Villarreal v. State

• Decision Date: 29 April 2009
• Docket Number: No. PD-0984-08.,PD-0984-08.
• Citation: 286 S.W.3d 321
• Parties: Noel Ronaldo VILLARREAL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

286 S.W.3d 321

Noel Ronaldo VILLARREAL, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas.

No. PD-0984-08.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

April 29, 2009.

Rehearing Denied June 24, 2009.

Marc F. Gault, Fort Worth, for Appellant.

Debra Ann Windsor, Asst. Criminal District Atty., Fort Worth, Jeffrey L. Van Horn, State's Atty., Austin, for State.

HOLCOMB, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which MEYERS, PRICE, WOMACK, JOHNSON, KEASLER, HERVEY, and COCHRAN, JJ., joined.

The principal question presented in this case is whether the evidence adduced at appellant's trial was legally sufficient to support his conviction for violation of a protective order. We hold that the evidence was legally sufficient, and we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

On June 30, 2006, a Tarrant County grand jury returned an indictment charging appellant with violation of a protective order under Texas Penal Code § 25.07(a)(1).¹ The indictment alleged, in relevant part, that, on or about March 2, 2005, appellant:

"did intentionally or knowingly in violation of an order of the Arlington Municipal Court . . . issued on February 8th, 2005, . . . commit an act of family violence, namely intentionally causing bodily injury to Shannon Love, by striking her with his hand or pushing her with his hand, and said act of family violence was intended to result in physical harm, bodily injury or assault."

The indictment also alleged, for purposes of punishment enhancement, that appellant had two prior felony convictions.

Trial under the indictment was had before a jury on appellant's plea of not guilty. At the guilt stage of trial, the State presented five witnesses and several exhibits.² The State's witnesses included Rosalia Maddock, Judge of the Arlington Municipal Court and a magistrate of Tarrant County; Shannon Love, the complainant; David Paden, an eyewitness to the offense; Sidney Turner, a second eyewitness to the offense; and Greg Wilkinson, an Arlington police officer.

The State's evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, and reasonable inferences therefrom, established the following: In January 2005, appellant and Love began an intimate dating relationship. They maintained separate residences, but occasionally each of them spent the night with the other at the other's residence.³ Their relationship eventually soured. On or about February 8, 2005, appellant was arrested for committing some type of family violence against Love.⁴ Shortly after appellant's arrest, he was taken before Judge Maddock. At that time, Judge Maddock, acting under Article 17.292 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, issued an emergency protective order enjoining appellant, for a period of 61 days, from committing further family violence against Love and certain named members of her family. Judge Maddock gave a copy of the protective order to appellant and explained to him orally what it prohibited.⁵ On March 2, 2005, just 22 days after Judge Maddock issued the protective order, appellant again committed family violence against Love, to wit: he assaulted and injured her in the parking lot of an Arlington bar.

The protective order, admitted in evidence as State's Exhibit Four, was two pages in length and entitled "Magistrate's Order for Emergency Protection-Family Violence." It stated, in relevant part, that:

"On 2/8/05 [appellant] appeared before the undersigned Magistrate after [appellant's] arrest for an offense involving family violence and the Court at a post-arrest hearing as provided by Art. 17.292 of the Code of Criminal Procedure considered entering an Order for Emergency Protection on its own motion . . . .

"After considering the evidence, the Court enters this Order to protect Shannon Love, who is the victim of the offense, and the following named members of the victim's family or household. . . .

"It is hereby ordered that effective immediately and for the next 61 days, [appellant] . . . is prohibited from committing family violence."

On page two of the protective order, below Judge Maddock's signature, the following definitions appeared:

"Family violence means an act by a member of a family or household against another member of the family or household that is intended to result in physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault or that is a threat that reasonably places the member in fear of imminent physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault, but does not include defensive measures to protect oneself. Family violence includes physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child or the genuine threat of substantial harm from physical injury to the child, including an injury that is at variance with the history or explanation given and excluding an accident or reasonable discipline by a parent, guardian, or managing or possessory conservator that does not expose the child to a substantial risk of harm.[⁶]

"Family includes individuals related by blood or marriage, individuals who are former spouses of each other, individuals who are the biological parents of the same child, without regard to marriage, and a foster child and foster parent, whether or not those individuals reside together.

"Household means a unit composed of persons living together in the same dwelling, whether or not they are related to each other. Member of a household includes a person who previously lived in a household." (Emphases in original.)⁷

The trial court, in its jury charge, instructed the jurors that "a person commits the offense of violation of a protective order if, in violation of an order issued under Article 17.292, Code of Criminal Procedure, he knowingly or intentionally commits family violence and the person has violated the protective order by committing an assault." The court also instructed the jurors, over appellant's objection, that "`[f]amily violence' means dating violence as hereinafter defined." The court then defined the terms "dating violence" and "dating relationship" in accordance with the definitions in Texas Family Code § 71.0021. See footnote one, supra.

The jury, after deliberating, found appellant guilty as charged in the indictment. The trial court, after hearing additional evidence, assessed appellant's punishment, enhanced by two prior felony convictions, at imprisonment for sixty years.

On direct appeal, appellant brought three points of error, arguing that: (1) the evidence adduced at trial was legally insufficient to support his conviction, (2) the evidence adduced at trial was factually insufficient to support his conviction, and (3) the trial court erred in instructing the jury that "family violence" meant "dating violence" and in defining for the jury the terms "dating violence" and "dating relationship." With respect to his evidentiary-insufficiency points, appellant noted first that, "in [this] case, the protective order . . . limit[ed] the definition of `family violence' to actions involving family and household members."⁸ Appellant then argued:

"No rational trier of fact could have found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that [he] committed an act against a member of his family or household.[⁹] Consequently, no rational trier of fact could have found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that [he] violated the protective order's prohibition against committing family violence. If evidence of such a violation does exist . . ., it is so weak that the verdict seems clearly wrong or manifestly unjust, and the verdict is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence."

With respect to his jury-charge point, appellant argued that the trial court erred because "the protective order excluded dating violence from [its] definition of family violence, and [evidence of] dating violence, therefore, is not sufficient to support a conviction for violating the protective order's family violence prohibition."

The court of appeals overruled appellant's points of error and affirmed the trial court's judgment of conviction. Villarreal v. State, No. 02-06-00393-CR, 2008 WL 1777982 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2008) (not designated for publication). With respect to appellant's evidentiary-sufficiency points, the court of appeals first rejected his argument that the protective order limited the definition of "family violence" to actions involving family and household members and that, therefore, evidence of dating violence was insufficient to support a conviction for violating the protective order's prohibition of family violence:

"Appellant argues that the protective order prohibited him from committing family violence as it regards members of the same household and members of a family but not family violence in terms of dating violence. Appellant is correct that the definition contained in State's Exhibit Four, the magistrate's order for emergency protection family violence, does not include the definition of family violence in terms of dating violence. The portion of the `order' to which Appellant refers, however, is the portion appended after the order itself and after the requisite warning. It is part of neither the order nor the warning, and Appellant has directed us to no authority providing otherwise." Id. at 5 (footnotes omitted).

The court of appeals then explained that the State's burden at trial was to prove that appellant intentionally or knowingly, in violation of a protective order, committed an act of "family violence" as that term was defined in the Texas Family Code. Id. at 6-7. Finally, the court of appeals, after reviewing the evidence presented at trial and after summarizing the relevant law, stated, "Applying the appropriate standards of review, we hold that the evidence is both legally and factually sufficient to support the trial court's judgment." Id. at 12 (footnote omitted).

With respect to appellant's jury-charge point of error, the court of appeals explained that the trial court did not err in instructing the jury on "dating violence" because "section...