Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of April 9, 2018.

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Qualls v. State, No. 02-16-00214-CR (Apr. 12, 2018) (Pittman, J., joined by Sudderth, C.J., and Kerr, J.).

Held:  The accomplice testimony tying Appellant to the GameStop forgery was sufficiently corroborated by the eyewitness, the videos, and the nonaccomplice testimony that the $50 bills used at GameStop were counterfeit.

Further, the State invoked the Rule before testimony began.  Thus, when the challenged State’s witness briefly conferred with another on the second day of trial, even though neither had yet been sworn in or explicitly placed under the Rule, the Rule was violated.  Nevertheless, the visiting judge did not abuse his discretion by refusing to strike the testimony of the challenged witness because the record does not show that the two witnesses spoke about an issue impacting Appellant’s guilt or innocence and about which they would both later testify.