Williams, George v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided August 2, 2013·No. 05-11-01729-CR·Published

Opinion

AFFIRM; and Opinion Filed August 2, 2013.

S In The

Court of Appeals

Fifth District of Texas at Dallas No. 05-11-01729-CR

No. 05-12-00007-CR

GEORGE WILLIAMS, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 291st Judicial District Court Dallas County, Texas

Trial Court Cause Nos. F08-62218-U & F10-00781-U

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Before Justices Lang-Miers and Fillmore 1 Opinion by Justice Lang-Miers

George Williams appeals his convictions for compelling prostitution. In three issues, he contends the evidence is legally insufficient to support his convictions, there was error in the jury charge for both cases, and the trial court erred by permitting testimony about juvenile prostitution. We affirm the trial court’s judgments.

1 The Honorable Mary L. Murphy was on the panel and participated at the submission of this case. Due to her retirement from this Court on June 7, 2013, she did not participate in the issuance of this Opinion. See TEX. R. APP. P. 41.1(a), (b).

Background

On May 1, 2008, Dallas police officer Bervin Smith went with two other officers to the Montecito Creek Apartments to respond to a complaint that prostitution was occurring inside a particular apartment in the complex and in a parking lot and service road near the complex. The officers spoke with the property manager, who told them appellant lived in that apartment. The officers went to the apartment, knocked on the door, and spoke with the woman who answered the door. Smith described her as being around nineteen or twenty years old. The woman allowed the officers to enter the apartment. Appellant was not there at the time.

Smith noticed another person inside the apartment. He described that person as a “very young” female who was fifteen or sixteen years old. The officers were there in the morning during school hours, and Smith wondered why she was not in school. The officers discovered another female in the apartment. Smith also described her as looking “very young” and estimated that she was fifteen or sixteen years old. He specifically remembered that she did not look like she was an adult and, after he spoke with her, he could tell she was not an adult. Smith referred to the woman who answered the door as the “bottom girl,” which he explained is the girl in charge of the other young girls, the “pimp’s right-hand person.” Smith said the “bottom girl” did all of the talking, and although the younger girls did a “little bit of talking,” they kept looking to her before talking to the officers.

The officers saw indications that sexual activity may be occurring inside the apartment.

For example, there was a mattress on the floor in the front room and a dildo was in plain view in a back room. They also found condoms in the back room. Smith explained that it is common for extra mattresses to be set up that way because “[t]hey’re used to have sex with the johns the young girls or guys bring back to the apartment.” Smith also observed several rows of “milk

crates” located in a corner. The crates contained clothing and personal items. Based on his experience, the crates made Smith think the apartment was a place for runaways. Smith stated the girls are given areas to temporarily store their possessions because they may not stay long in any one place.

The officers found out the names and ages of the two young girls and determined that the girls were runaways. Both girls, B.S. and A.G., were under seventeen years old at the time. They took the girls to the nearest juvenile facility because they were runaways but they were not placed under arrest for any other offenses.

James Bordelon, a detective with the High Risk Victims Unit, interviewed each girl separately at the juvenile facility. He said that “[b]oth girls indicated that they were brought into the prostitution game” by appellant, who was also known as “Selfish.” According to Bordelon, the girls knew appellant by his full name and sight, and they knew where he lived. The girls provided written statements and separately identified appellant in a photo. B.S. also told Bordelon that appellant “had her place an ad in the ‘Observer’ for prostitution.” B.S. provided the phone number and ad content as part of her written statement. Bordelon found the “Observer” ad and compared the information with B.S.’s statement. The ad was contained in an issue dated April 24 through April 30, 2008 and read “Barely Legal 19!!! Top or Bottom Special. 24 hours. N. Dallas Incall. Appointments necessary. Ask for Coco” and included a business and cell phone number.

Appellant was charged in two separate indictments with the offense of compelling prostitution of a person younger than seventeen years old. The complainant in cause number F08-62218-U was A.G., and the complainant in cause number F10-00781-U was B.S. The indictment in the first cause included an enhancement paragraph alleging appellant had been

previously convicted of the felony offense of possession with the intent to deliver a controlled substance. Appellant pleaded not guilty to both charges, and the case proceeded to a jury trial.

B.S. was nineteen years old at the time of trial. She testified she was fifteen years old and a student at the Dallas Can Academy when she met appellant but that she told appellant she was eighteen years old. B.S. said the first time she “hung out” with appellant, she told him that she was living with her grandmother, who was “struggling” to take care of her and provide things for school. Her parents were both drug addicts and did not take care of her. She testified that appellant told her about prostitution—“another way to make money.” B.S. explained that appellant told her “the basics” of how he would keep her pretty, get her hair done, and how to “pull the tricks,” referring to how she could get clients to stop and pick her up. B.S. testified that she did not get involved with prostitution the first day she met appellant and, although she had not been involved with prostitution before meeting appellant, B.S. thought it sounded like a good idea at the time.

Two or three weeks later, B.S. started “working” or “prostituting” for appellant.

Appellant took her to get her hair and nails done, and he bought her clothes and heels that were kept at appellant’s apartment. He also bought her condoms and a cell phone. B.S. testified that appellant gave her instructions on how to handle herself. He specifically instructed B.S. on what to do if she got pulled over by the police (“don’t say anything”) and how much money to charge for different sexual acts, telling her not to be “too greedy.” Appellant also told her where and how to “walk” to attract dates and what to do when she got into someone’s car. When she was “walking” at a location down the street from the apartment, appellant would drop her off at the location. She was supposed to “walk” until the condoms were gone.

B.S. also had customers come to appellant’s apartment. Some of those customers called a phone “chat line.” B.S. would give the customer the address of the apartment, and she would have sex with the customer on the mattress in the living room. People also called because of the “Observer” ad, which was paid for by appellant. B.S. knew about the ad because she went with appellant to place the ad.

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