Thomas v. State

751 S.W.2d 601, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 1076, 1988 WL 46502
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 10, 1988·No. 6-87-104-CR·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinions

[602]*602GRANT, Justice.

Robert Thomas appealed the trial court’s denial of relief on his pretrial petition for writ of habeas corpus, in which he sought to set aside an indictment for the offense of aggravated assault on the ground of prior jeopardy.

Thomas contends that his previous conviction in a justice of the peace court of the lesser included offense of assault by contact, arising from the same transaction that is the basis of the felony indictment, constitutes prior jeopárdy. The State contends that the proceedings in the justice of the peace court were void for want of jurisdiction, because no complaint arising from the same transaction was filed in the justice of the peace court at the time of the proceedings, and that the proceedings in the justice of the peace court involved a different transaction.

Thomas was arrested on May 2,1987, for the commission of assaultive offensives against Wilda Faye Hill and against Eddie Mayberry. On May 12, 1987, an assistant district attorney sent a copy of the first page of the offense reports on both charges and an information form, with none of the blanks filled in, to Justice of the Peace John Hawkins. A cover letter accompanied this material plus additional material related to two other defendants. The letter stated that the above entitled offenses have been reduced to justice of the peace court. The “above entitled offenses” set forth were; “Robert Lynn Thomas, Assault by Contact”; “Travis Lampkin, Disorderly Conduct”; and “James Lee Livesy, Disorderly Conduct.”

On May 18, 1987, a complaint charging Thomas with causing bodily injury to Eddie Mayberry by stabbing him with a knife (aggravated assault) was signed and sworn to by Mayberry before Bowie County Justice of the Peace Ben Grigson. On May 22, 1987, Thomas, who had been held in jail since his arrest on May 2, 1987, was taken before Justice of the Peace Hawkins where he pleaded guilty to an offense or offenses of assault by contact and was sentenced to the time he had already served in jail1. On June 30, 1987, a Bowie County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Thomas charging him with assault with bodily injury.2

As stated in Tex.Code Crim.Proc. Ann. art. 28.13 (Vernon 1966), a former judgment of acquittal or conviction in a court of competent jurisdiction bars any further prosecution for the same offense. This principle applies even if the prior prosecution was for a lesser included offense. Waller v. Florida, 397 U.S. 387, 90 S.Ct. 1184, 25 L.Ed.2d 435 (1970); Benard v. State, 481 S.W.2d 427 (Tex.Crim.App.1972).3

[603]*603Double jeopardy is an affirmative defense, and the appellant has the burden to produce evidence supporting the jeopardy claim. Anderson v. State, 635 S.W.2d 722 (Tex.Crim.App.1982); Wockenfuss v. State, 521 S.W.2d 630 (Tex.Crim.App.1975); Ward v. State, 520 S.W.2d 395 (Tex.Crim.App.1975). A plea of former jeopardy constitutes nothing more than a pleading and does not establish the truth of the issues of fact alleged therein. Zimmerman v. State, 750 S.W.2d 194 (Tex.Crim.App.1988).

In order to invest a court with jurisdiction over a criminal case, a charging instrument must be filed with that court. Whitehead v. State, 710 S.W.2d 645, 653 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 1986), rev’d on other grounds, 745 S.W.2d 374 (1988). See, McAfee v. State, 363 S.W.2d 941 (Tex.Crim.App.1963); Tex. Const, art. V, § 12(b). In a justice of the peace court, the charging instrument is a written complaint signed and sworn to by the complainant.4 Tex. Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 45.16 (Vernon 1979). A judgment on a plea of guilty entered without the filing of a written complaint is void. Ex parte Cannon, 546 S.W.2d 266, 270 (Tex.Crim.App.1976); Bragg v. State, 109 Tex.Crim. 632, 6 S.W.2d 365 (1928). It is generally recognized that a void proceeding has no effect in support of a plea of formal conviction or acquittal. Ball v. United States, 163 U.S. 662, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 41 L.Ed. 300 (1896); Benard v. State, supra; Barnes v. State, 79 Tex.Crim. 395, 185 S.W. 2 (1916); Rivera v. State, 716 S.W.2d 68 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1986).

Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure 80(d) provides in pertinent part:

Presumptions in Criminal Cases. The court of appeals shall presume that [the defendant] ... pleaded to the ... charging instrument ... unless such matters were made an issue in the court below, or it otherwise affirmatively appears to the contrary from the record.

In the present case, it appears that both exceptions to the presumption apply. The issue in the district court was whether Thomas pled to two offenses in the justice of the peace court or only to the offense involving Wilda Faye Hill, a totally separate matter from the allegations involving Eddie Mayberry. The trial judge framed the issue before the district court when he addressed counsel by saying, “You’ve got one conviction, and there are two original offenses, totally separate transactions, separate events, separate evidence. Now, can you tell me, or either one of you tell me, which one he was convicted on?”

Justice of the Peace Hawkins had written a letter indicating that both offenses had been reduced to assault by contact for handling by his court; however, at the hearing in district court, he testified that the letter was not based upon his own recollection and that he could not represent to the court that the letter was accurate. He testified that the docket sheet did not show whether one or both of the original charges were reduced and that the docket sheet indicated that it could be only one case, because his practice was to have a separate docket sheet for each charge. He further observed that although portions of two separate offense report extracts had been furnished to him, only the report on Wilda Faye Hill for assault with bodily injury had a notation in handwriting that the charge was being reduced to the justice [604]*604of the peace court as an assault by contact. The offense report extract sheet on the aggravated assault offense involving Eddie Mayberry did not have a notation on it that the charge was being reduced.5

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Thomas v. State, 751 S.W.2d 601, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 1076, 1988 WL 46502 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

751 S.W.2d 601 (Thomas v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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751 S.W.2d 601 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)