Court Opinion

ID: 9732980
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:48:14.760926+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:36.846211
License: Public Domain

SUE WALKER, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur with the majority’s disposition of appellant’s first two issues and with its holding that the trial court erred by including unpleaded enhancement paragraphs in its charge on punishment. I dissent, however, because I cannot agree that this error was harmless.
Inclusion of the unpleaded enhancement allegations in the court’s charge changed appellant’s possible punishment range from between two and ten years’ confinement to between twenty-five and ninety-nine years’ confinement. See Tex Penal Code Ann. §§ 12.34, 12.42(d) (Vernon 1994 & Supp.2002). The jury assessed the minimum punishment available under the court’s erroneous charge: twenty-five years’ confinement. Additionally, the record reflects that the jury sent out a note during deliberations on appellant’s punishment stating:
We’ll agree the defendant was convicted of the three prior felony offenses. Is verdict form, [No. 1] the only one we can use[?] Can we sentence the defendant to less than 25 years on Verdict Form No. 1 ... or can[f]should we use another form? [Emphasis added.]
Thus, the record before us clearly reflects that the jury wanted to sentence appellant to less than twenty-five years’ confinement but, based on the inclusion of the unplead-ed enhancement allegations in the court’s punishment phase charge, was deprived of that option.
Appellant’s counsel timely objected to the charge error, i.e., the inclusion of the unpleaded enhancement allegations in the court’s punishment charge. Thus, under the Almanza harm analysis, reversal is required if appellant suffered “some” harm from the error. Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157, 171 (Tex.Crim.App.1985) (op. on reh’g). Because the record before us *398establishes that the jury gave appellant the minimum punishment and desired to use a different verdict form to give him an even lesser punishment, I cannot agree with the majority’s conclusion that appellant was not harmed by the charge error. Accordingly, I would remand this case for a new punishment hearing.