Mark Edward Covington v. State

In The Court of Appeals

Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-15-00191-CR MARK EDWARD COVINGTON, Appellant

V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee On Appeal from the 8th District Court

Hopkins County, Texas Trial Court No. 1524835

Before Morriss, C.J., Moseley and Burgess, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Moseley

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Mark Edward Covington was convicted by a Hopkins County jury in this case of witness tampering1 and assessed punishment of confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Correctional Institutions Division for life. This case was tried with a companion case, which is the subject of another appeal pending before this Court.2 Covington filed a single, consolidated brief covering both appeals in which he contends that the trial court erred (1) in refusing to inquire into the qualifications of the grand jury members and (2) in submitting a charge to the jury that allowed his conviction on a less than unanimous verdict of guilty.

The arguments raised in this appeal are precisely the same arguments brought before this Court in the companion appeal styled Covington v. State, cause number 06-15-00190-CR. In our opinion of this date disposing of that appeal, we found (1) that Covington failed to preserve error regarding the qualifications of the grand jurors and (2) that the trial court did not err in its charge to the jury. For the reasons set out in that opinion, we overrule Covington’s points of error as they apply to this appeal.

We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Bailey C. Moseley Justice

Date Submitted: March 17, 2016 Date Decided: May 25, 2016 Do Not Publish