Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of October 22, 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.

Senn v. State, No. 02-15-00201-CR (Oct. 25, 2018) (op. on remand & on reh’g) (Walker, J., joined by Meier, J.; Gabriel, J., dissents with opinion).

Held:  Applying the holding from the body of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’s recent opinion in Arteaga, which was specifically stated in the opinion remanding this case to us and requires the State to prove “facts constituting bigamy” in order to enhance a sexual assault conviction from a second-degree felony to a first-degree felony under Texas Penal Code section 22.011(f), the evidence is insufficient to trigger the statutory enhancement.

Dissent:  A fair reading of the court of criminal appeals’ opinion in Arteaga, including footnote 9 and the concurring opinion, and its later summary of the Arteaga holding in Estes shows that proof of the sexual-assault enhancement in section 22.011(f) does not require the State to prove that the defendant actually committed bigamy as well as sexual assault. The State satisfies its burden of proof by establishing that if the defendant had married the sexual-assault victim, claimed to marry the victim, or lived with the victim under the appearance of being married, he would have committed bigamy.