Arteaga v. Texas

This case presented a question of jury-charge error. The State alleged that Appellant Robert Arteaga, Jr., committed first-degree felony sexual assault of a child because he was “prohibited from marrying” the victim, his biological daughter. The offense of sexual assault was a first-degree felony if the State proves that the victim was a person whom the defendant was “prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry or with whom the [defendant] was prohibited from living under the appearance of being married under Section 25.01 [Bigamy].” Without objection, the trial court included in the abstract portion of the jury charge the consanguinity statute from the Family Code, which explained when certain marriages are void due to the familial relationship between the parties. Arteaga was convicted, and on appeal he argued in part that the trial court erred to include the consanguinity statute because, pursuant to Section 22.011(f) of the Penal Code, the State could prove that he was “prohibited from marrying” his daughter only if he engaged in bigamous conduct. He also contended that he was harmed by the charge error because the jury’s only guidance concerning the “prohibited from marrying” allegation was the consanguinity statute. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court. Arteaga argued on appeal that the court of appeals erred and he was entitled to a new trial. Here, in finding Arteaga guilty of first-degree felony sexual assault, the jury must have necessarily found that he also committed second-degree sexual assault, and the evidence showed that, if Arteaga had originally been convicted of the lesser-included offenses, there was sufficient evidence to support those convictions. As a result, the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded the proper remedy here was to reform Arteaga’s first-degree felony sexual-assault convictions to reflect that he was convicted of second-degree felony sexual assault and to resentence him according to the reformed judgment. View "Arteaga v. Texas" on Justia Law