Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of July 17, 2023.

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.

Ochoa v. State, Nos. 02-21-00174-CR to 02-21-00176-CR (July 20, 2023) (Wallach, J., joined by Birdwell and Womack, JJ.).

Held: Appellant, a juvenile, was not in custody for the first part of his interview with law enforcement, and therefore it was unnecessary to provide him with the warnings required by the Family Code. For the second part of the interview, the warnings he received were sufficient to satisfy the Family Code. Further, the interviewing officer’s statement that there was no reason why Appellant should not be adjudicated as a juvenile but that the decision would be made by the district attorney’s office was not an unqualified promise, and it therefore did not render Appellant’s confession involuntary.

Stephenson v. State, Nos. 02-22-00101-CR to 02-22-00106-CR (July 20, 2023) (Sudderth, C.J., joined by Bassel and Womack, JJ.).

Held:  The allowable unit of prosecution for continuous sexual abuse is one conviction per series of repeated acts of sexual abuse that occur over an extended period of time (30 or more days in duration) against a single complainant.  Therefore, Appellant’s Double Jeopardy rights were not violated by his punishment for two counts of continuous sexual abuse when those counts were committed against different victims over different periods of time.