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Sonya Demetric Smith v. State
Citation: Not availableDocket: 06-05-00202-CR
Court: Court of Appeals of Texas; December 29, 2005; Texas; State Appellate Court
Original Court Document: View Document
Sonya Demetric Smith pled guilty to forgery and was sentenced to two years of confinement, suspended in favor of four years of community supervision. Eighteen days later, the State filed an application to revoke her community supervision, alleging theft of lawn equipment valued between $50 and $500 from Brent Sipe. At the revocation hearing, the trial court found overwhelming evidence to support the revocation and imposed the original sentence. Smith appealed, and her attorney filed an Anders brief, concluding there were no grounds for appeal. Smith was informed of her right to respond but did not submit any response. The appellate court reviewed the record and agreed with counsel's conclusion. Potential issues regarding Smith's original guilty plea could not be addressed because she did not appeal that decision in a timely manner. Evidence supported the trial court's ruling, as Smith admitted to pawning lawn equipment that had been reported stolen from Marshall Independent School District. Testimony indicated that Smith believed her sons had stolen the items and suspected they were "hot" when pawning them. The court found the evidence sufficient to affirm the revocation of her community supervision. Fifteen-year-old Lawrence Smith testified that he had stolen lawn and garden equipment from a school and asked his mother, Sonya Smith, to pawn it for him. Although Lawrence claimed he never informed her the items were stolen, his written juvenile confession indicated he admitted to his mother that the equipment was stolen. Sonya took her sons to the pawn shop on June 14, 2005, and allowed them to sell the equipment, denying knowledge of its stolen status at that time. She stated that Lawrence only disclosed the theft after her arrest for possession and sale of the stolen property. However, her credibility was undermined by her prior felony convictions for drug and theft offenses. When the evidence was viewed favorably to the State, it was sufficient to support the trial court's finding that Sonya knowingly sold stolen property, thus violating her community supervision conditions. The trial court's decision to revoke her community supervision was affirmed.