Trent Barrow v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 10, 2025
Docket06-25-00026-CR
StatusPublished

This text of Trent Barrow v. the State of Texas (Trent Barrow v. the State of Texas) 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
Trent Barrow v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

In the Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-25-00026-CR

TRENT BARROW, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Court at Law Bowie County, Texas Trial Court No. 23M1507-CCL

Before Stevens, C.J., van Cleef and Rambin, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Stevens MEMORANDUM OPINION

A Bowie County jury convicted Trent Barrow of family violence assault, a class A

misdemeanor. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.01(a)(1) (Supp.). The jury assessed a sentence

of 365 days’ confinement and a $2,000.00 fine but recommended community supervision. As a

result, the trial court suspended Barrow’s sentence and placed him on community supervision for

twenty-four months.

In his sole point of error on appeal, Barrow argues that the evidence is legally insufficient

to support the jury’s verdict. Because we find the evidence legally sufficient, we overrule

Barrow’s sole point of error. Even so, we modify the trial court’s judgment to reflect that there

was no plea agreement in this case. As modified, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

I. Legally Sufficient Evidence Supported the Jury’s Verdict

A. Standard of Review

“In evaluating legal sufficiency, we review all the evidence in the light most favorable to

the trial court’s judgment to determine whether any rational jury could have found the essential

elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.” Williamson v. State, 589 S.W.3d 292, 297

(Tex. App.—Texarkana 2019, pet. ref’d) (citing Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 912 (Tex.

Crim. App. 2010)). “Our rigorous [legal sufficiency] review focuses on the quality of the

evidence presented.” Id. (citing Brooks, 323 S.W.3d at 917–18 (Cochran, J., concurring)). “We

examine legal sufficiency under the direction of the Brooks opinion, while giving deference to

the responsibility of the jury ‘to fairly resolve conflicts in testimony, to weigh the evidence, and

2 to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts.’” Id. (quoting Hooper v. State,

214 S.W.3d 9, 13 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007)).

The jury, as “the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given

their testimony[, could] ‘believe all of [the] witnesses’ testimony, portions of it, or none of it.’”

Id. (second alteration in original) (quoting Thomas v. State, 444 S.W.3d 4, 10 (Tex. Crim. App.

2014)). “We give ‘almost complete deference to a jury’s decision when that decision is based

upon an evaluation of credibility.’” Id. (quoting Lancon v. State, 253 S.W.3d 699, 705 (Tex.

Crim. App. 2008)).

“Legal sufficiency of the evidence is measured by the elements of the offense as defined

by a hypothetically correct jury charge.” Id. at 298 (citing Malik v. State, 953 S.W.2d 234, 240

(Tex. Crim. App. 1997)). Here, the State’s information alleged that Barrow “intentionally,

knowingly, or recklessly cause[d] bodily injury to Lakeyvia Hunt, a . . . person with whom the

defendant had or has had a dating relationship . . . by grabbing Hunt’s throat and throwing her

down to the ground.”

B. The Evidence at Trial

At trial, it was undisputed that Barrow and Hunt were in a dating relationship and had

fought, but Barrow alleged that the fight was only verbal. Yet, eighteen-year-old Hunt testified

that thirty-six-year-old Barrow became jealous of her, accused her of “talking to other guys,”

threatened to kill her, and prevented her from leaving his trailer home. Hunt said that she

became scared and that Barrow snatched her phone from her hand. According to Hunt, Barrow

“bum rushe[d] [her] and start[ed] choking [her],” while saying, “I’ll kill you, I want you to die.”

3 Hunt testified that, although Barrow had two hands around her neck, she was still “able to

breathe.” Hunt asked Barrow to let her go, and he complied.

Hunt testified that Barrow walked out of the bedroom where the initial incident occurred

and that she used that time to try to leave. Hunt said that Barrow caught her, dragged her by her

hair back into the bedroom, and threw her “up against his dresser” “so hard[] [that] the mirror

fell off the wall and hit [her] in the back of [her] head,” which hurt. Hunt testified that Barrow

began choking her again. According to Hunt, Barrow stopped the choking and left the room

after telling her he was going to stab her. That time, Hunt ran out of the room, exited the trailer,

and called her mother.

Hunt testified that she was still on the phone with her mother, while standing outside the

trailer, when Barrow came “up behind [her],” “tackle[d] [her] on the ground,” and began

“actually choking [her]” and “squeezing” to the point that she “could barely breathe.” Hunt said

she kept asking Barrow to let her go and that he finally did so after throwing her phone “across

the road,” causing it to “black[] out.” During that time, Hunt ran to a next-door neighbor’s house

to get help. Hunt said that the incident caused her pain and bodily injury.

Hunt’s mother, Danielle McNeely, testified that she received Hunt’s phone call during

the incident. According to McNeely, Hunt sounded as if “something was wrong,” and “[Hunt]

started screaming, and she started just kind of saying, stop, please leave me alone, don’t, just let

me go.” McNeely testified that “[i]t sounded like [Hunt] was being choked or she could barely

breathe.” According to McNeely, Hunt had sustained bruises from the altercation.

4 Barrow’s neighbor, Kenneth Dolberry, Sr., testified that, during the incident, he heard a

“high-pitched” scream followed by a knock at his door. According to Dolberry, Hunt appeared

at his door “hysterical and frantic[,] . . . like real scared,” and told Dolberry that Barrow tried to

choke her. Dolberry tried to console Hunt while his wife called 9-1-1. Dolberry sent Hunt to the

home of another neighbor, Alissa Sines.

Sines testified that Hunt banged on her door and appeared to be “very scared” when Sines

answered. Because Hunt was “frantic, like she was running away,” Sines knew Hunt was in

trouble and allowed Hunt to borrow her phone to call her mother back. According to Sines, Hunt

explained “that she was getting beat up” and used a hand motion to indicate that “she was being

choked.” Sines testified that she tried to console Hunt until the police arrived.

James Ward and Tanner Tolliver, officers with the Texarkana, Texas, Police Department,

testified that they responded to Barrow’s home. According to Tolliver, the Department received

a call from “two callers [stating] that a woman was running through the trailer park . . .

screaming that she had been attacked.” Barrow told Ward that he had an argument with Hunt,

who had left. According to Ward, Barrow’s responses to questions “either didn’t make sense or

[were] answers that didn’t line up with the questions [he] had.” At that point, Ward left

Barrow’s home to look for Hunt. Ward testified that, when he found Hunt, she had “a red mark

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Related

Jackson v. Virginia
443 U.S. 307 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Hooper v. State
214 S.W.3d 9 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Clayton v. State
235 S.W.3d 772 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2007)
Malik v. State
953 S.W.2d 234 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1997)
Asberry v. State
813 S.W.2d 526 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Lancon v. State
253 S.W.3d 699 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2008)
Brooks v. State
323 S.W.3d 893 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2010)
Bigley v. State
865 S.W.2d 26 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1993)
Thomas v. State
444 S.W.3d 4 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2014)
Anthony v. State
531 S.W.3d 739 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016)

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