Smith v. State
Smith v. State
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
delivered the opinion of the Court
When a defendant stipulates to the two prior convictions necessary to establish the predicate for felony DWI, can an appellate court properly hold the evidence legally insufficient on the ground that one of the prior convictions is too remote in time and the record contains no evidence of an intervening conviction? We hold that the answer is “no” and reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Trial
Appellant and the State stipulated to the two prior convictions needed to raise a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) offense from a misdemeanor to a felony.
I, Rodney Camile Smith, am the identical person named in the indictment in the above styled and numbered cause; and I have read the same and hereby agree and confess that:
“On February 28, 1983, in the County Criminal Court at Law No. 4 of Harris County, Texas, in cause No. 685-779, I was convicted of the offense of Driving While Intoxicated; and
“On April 24, 1990, in the 258th District Court of Polk County, Texas, in Cause No. 12,255, I was convicted of the offense of Driving While Intoxicated.”
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Mr. Smith, the trial has not started yet this morning; but we have talked today about the advisability of stipulating to two prior DWI convictions rather than have the State prove up the DWI convictions and running the risk of other things coming in that would be counter productive to our position. Do you agree with that?
[APPELLANT]: Yes, sir.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: And by signing this, you’re admitting that they don’t have to prove up these two things; and we don’t get into the issue of your priors at this trial, okay?
[APPELLANT]: Okay.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Is that your agreement?
[APPELLANT]: Yes, sir.
No other evidence of any prior conviction was admitted during the guilt-innocence stage of trial.
B. Appeal
The Court of Appeals found that the evidence conclusively established that more than ten years elapsed between the date the 1983 offense was committed and the date of the primary offense, September 4, 1999.
Chief Justice Gray dissented, stating that he could not “agree to reverse a conviction because of something the defendant wanted.”
In Weaver, the prior convictions element of felony DWI was contested.
In this case, the prior convictions element was not contested but was instead confessed to by stipulation. Under these circumstances, appellant has lost the ability to complain about the remoteness of the prior conviction.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded to that court to address appellant’s remaining points of error.
. See TEX. PEN. CODE § 49.09
. Smith v. State, 135 S.W.3d 198, 201 (Tex. App.-Waco 2004).
. 87 S.W.3d 557 (Tex.Crim.App. 2002).
. Smith, 135 S.W.3d at 201 (quoting Weaver, 87 S.W.3d at 561).
. Id.
. Id. at 202.
. Id. (Gray, C.J., dissenting).
. Id.
. Id.
. Id. (citing Weaver, 87 S.W.3d at 561).
. Id.
. Indeed, stipulating to the priors to avoid the introduction of damaging evidence (i.e. under Tamez v. State, 11 S.W.3d 198 (Tex. Crim.App. 2000)) arguably rises to the level of estoppel, when it comes to challenging the legitimacy of using those priors. See Arroyo v. State, 117 S.W.3d 795, 798 (Tex.Crim.App. 2003)(discussing State v. Yount, 853 S.W.2d 6, (Tex.Crim.App. 1993) and Prystash v. State, 3 S.W.3d 522 (Tex.Crim. App. 1999)).
Concurring Opinion
a concurring.
I concur in the judgment of the Court. However, I believe that the advice of counsel, which resulted in the stipulation at issue here, may sink to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel, depending on the date of the commission of the 1990 conviction. Neither the indictment nor the record, including the stipulation, aids us in determining that date.
The instant offense occurred on September 4, 1999. The conviction date for the next previous offense is April 24, 1990. Given that there is always a period of time between commission of an offense and a resulting conviction, it is at least conceivable that the commission of the offense, which is the critical date, occurred before September 4, 1989, and thus falls outside the statutory limitation of ten years. Tex. Penal Code, § 49.09(e)(1999). Appellee, in his brief, asserts that the date in question is September 3, 1989, one day beyond the ten-year limit. That, however, is an issue to be raised on an application for habeas corpus.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Rodney Camile SMITH, Appellant, v. the STATE of Texas
- Cited By
- 27 cases
- Status
- Published