014, she was outside and heard Tadlock tell the girls to get out of the swimming pool. The children did as they were told and went inside the house. Reynolds also went inside her house. Later, she went back outside and saw A.J. come outside of her house with “this God-awful look on her face.” Reynolds stated that when she saw A.J., she got “an eerie feeling.” Reynolds testified that she knew something had happened, but that she was not sure exactly what had happened until Yates told her the next day. Reynolds also stated that A.J. spoke with Reynolds’ eleven-year-old daughter about what had.happened with Tadlock.

b.SJ.’s Testimony

At trial, S.J., the oldest sister, testified first. After demonstrating that she knew the relevant parts of a female’s anatomy by circling parts of a female’s body drawn on a diagram, S.J. was asked if she was mad at Tadlock. S.J. answered, “Not anymore.” She then stated that she did not remember why she was mad at him. When asked if Tadlock had touched her in places he should not have, S.J. nodded affirmatively, but she did not remember precisely where he had touched her. After failing to respond to several more questions, the trial court recessed the proceedings for ten minutes.

When court reconvened, SJ.’s counselor was allowed to sit next to-her during her testimony/ The State continued by asking S.J. whether anyone had touched her on the areas circled on a diagram of a female body, and S.J. answered, “[Y]es,” but she then said that she did not remember who had touched her. After several more questions, the State asked' S.J. if she remembered whether a man or a woman had touched her. S.J. stated that she did not remember. Finally, the State asked S.J, “Did [Tadlock] ever touch you in your tee-tee?” ■ S.J. responded that she did not remember.

After several more questions, S.J. nodded affirmatively in response to the State’s questions indicating that Tadlock had touched her where “he wasn’t supposed to” and that it was “somewhere where [she goes] to the bathroom.” S.J. then testified that Tadlock told her not to tell anybody. S.J. testified that she did not know what he touched her with.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
484 S.W.3d 560, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 775, 2016 WL 323554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tadlock-v-state-texapp-2016.