In the

Court of Appeals

Second Appellate District of Texas

at Fort Worth ___________________________

No. 02-23-00144-CR

No. 02-23-00145-CR

___________________________

On Appeal from the 355th District Court

Hood County, Texas

Trial Court Nos. CR15115, CR11818

Before Bassel, Womack, and Wallach, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Bassel

THOMAS EDWARD DEMOPOULOS, Appellant

V. 

THE STATE OF TEXAS
2

MEMORANDUM OPINION

After pleading guilty without the benefit of a plea bargain as to punishment,

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appellant Thomas Demopoulos was convicted in trial-court cause number CR11818

of two counts of first-degree-felony aggravated sexual assault of a child under age 

fourteen (Counts Two and Three) and one count of second-degree-felony indecency 

with a child by contact (Count Four) and in trial-court cause number CR15115 of one 

count of third-degree-felony bail jumping. Following a punishment trial, the jury 

assessed Demopoulos’s punishment at 90 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each 

of Counts Two and Three, 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for Count Four, and 

10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the bail-jumping count. The trial court 

sentenced Demopoulos accordingly and ordered that his sentences shall run 

concurrently. This appeal followed.

Demopoulos’s appointed appellate counsel has filed a motion to withdraw and 

a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 744–45, 87 S. Ct. 1396, 1400 (1967), 

representing that “[t]his appeal is frivolous[] as there are no grounds that could be 

argued successfully on appeal.” In compliance with Kelly v. State, counsel provided 

Demopoulos with copies of the brief and motion to withdraw and informed him of 

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Although Demopoulos and the State entered into a plea agreement, it did not

address the punishment to be imposed for any individual charged offense. In 

exchange for Demopoulos’s pleading guilty to the charges enumerated above, the 

State agreed (1) to waive the indictment’s continuous-sexual-abuse-of-a-child count in 

cause number CR11818 and (2) not to request the stacking of Demopoulos’s 

sentences for the counts to which he pleaded guilty.
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his right to file a pro se response, to review the record, and to seek discretionary review 

pro se should this court deny relief. See 436 S.W.3d 313, 319 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014).

Counsel’s brief and motion meet the requirements of Anders by presenting a 

professional evaluation of the record demonstrating why there are no arguable 

grounds for relief. See In re Schulman, 252 S.W.3d 403, 406–12 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008) 

(orig. proceeding). The State did not file a brief.

Demopoulos filed a lengthy pro se response to counsel’s Anders brief. In 

addressing an Anders brief and pro se response, a court of appeals may only determine 

(1) that the appeal is wholly frivolous and issue an opinion explaining that it has 

reviewed the record and finds no reversible error or (2) that arguable grounds for 

appeal exist and remand the cause to the trial court so that new counsel may be 

appointed to brief the issues. Schulman, 252 S.W.3d at 409; Bledsoe v. State, 178 S.W.3d 

824, 826–27 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005). Following the procedures outlined in Anders and 

Schulman, we have independently reviewed the record and have found no reversible 

error.

2

 See Schulman, 252 S.W.3d at 409.

Although our review of the record revealed no reversible error, we discovered 

that some fines and costs imposed on Demopoulos are statutorily barred or are 

2

In his pro se response, Demopoulos identified a number of potential appellate 

issues. However, based on our own independent review of the record, we have 

determined that—other than the trial court’s improper cumulation of fines discussed 

below—all of the potential issues identified by Demopoulos were waived,

unsupported by the record, or otherwise frivolous. Beyond our determination that no 

reversible error exists, we cannot—and therefore do not—address the merits of the 

issues raised in Demopoulos’s pro se response. See Bledsoe, 178 S.W.3d at 826–27.
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otherwise improper. Thus, the trial court’s judgments require modification. See Bray 

v. State, 179 S.W.3d 725, 726 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2005, no pet.) (holding that an 

appellate court has authority to modify a judgment in an Anders appeal); see also Mitchell 

v. State, 653 S.W.3d 295, 297 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2022, no pet.) (“[A]ppellate 

courts are authorized to reform judgments and affirm as modified in Anders cases 

involving non-reversible error.”).

First, the record reflects that the trial court erred by assessing duplicate court 

costs in Demopoulos’s two cases. “In a single criminal action in which a defendant is 

convicted of two or more offenses or of multiple counts of the same offense, the 

court may assess each court cost or fee only once against the defendant.” Tex. Code 

Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 102.073(a); Johnson v. State, Nos. 02-23-00090-CR, 02-23-00091-

CR, 02-23-00092-CR, 02-23-00093-CR, 2024 WL 1318238, at *3 (Tex. App.—Fort 

Worth Mar. 28, 2024, pet. ref’d) (mem. op., not designated for publication). And 

when a trial court erroneously assesses court costs for multiple convictions that were 

tried in a single proceeding, we normally retain the court costs for the offense of the 

highest category and modify the judgment in the offense of the lower category to 

delete the duplicate court costs. Pickrom v. State, Nos. 02-19-00188-CR, 02-19-00189-

CR, 2020 WL 1808485, at *2 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Apr. 9, 2020, pet. ref’d) (mem. 

op., not designated for publication).
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Here, all of the itemized costs reflected in the bill of costs for cause number 

CR15115 are also listed in the bill of costs for cause number CR11818.3 Because the 

offenses in cause number CR11818 are of a higher category than the offense in cause 

number CR15115, we modify the judgment in cause number CR15115 to delete the 

$340 award of court costs. See Pickrom, 2020 WL 1808485, at *2.

Second, the record reflects that the trial court improperly cumulated the fines 

imposed for each of Demopoulos’s four offenses. The bill of costs in cause number 

CR11818 reflects $30,000 in fines, and the bill of costs in cause number CR15115 

reflects an additional $10,000 fine. Further, each of the trial court’s four judgments 

includes and incorporates a separate order to withdraw funds from Demopoulos’s 

inmate account for each $10,000 fine.

The Penal Code provides that sentences for more than one offense involving 

certain crimes run concurrently. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 3.03(a). The Texas 

Court of Criminal Appeals has held that Section 3.03 applies to a defendant’s entire 

sentence, which includes fines. See State v. Crook, 248 S.W.3d 172, 174, 177 (Tex. 

Crim. App. 2008). Thus, “[w]hen sentences are ordered to run concurrently, the 

judgment should not reflect a cumulated fine.” Habib v. State, 431 S.W.3d 737, 742 

3

Although the bills of costs in the two cases are very similar, the “Capias 

Warrant Fee” in cause number CR11818 is $100, but the same charge in cause 

number CR15115 is only $50. Additionally, the bill of costs for cause number 

CR11818 contains $60 in additional charges that are not reflected in the bill of costs 

for cause number CR15115. Thus, excluding fines, the total costs in cause number 

CR11818 are $450, but the total costs in cause number CR15115 are only $340. 
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(Tex. App.—Amarillo 2014, pet. ref’d); cf. In re Buchel, No. 13-18-00509-CR, 2018 WL 

6381540, at *4 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg Dec. 6, 2018, orig. proceeding) 

(mem. op., not designated for publication) (“Cases following Crook have essentially 

concluded that a defendant cannot be assessed more than one fine where a trial 

court’s order requires that the defendant’s sentences run concurrently.”).

Because the trial court ordered that Demopoulos’s sentences are to run 

concurrently, he should not be assessed more than one fine. See Crook, 248 S.W.3d at

174, 177. Accordingly, we modify the bill of costs in cause number CR11818 to 

reduce the “Criminal Fine Fee” from $30,000 to $10,000. Similarly, we modify the bill 

of costs in cause number CR15115 to delete the “Criminal Fine Fee” of $10,000, and 

having deleted the $340 in court costs from the judgment in that case, we further 

modify the bill of costs to reflect a balance due of $0. Additionally, we strike the 

$10,000 orders to withdraw funds from the judgments for Counts Three and Four in 

cause number CR11818, and we likewise strike the $10,340 order to withdraw funds

from the judgment in cause number CR15115.4

 

Except for the duplicative court costs and improperly cumulated fines discussed 

above, we agree with counsel that this appeal is wholly frivolous and without merit; we 

find nothing in the record that arguably might support an appeal. See Bledsoe, 178

S.W.3d at 827–28; see also Meza v. State, 206 S.W.3d 684, 685 n.6 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006).

4

Because the fines were lawfully assessed, we do not delete any of the fines 

from the judgments themselves. See Anastassov v. State, 664 S.W.3d 815, 822–24 (Tex. 

Crim. App. 2022). 
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Having modified the judgment in trial court cause number CR15115 (appellate 

cause number 02-23-00144-CR) to delete the $340 award of court costs and to strike 

the incorporated order to withdraw $10,340 in funds and having modified the bill of 

costs in that case to delete the $10,000 “Criminal Fine Fee” and to reflect a balance 

due of $0, we grant counsel’s motion to withdraw in that case and affirm as modified 

the trial court’s judgment. See Bray, 179 S.W.3d at 726; see also Guerin v. State, Nos. 

02-18-00509-CR, 02-18-00510-CR, 2019 WL 4010361, at *3 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 

Aug. 26, 2019, no pet.) (mem. op., not designated for publication) (modifying 

judgments, incorporated orders to withdraw funds, and bills of costs in Anders

appeal). Further, having modified the trial court’s judgments for Counts Three and 

Four in trial court cause number CR11818 (appellate cause number 02-23-00145-CR) 

to strike the incorporated orders to withdraw $10,000 in funds and having modified 

the bill of costs in that case to reduce the “Criminal Fine Fee” from $30,000 to 

$10,000, we likewise grant counsel’s motion to withdraw in that case and affirm as 

modified the trial court’s judgments. See Bray, 179 S.W.3d at 726; see also Guerin, 2019 

WL 4010361, at *3.

/s/ Dabney Bassel

Dabney Bassel

Justice

Do Not Publish

Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b)

Delivered: August 8, 2024