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Victor Wallace v. State
Citation: Not availableDocket: 07-09-00099-CR
Court: Court of Appeals of Texas; February 22, 2011; Texas; State Appellate Court
Original Court Document: View Document
Victor D. Wallace was convicted of indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child, receiving a sixty-year sentence for the former and a life sentence for the latter. The charges stemmed from allegations made by his daughter, V.W., who reported the abuse to her grandmother and later to a school counselor. The indictment included three counts of aggravated sexual assault, alleging penetration of V.W.’s vagina by Wallace's finger on three separate occasions in 2005 and 2006; however, only the first two counts were submitted to the jury, with the third count dismissed during trial. V.W., at the time of trial sixteen years old, detailed instances of abuse, including inappropriate touching and penetration by Wallace while they were alone in the living room. She described specific actions, including him touching her breasts and vagina. Despite initial reports not including penetration, she later testified about these acts in court. Wallace denied the allegations, claiming he had never touched her inappropriately and suggested that they engaged in wrestling, a claim V.W. refuted. Appellant's family members corroborated the existence of roughhousing but could not recall any incidents matching Wallace's account of wrestling. The court ultimately affirmed the trial court’s decisions, rejecting Wallace's claims of insufficient evidence and errors related to his motion for mistrial. The jury convicted the appellant of indecency with a child on the first count and aggravated sexual assault on the second count. The appellant's appeal challenges the sufficiency of the evidence for the aggravated sexual assault conviction, asserting that V.W.'s testimony lacked corroboration. The appeal references Brooks v. State, which established that sufficiency of evidence should be assessed under the Jackson v. Virginia standard, requiring that evidence be viewed favorably towards the verdict. To convict for aggravated sexual assault, the State must prove that the appellant intentionally or knowingly caused penetration of a child under fourteen. The uncorroborated testimony of a child victim can suffice for such a conviction, as affirmed by Texas law. The appellant did not dispute V.W.'s age but argued that the evidence did not demonstrate penetration. V.W. testified to all elements of the offense, and Texas law does not mandate corroborative evidence for a child's testimony regarding penetration. Therefore, the appellate court concluded that the evidence was legally sufficient to uphold the aggravated sexual assault conviction. Appellant argues that witness testimony from individuals present during the alleged assaults raises doubts about V.W.'s credibility, asserting that family members and a former girlfriend testified that appellant was never alone with V.W. The jury was presented with inconsistencies in V.W.'s statements and conflicting accounts regarding the locations of the assaults. Appellant contests the evidence of penetration, referencing V.W.'s prior statements that only mentioned touching. Testimony from V.W.'s mother indicated that V.W. claimed only touching without penetration occurred. A doctor who assessed V.W. in February 2008 noted that V.W. did not mention penetration during the assessment, although V.W. provided detailed testimony at trial about the alleged penetration. The jury resolved these inconsistencies in favor of V.W., leading to convictions for aggravated sexual assault and indecency with a child. The court found no basis to deem the jury's findings irrational. Regarding the motion for mistrial, appellant claimed the State's closing arguments improperly referenced community sentiments, which he believed influenced the jury beyond repair. The trial court sustained appellant's objection to the statement, instructed the jury to disregard it, and denied the motion for mistrial. The denial is reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard, with the court finding no merit in appellant's argument. A trial court's decision is not considered an abuse of discretion if it falls within a reasonable range of disagreement. Typically, instructing a jury to disregard improper statements rectifies errors, and it is presumed that jurors will follow such instructions. However, if an error is highly prejudicial and cannot be erased from jurors' minds, a mistrial should be declared. Mistrials are warranted only for emotionally inflammatory events that curative instructions cannot mitigate. The State's jury arguments must generally fit into one of four categories: summarization of evidence, reasonable deductions, responses to opposing counsel, or pleas for law enforcement. It is improper for a prosecutor to suggest that jurors impose a specific punishment based on community expectations, although referencing the community is not inherently improper. In this case, the prosecutor's remarks did not ask for a punishment aligned with community desires, but rather were based on evidence and law enforcement appeals. The trial court's cautious ruling favored the appellant, and any potential improper argument was mitigated by the court's instruction. Therefore, the trial court's denial of the mistrial request was justified, leading to the affirmation of its judgment.