Valdez, Ex Parte Joe Anthony

401 S.W.3d 651, 2013 WL 3196870, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 936
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 26, 2013
DocketAP-76,867
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 401 S.W.3d 651 (Valdez, Ex Parte Joe Anthony) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Valdez, Ex Parte Joe Anthony, 401 S.W.3d 651, 2013 WL 3196870, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 936 (Tex. 2013).

Opinions

OPINION

MEYERS, J.,

delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

Applicant, Joe Anthony Valdez, was adjudicated as a juvenile for committing murder with a deadly weapon, a first-degree felony under Texas Penal Code Section 19.02. He received a determinate sentence of fifteen years. Applicant was committed to the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) until his eighteenth birthday and was then transferred by the juvenile court to Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to complete his sentence.1 He was released from TDCJ on parole. His parole was later revoked for burglary of a habitation with the intent to commit assault, a second degree felony under Texas Penal Code Section 30.02. He pled nolo contendré to the offense and was sentenced to sixteen years’ imprisonment. Applicant filed an application for writ of habeas corpus, contending that TDCJ is improperly denying him review for mandatory-supervision release based on his prior juvenile adjudication of delinquent conduct.

The trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law culminating with the following:

If the Court finds that Applicant’s juvenile adjudication became a first-degree felony conviction of murder upon transfer to TDCJ, this Court recommends that this application be DENIED. However, if the Court finds that Applicant’s juvenile adjudication did not become a first-degree felony conviction for murder upon transfer to the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, then it is recommended that this application be GRANTED and Applicant should be evaluated for release on mandatory supervision.

We filed and set this application to determine “whether a prior juvenile adjudication for conduct, that would have been an ineligible felony had it been committed by an adult, renders an inmate ineligible for mandatory-supervision review when serving subsequent offenses which are mandatory release eligible on their own.” We deny relief.

ARGUMENTS OF THE PARTIES

A. Applicant’s Arguments

Applicant argues that juvenile adjudication did not render him ineligible for mandatory-supervision review because he was not convicted of an offense under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 42.12, [653]*653Section 3g or Texas Penal Code Section 19.02.2 Although Applicant was transferred to TDCJ to complete his juvenile sentence, the transfer was done by juvenile court and was not a stage in a criminal prosecution. Juvenile adjudication is civil in nature and Applicant was not transferred to criminal court for any part of his juvenile proceeding. Applicant says that he is eligible for release on mandatory supervision from his adult conviction because he was not paroled from TYC, rather he was transferred from TYC to TDCJ. And, because he was not paroled from TYC, he was not deemed to have been convicted of the juvenile offense under Texas Government Code Section 508.156(f). Applicant points out that the legislature has authorized that a prior juvenile adjudication may be used only in limited situations for punishment enhancement, sex-offender registration, and involuntary civil commitment. Applicant asserts that habeas corpus is the proper remedy for relief from the collateral consequences on the improper use of a prior juvenile adjudication. He argues that Texas Government Code Sections 499.053(c) and 508.156(f) are clear and unambiguous and that, under the code as construed in context according to the rules of common usage, he was neither transferred from TYC to TDCJ on his burglary sentence nor released from TYC on parole on his murder sentence. Applicant concludes that the legislature did not intend for his prior adjudication for murder to disqualify him from consideration for man- • datory-supervision release on his burglary sentence.

B. State’s Arguments

The State argues that a prior juvenile adjudication is a conviction for purposes of mandatory-supervision review and that Applicant is ineligible for mandatory-supervision review while he is serving a subsequent sentence. The State says that, while juvenile adjudication is not usually considered a conviction, such an interpretation for purposes of mandatory-supervision review would lead to an absurd result. Citing Texas Government Code Section 508.156(f), the State argues that both a juvenile released on parole from TYC after serving a sentence for one of the offenses in Section 508.149 and an adult with a prior conviction for one of those offenses would be ineligible for mandatory-supervision review. The State notes that Applicant was transferred to TDCJ because he aged out of TYC and says that his argument that the act of transfer of custody renders him eligible for mandatory-supervision review ignores Government Code Section 499.053(c).3 The State says that Applicant’s prior adjudication for the offense of murder is a felony conviction and the ineligibility provisions of mandatory-supervision review apply to him. According to the State, Applicant’s interpretation of the law would mean that the ineligibility statute would not cover juvenile offenders who are too old to be eligible for parole [654]*654from TYC and too young to be tried as adults, so they are eligible for mandatory-supervision review in a subsequent offense, while younger offenders who commit the same offense and are paroled from TYC would be ineligible for mandatory-supervision review, as would adults who have committed the same offense. The State says that this is a result that could not have been intended by the legislature. The State argues that due to the absurd result, this Court should consider extraneous sources.

The State notes that Texas Government Code Section 499.053 allows for transfer from the Texas Juvenile Justice Department to TDCJ and applies adult rules of parole and mandatory-release eligibility. According to the State, the legislature amended mandatory-supervision law so that a prior conviction for serious offenses rendered a person ineligible in a subsequent offense and amended juvenile-justice law to provide that a juvenile released from TYC on parole is deemed to have been convicted of the adjudicated offense. Citing Tex. Gov’t.Code §§ 508.149 and 508.156(f). Thus, juveniles who are adjudicated of certain violent offenses or offenses that include a deadly weapon finding who are transferred to TDCJ from TYC are not eligible for mandatory supervision. Because juveniles are afforded constitutional protections in adjudication hearings in determinate-sentence cases, the State argues that it is reasonable to conclude that the legislature intended to consider a prior juvenile adjudication to be a prior conviction when reviewing mandatory-supervision eligibility in a subsequent offense.

The State concludes that a prior adjudication for conduct that would have been an ineligible felony had it been committed by an adult falls within the meaning of a prior conviction for the purpose of mandatory-supervision review and renders the person ineligible when serving a sentence for a subsequent offense.

ANALYSIS

Eligibility for mandatory supervision is determined by the law in effect on the date that the inmate committed the offense. Ex parte Hernandez, 275 S.W.3d 895 (Tex.Crim.App.2009). When Applicant committed the burglary-of-a-habitation offense in 2007, Texas Government Code Section 508.149 stated in relevant part:

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Bluebook (online)
401 S.W.3d 651, 2013 WL 3196870, 2013 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 936, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valdez-ex-parte-joe-anthony-texcrimapp-2013.