The State of Texas v. William Navarro

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided October 17, 2025·No. 03-23-00637-CR·Published

Opinion

TEXAS COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT, AT AUSTIN

NO. 03-23-00637-CR

The State of Texas, Appellant v.

William Navarro, Appellee

FROM THE 167TH DISTRICT COURT OF TRAVIS COUNTY NO. D-1-DC-15-302236, THE HONORABLE DAYNA BLAZEY, JUDGE PRESIDING

OPINION

Appellant William Navarro pleaded guilty to indecency with a child by sexual contact and, pursuant to a plea bargain, was placed on deferred-adjudication community supervision for a period of ten years. 1 See Tex. Penal Code § 21.11(a)(1). The State moved to revoke Navarro’s community supervision for alleged violations of its terms and conditions and to adjudicate his guilt for the indecency charge. After finding six of the alleged violations to be true, the trial court granted the motion, revoked Navarro’s community supervision, and adjudicated him guilty of the offense. The court sentenced him to ten years’ confinement but announced its intention to place him on “shock probation” 2 if it received a favorable report of his

1 Under Texas law, the terms “community supervision” and “probation” are used interchangeably. See Shortt v. State, 539 S.W.3d 321, 322 n.1 (Tex. Crim. App. 2018).

2 “Shock probation” refers to the practice of a trial court requiring a defendant to begin serving an imposed term of imprisonment but—before the expiration of 180 days—suspending

behavior while incarcerated from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.202 (governing shock probation). Navarro filed a motion for new trial, which was granted by the trial court. The State appealed and in three issues contends that the trial court abused its discretion by granting the motion because: (1) the ground on which the court based its ruling was not raised in the motion; (2) Navarro failed to demonstrate harm; and (3) the court could not grant the motion “in the interest of justice.” We reverse the trial court’s order granting Navarro’s motion for new trial and remand the cause to the trial court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

In its amended motion to proceed with adjudication of guilt, the State alleged that Navarro, in violation of the terms and conditions of his community supervision, had committed three new offenses and had:

Failed to report to the supervision officer as directed on 04/07/2020, 04/14/2020 and 11/15/2021;

Failed to remain within Travis County unless given permissions to depart by Supervision officer as evidenced by his arrest in Zavala County on 03/04/22;

Failed to have a valid Texas Department of Public Safety photo driver’s license;

Operated a motor vehicle without a valid Texas Driver’s License;

Failed to participate in and cooperate fully in sex offender therapy as directed[;]

the defendant was discharged from treatment on 03/14/22;

further execution of the sentence and placing the defendant on community supervision. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 42A.202(a)–(b).

Failed to not have contact with any minor children without another adult present who has been designated as a chaperone by the Department[’]s approved sex offender therapist and the Community supervision officer as evidenced by the defendant’s recent arrest where he was alone with a 9-year-old minor in his vehicle.

The trial court held a hearing on the State’s motion. Zavala County Sheriff’s Deputy Sebastian Mendoza testified about Navarro’s March 2022 arrest. Deputy Mendoza was patrolling on Highway 57 in Zavala County around 4 a.m. when he observed and stopped a car that was “driving on the improved shoulder.” See Tex. Transp. Code § 541.302(6) (defining “improved shoulder” as “a paved shoulder”). The car “drove over the white line on the right-hand side,” and Deputy Mendoza saw the outsides of the car’s passenger-side tires go “about two feet” past the line dividing the lane from the shoulder. He was not equipped with a body- or dash-cam.

Deputy Mendoza ran the car’s license plate and, after identifying himself as law enforcement, informed the driver—later identified as Navarro—of the violation. Deputy Mendoza told Navarro to lower the car’s rear window. When he complied, the deputy “noticed a little girl in the back seat not equipped with a seatbelt.” There were no adults in the car other than Navarro. The girl, who appeared to be around nine years old, “looked exhausted” and had “grass all over her” and “sweat coming down her face.” Deputy Mendoza, who testified that he was fluent in Spanish, asked Navarro in English to tell the girl to put on her seatbelt, and Navarro told her to do so in Spanish. He then told Deputy Mendoza “not to be talking to his daughter.”

Deputy Mendoza instructed Navarro to provide a valid driver’s license and proof of insurance. Navarro gave a driver’s license to the deputy, who went to his patrol vehicle to run it. He learned that Navarro was a registered sex offender, was on probation, and was not

“allowed to have any children with him at all.” Deputy Mendoza returned to Navarro’s car and “took him out of the vehicle and detained him.” However, when asked on cross-examination why he had asked Navarro to exit his car, Deputy Mendoza testified, “Just so—there was traffic going along, so I couldn’t really hear him, so I went ahead and just pulled him out.” Although Deputy Mendoza described the traffic at the time as “light,” he explained that there were “cars here and there.”

Deputy Mendoza asked the girl for her father’s name, but she was not “able to give [him] an answer.” He requested that Border Patrol assist in identifying the girl, and it took officers with the agency approximately twenty-five minutes to arrive. The officers took custody of the girl, and Deputy Mendoza arrested Navarro for “smuggling of a person” and drove him to the jail. Deputy Mendoza testified, “With my experience, I’ve r[u]n into smuggling so many times that, you know, you see people dressed in camouflaged clothing, you know, grass stains, debris all over them, sweat all over them. So I would believe that it was a human smuggling attempt.”

Myra Stoddard, Navarro’s probation officer, testified about his probation records, including “chronological entries” or “chronos,” and compliance with his community-supervision conditions. 3 Stoddard, a records custodian for the Travis County Probation Office, explained that entries are created in the regular course of business “at or near the time of the act that is described within the entry” and are made either by someone with personal knowledge or “from information transmitted by a person with actual knowledge of the acts, events, or opinions contained within that chronological entry.” Entries are not made “solely in anticipation of

3 Stoddard testified that “chronological entries” are “[n]otes taken during any interaction either with a defendant or anybody else as to how they’re doing and what they’re doing in their probation.”

litigation,” and probation officers “have a business duty to report the information contained within those entries for any given probationer.”

Stoddard had been responsible for overseeing Navarro’s probation off-and-on since he was placed on community supervision in March 2017. In preparing to testify, she had reviewed her own entries as well as those made by Laura Madrid, a former Travis County probation officer.4 Stoddard informed Navarro about his responsibilities during their first meeting. His conditions included obtaining permission before leaving Travis County and not having contact with minors other than his biological children.

Navarro’s driver’s license was “suspended for quite a while,” and Stoddard had repeatedly reminded him that as a condition of his community supervision, he could not drive with a suspended license. Nevertheless, he told her that he had driven with an invalid license.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

The State of Texas v. William Navarro, (Tex. Ct. App. 2025).

The State of Texas v. William Navarro (The State of Texas v. William Navarro) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Wong Sun v. United States
371 U.S. 471 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Terry v. Ohio
392 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Morrissey v. Brewer
408 U.S. 471 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Gagnon v. Scarpelli
411 U.S. 778 (Supreme Court, 1973)
Ex Parte Williams
65 S.W.3d 656 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2001)
Smart v. State
153 S.W.3d 118 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004)
St. George v. State
237 S.W.3d 720 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Wall v. State
184 S.W.3d 730 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2006)
Kothe v. State
152 S.W.3d 54 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2004)
Cardona v. State
665 S.W.2d 492 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1984)
State v. Herndon
215 S.W.3d 901 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Ruedas v. State
586 S.W.2d 520 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)
State v. Gonzalez
855 S.W.2d 692 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Rickels v. State
202 S.W.3d 759 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2006)
Smith v. State
286 S.W.3d 333 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2009)
Platter v. State
600 S.W.2d 803 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Powell v. State
194 S.W.3d 503 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2006)
Diaz v. State
172 S.W.3d 668 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Mizell v. State
119 S.W.3d 804 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Langham v. State
305 S.W.3d 568 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2010)