Court Opinion

ID: 9597090
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:55:24.759462+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:41:59.522171
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, J.,
concurring.
We recently held that each instance of sexual assault is a separate crime and may be prosecuted in separate trials. Ex parte Goodbread, 967 S.W.2d 859, 861 (Tex.Crim. App.1998). In Goodbread, we cited as authority Vernon v. State, 841 S.W.2d 407, 410 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), a case in which we determined that it is inaccurate to characterize a defendant’s repeated acts of indecency with a child as a single continuing offense under Texas law. Goodbread, 967 S.W.2d at 861. Following these precedents, it is clear that the two alleged acts of indecency with a child were not two different ways of committing a single of*128fense, but were instead separate offenses from which the state should have been required to elect a single offense.
The State Prosecuting Attorney urges that error is waived because appellant failed to mount a pretrial challenge to the form and substance of the indictment. As noted above, our decisions in Goodbread and Vernon, supra, indicate that each act of indecency with a child is a separate offense. The indictment against appellant contained one count of indecency with a child, alleging two kinds of contact on the same date. The indictment was valid on its face; if both types of contact occurred at the same time, they would comprise a single act. The indictment was therefore not subject to a pretrial motion to quash. The proof offered at trial showed four separate acts on four different dates, with no allegation that both breasts and genitals were touched on a single occasion. The proof thus exposed a defect in the allegations as it, in conjunction with the indictment’s single count, either improperly treated the separate offenses as a single continuing offense or as two ways of committing a single offense and thus made the state’s pleadings duplicitous.
With these comments, I join the opinion of the Court.