Landrian v. State
Landrian v. State
Concurring Opinion
filed a concurring opinion, in which KELLER, P.J., and KEASLER, J., joined.
Without implying that there is anything wrong with the Court’s analysis of the jury-unanimity issue, I should like to point out that there is no possibility of a non-unanimous verdict for this offense as it was alleged. If half the jury believed the defendant caused serious bodily injury, then they necessarily believed that a deadly weapon was used. A deadly weapon is anything that in the manner of its use was capable of causing serious bodily injury. See Penal Code section 1.07(a)(17)(B). It is impossible to inflict serious bodily injury without using a deadly weapon. We so held only a couple of months ago. See Blount v. State, 257 S.W.3d 712 (Tex.Cr. App. 2008).
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
delivered the opinion of the Court
We address the jury unanimity requirement in the context of an aggravated-assault prosecution.
We conclude that the trial judge did not err. The jury charge required the jury to unanimously find that appellant caused bodily injury to Luis Brizuela. The gravamen of this result-oriented offense is “causing bodily injury.” The jury did not have to be unanimous on the aggravating factors of whether it was a “serious” bodily injury or whether appellant used a deadly weapon.
I.
The evidence at trial was hotly contested. Luis Brizuela testified that he went to a company Christmas party at the Camino Real Apartments clubhouse on December 19, 2003, to pick up his cousin who worked for the company. Mr. Brizuela went inside and visited with friends, including appellant, for a while. Everyone was drinking,
Witnesses for the defense, including appellant, testified that Mr. Brizuela came to the party with two other men who were drunk. They were loud and angry. The security guard told them to leave the clubhouse and they did so, but they remained outside drinking. As the party ended, appellant helped clean up the clubhouse. When he went outside to gather beer bottles, Luis Miguel attacked him and jumped on top of him. Appellant grabbed an empty beer bottle and “cracked” Luis Miguel on the head with it. The bottle exploded. Luis Miguel was stunned, but he lunged
Dr. Benz testified that he performed the initial operation on Mr. Brizuela’s eye. He thought that the injury was more consistent with an act of throwing a broken bottle into the eye than with the act of breaking a beer bottle over someone’s head and a glass shard flying into the eye. Dr. Benz formed this opinion because “this was the largest intraocular foreign body I had ever taken out of an eye. In order for it to penetrate the eye it would take a significant amount of force.”
Officer Le, the initial investigator, testified that Mr. Brizuela told him, a day after the incident, that it was “an accident.” Mr. Brizuela said that appellant threw the beer bottle at another man and a shard of glass hit Mr. Brizuela in the face. Officer Le also said that a bottle thrown or “slashed” at another person could cause death or serious bodily injury.
The trial judge instructed the jury on aggravated assault and self-defense. The abstract portion of that charge read as follows:
A person commits the offense of assault if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another.
A person commits the offense of aggravated assault if the person commits assault, as hereinbefore defined, and the person:
(1) causes serious bodily injury to another; or
(2) uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault.
In the application section, the trial judge submitted the two aggravating factors in disjunctive paragraphs.
After lengthy deliberations and several notes requesting clarification, the jury returned a “guilty” verdict. It also found that appellant had used a deadly weapon. The jury assessed a sentence of seven years’ imprisonment, but recommended community supervision.
On appeal, appellant argued that he was “denied the right to a unanimous jury verdict because the charge allowed the jury to convict him of aggravated assault without unanimously determining whether [he] (1) intentionally or knowingly caused bodily injury with a deadly weapon or (2) recklessly caused serious bodily injury.”
II.
Under the Texas Constitution and Code of Criminal Procedure, a Texas jury must reach a unanimous verdict.
The Texas Legislature has defined the crime of assault in Section 22.01 of the Penal Code. Subsection (a) of that provision sets out three separate and distinct assaultive crimes, two of which are relevant to the present discussion:
(a) A person commits an offense if the person:
(1) intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another, including the person’s spouse;
(2) intentionally or knowingly threatens another with imminent bodily injury, including the person’s spouse[.]
Subsection (1) — “bodily injury” assault is a result-oriented assaultive offense and normally a Class A misdemeanor. Subsection (2) is conduct-oriented, focusing upon the act of making a threat, regardless of any result that threat might cause.
Section 22.02 of the Penal Code then defines the crime of aggravated assault as being an assault under Section 22.01, and the person
(1) causes serious bodily injury to another, including the person’s spouse, or
(2) uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault.18
Normally, Subsection (1) may act as an aggravating factor only for “bodily injury” assault under Section 22.01(a)(1); absent special circumstances,
The gravamen of the offense of aggravated assault is the specific type of assault defined in Section 22.01. Thus, the actus reus for “bodily injury” aggravated assault is “causing bodily injury.” Turning to the eighth-grade grammar test, the subject is “the defendant,” the verb is “cause” and the direct object is “bodily injury.”
This actus reus must be accompanied by a culpable mental state. In its “bodily injury” assault subsection, the legislature stated that any of three culpable mental states suffices: intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury. The legislature was apparently neutral about which of these three mental states accompanied the forbidden conduct because all three culpable mental states are listed together in a single phrase within a single subsection of the statute. There is no indication that the legislature intended for an “intentional” bodily injury assault to be a separate crime from a “knowing” bodily injury assault or that both of those differ from a “reckless” bodily injury assault.
Aggravated assault increases the penalty for simple “bodily injury” assault if the victim suffers a significantly greater degree of bodily harm — serious bodily injury, rather than mere bodily injury. The type of injury does not vary, only the degree of the injury. “Serious” is an adjective that modifies “bodily injury.” It does not change the direct object, it merely describes it.
Aggravated assault also increases the penalty for simple “bodily injury” assault if the defendant’s manner of committing that assault increases the likelihood of death or serious bodily injury because he used or exhibited a deadly weapon during the assault.
But, as we have recently held, both of these means of committing aggravated bodily assault involve the use of a deadly weapon:
Aggravated assault may be committed in only two ways: (1) by “causfing] serious bodily injury” or (2) by “us[ing] or exhibiting] a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault.” Each of these involves the use of a deadly weapon. The first way necessarily implies the use of a deadly weapon, which is “anything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury.” The second way specifies the use of a deadly weapon. Therefore an allegation that a defendant committed aggravated assault gives him notice that the deadly nature of the weapon alleged in the indictment would be an issue at trial and that the State may seek an affirmative finding on the use of the weapon.29
Thus, both statutory aggravators of simple assault involve the use of a deadly weapon, either because a serious bodily injury is necessarily caused by a deadly weapon or because a deadly weapon is explicitly pled in the indictment.
In sum, simple “bodily injury” assault is punished more severely depending upon the degree of the victim’s injury or the manner in which the defendant committed the particular assault. The Texas Legislature has evinced no intent that jurors need be unanimous about which aggravating factor or element that they find — severity of injury or manner in which the defendant
Several other states, in analyzing similar aggravated-assault statutes, have also found that their statutes did not set out separate and distinct offenses. Rather, the aggravating factors or elements are simply descriptions of separate means by which a single offense of assault may be committed. As noted by the Alaska Supreme Court in State v. James,
III.
In the court of appeals and in this Court, appellant argues that “bodily injury” aggravated assault is really composed of two separate and distinct criminal offenses. He is mistaken. He begins by correctly noting that the statutory definition of simple assault sets out three distinct criminal offenses under Section 22.01(a)(l)-(3). These are “bodily injury” assault, assault by threat, and “offensive contact” assault. So far, so good. But he then contends that “adding the aggravating elements to the simple assault statute” creates “several different combinations” and “a variety of different ways of having an aggravated assault.”
But once the underlying type of assault is defined, then either of the aggravating factors set out under Section 22.02(a) may elevate that distinct assaultive crime to a second-degree felony. The aggravating factors or elements are simply the way in which the simple assault becomes a more serious offense.
In this case, for example, there is no dispute that appellant committed one single assaultive act — -he caused bodily injury to Luis Brizuela. He caused this result by (1) throwing a broken beer bottle at Mr. Brizuela, (2) throwing a beer bottle at Luis Miguel, (3) throwing a broken beer bottle into the air, or (4) “crashing” a beer bottle on Luis Miguel’s head. Under the State’s version of facts, there was no dispute that appellant wielded a beer bottle and that glass from that bottle hit Mr. Brizuela in the eye.
The eighth-grade grammar test shows that appellant (the subject) caused (the verb) a bodily injury (the direct object) to one person, Mr. Brizuela. Under one aggravating factor, the degree (but not the type) of the bodily injury suffered by Mr. Brizuela was increased from simple “bodily injury” to “serious bodily injury.” These were not two distinct injuries; they were not two different types of injuries. They were the same bodily injury, but one was more serious in degree than the other and thus deserving of greater punishment.
Yet another way of testing whether the State charged one aggravated assault or two distinct and separate aggravated assault offenses is to ask whether the State could have obtained two aggravated assault convictions stemming from appellant’s criminal conduct. Would double jeopardy allow appellant to be punished for causing serious bodily injury by putting out Mr. Brizuela’s left eye and also punished for putting out Mr. Brizuela’s left eye with a deadly weapon by throwing a bottle at or in his direction? The answer is obvious: appellant committed only one assault during a single incident and may be punished for only one assault.
Appellant and the court of appeals incorrectly concluded “that the trial court erred in submitting a jury charge without requiring the jury unanimously to agree that appellant either intentionally and knowingly caused bodily injury [while using a deadly weapon] or recklessly caused serious bodily injury.”
We therefore reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand the case to that court to address appellant’s remaining points of error.
. We granted the State’s sole ground for review:
The court of appeals erred in holding the trial court erred in submitting a jury charge without requiring the jury unanimously to agree that appellant either intentionally and knowingly caused bodily injury or recklessly caused serious bodily injury.
. Landrian v. State, 263 S.W.3d 332, 337 (Tex.App.Houston [1st Dist.], 2007).
. Appellant and other defen$e witnesses said that there was no drinking at the party, but that some “party-crashers” had brought beer with them, which they kept outside the clubhouse. According to the defense witnesses, Mr. Brizuela arrived with Luis Miguel who was drunk.
. Some of the State’s witnesses testified that appellant beat the drunken Luis Miguel for five minutes. When Luis Miguel fell to the ground, bloody and motionless, appellant continued to beat and kick him. Appellant then went into the clubhouse and re-emerged with a beer bottle which he broke. Then he threw it straight at Mr. Brizuela who happened to be standing nearby.
. The application paragraphs read as follows: Now, if you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 19th day of December, 2003, in Harris County, Texas, the defendant, Carlos Landrian, did then and there unlawfully, intentionally or knowingly cause bodily injury to Luis Brizue-la by using a deadly weapon, namely, a bottle, as alleged in Paragraph 1 of the indictment; or
If you find from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about the 19 th day of December, 2003, in Harris County, Texas, the defendant, Carlos Landrian, did then and there unlawfully, recklessly cause serious bodily injury to Luis Brizuela by throwing a bottle in the direction of Luis Brizuela, as alleged in Paragraph 2 of the indictment, then you will find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment.
. The trial judge explained:
I also believe that the State is entitled to a verdict with alternative pleading paragraphs, a general verdict as to that. My concern up to this point was since there was no allegation of deadly weapon in the reckless paragraph, the second paragraph of the indictment, that that would cause a conflict or at least confusion for the Court should the jury find the Defendant guilty with a general verdict and not specify which paragraph.
My concern was that we would then at that point not know if the jury had reached a verdict on the first paragraph or the second paragraph or some combination thereof and, therefore, would not know if the jury had, in fact, made a finding of guilt as to the use of a deadly weapon.
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And, therefore, my solution to the problem is to give the jury the two choices of guilty — pardon me — not guilty or guilty as charged in the indictment, and then to include a special issue which asks the jury whether or not they find — make an affirmative finding of a deadly weapon.
. Landrian, 263 S.W.3d at 336.
. Id. at 339.
. See Stuhler v. State, 218 S.W.3d 706, 716 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007); Ngo v. State, 175 S.W.3d 738, 745 (Tex.Crim.App. 2005).
. Stuhler, 218 S.W.3d at 717-19 (injury to a child is a result-oriented offense; the gravamen of the offense is the specific result— serious bodily injury, serious mental deficiency, bodily injury — “and the degree of the offense is determined, at least in part, according to which of the results the defendant’s act or omission caused").
. See, e.g., Jefferson v. State, 189 S.W.3d 305, 312 (Tex.Crim.App. 2006) (holding that any " 'act or omission’ constitute^] the means of committing the course of conduct element of injury to a child.”).
. See Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624, 632, 111 S.Ct. 2491, 115 L.Ed.2d 555 (1991) (stating that the Due Process Clause places limits on “a State’s capacity to define different courses of conduct, or states of mind, as merely alternative means of committing a sin
. Schad, 501 U.S. at 631-33, 111 S.Ct. 2491; Valdez v. State, 218 S.W.3d 82, 84 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007) (the question of what the jury must be unanimous about is determined by the legislative intent of the applicable statute).
. Valdez, 218 S.W.3d at 84.
. See Marinos v. State, 186 S.W.3d 167, 174-75 (Tex.App.-Austin 2006, pet. ref'd) ("causing bodily injury to another and threatening another with imminent bodily injury are separately defined statutory criminal acts.... [W]e conclude that bodily injury assault and assault by threat are different criminal acts for which a defendant may be convicted only by a unanimous finding of guilt.”); see also Dolkart v. State, 197 S.W.3d 887, 893 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2006, pet. ref'd) (concluding that legislature created two separate criminal offenses in defining "bodily injury” assault and assault by threat; noting that “the focus of the two subsections is different: one is intended to punish the defendant for causing bodily injury; the other is intended to punish a defendant for engaging in threatening behavior. Finally, we find support for this determination because the legislature assigned different punishment ranges to the two offenses.”).
. Section 22.01(c) sets out various circumstances that elevate the level of punishment for assault-by-threat from a Class C misdemeanor to a higher level misdemeanor.
. Tex. Penal Code § 22.02(a).
. For example, it is theoretically possible to make a threat that causes the person to have a heart attack that causes serious bodily injury-
. Tex. Penal Code § 22.02(b). It may be elevated to a first-degree felony under certain circumstances specified in Subsections (b)(1) and (b)(2).
. Strictly speaking, the direct object is “injury,” and the adjective “bodily” describes what type of injury, but because there is no “mental injury” or "emotional injury” assaultive offense (although assault by "offensive contact” is a 1ype of emotional or mental result), one should use the noun phrase "bodily injury” to describe the direct object because an injury that does not cause harm to the body does not qualify under Section 22.01(a)(1).
. Alvarado v. State, 704 S.W.2d 36, 39 (Tex.Crim.App. 1985).
. Id.
. See Schad, 501 U.S. at 644, 111 S.Ct. 2491. In Schad, the Supreme Court noted that a state may draft a murder statute that allows for the disjunctive submission of different culpable mental states, such as "premeditated murder” and “felony murder,” because a legislature might reasonably find that they are morally equivalent alternatives. Id.
. See id.; see also Jefferson, 189 S.W.3d at 313.
. Tex. Penal Code § 6.02(e) ("Proof of a higher degree of culpability than that charged constitutes proof of the culpability charged.”); see Flores v. State, 245 S.W.3d 432, 440 (Tex.Crim.App. 2008) (noting that "proof of intent would, as a matter of law, establish recklessness as well”).
. See e.g., Lugo-Lugo v. State, 650 S.W.2d 72, 80 (Tex.Crim.App. 1983) (murder is “committed when the conscious objective or desire of the perpetrator was to cause death or where the perpetrator was aware that his conduct was reasonably certain to cause death”); see also Medina v. State, 7 S.W.3d 633, 636 (Tex.Crim.App. 1999) (capital murder under Tex. Penal Code § 19.03(a)(7)(A) "in
. See Bell v. State, 693 S.W.2d 434, 438 (Tex.Crim.App. 1985) (in aggravated assault prosecution, noting that "when the State established the higher culpable mental state of intent or knowledge, it necessarily established the lower culpable mental state of recklessness.”); see, e.g., Wells v. Commonwealth, 561 S.W.2d 85, 88 (Ky. 1978) (jury charge in aggravated assault trial properly submitted two distinct culpable mental states — intent and wantonness manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life — in the disjunctive and did not require unanimity because "[either mental state will support a conviction of assault in the first degree and punishment for such crime. The legal effect of the alternative conclusions is identical.”).
. Blount v. State, 257 S.W.3d 712, 714 (Tex.Crim.App. 2008).
. Id.
. See Marinos, 186 S.W.3d at 174-75 (concluding that trial judge correctly submitted alternate disjunctive paragraphs for "bodily injury” aggravated assault because those paragraphs set out alternate manners and means, not separate criminal acts); compare Dolkart, 197 S.W.3d at 893 (trial court erred in submitting both aggravated assault by causing bodily injury and aggravated assault by threat disjunctively without requiring unanimity on which separate offense jury found); Gonzales v. State, 191 S.W.3d 741, 748-49 (Tex.App.-Waco 2006, pet. ref'd) (following Marinos, and holding that aggravated assault by causing “bodily injury” is a distinct criminal offense from aggravated assault by threat).
. Marinos, 186 S.W.3d at 175.
. 698 P.2d 1161 (Alaska 1985).
. Id. at 1167.
. Id. at 1163, 1166 ("In the instant case there is only one criminal act alleged and only one incident involved. All twelve jurors agreed that [defendant] had committed the act.”). See also State v. Pena, 209 Ariz. 503, 104 P.3d 873, 876 (Ariz.Ct.App. 2005) ("The jury need not, however, have unanimously agreed on the manner in which Defendant committed aggravated assault as long as each juror found that Defendant committed aggravated assault based on either serious physical injury or use of a dangerous instrument.”); Wells, 561 S.W.2d at 88 (jury unanimity not required in aggravated assault case in which jury was instructed that it could convict defendant if he inflicted serious physical injury and he (1) intended to cause serious physical injury and used a deadly weapon, or (2) caused serious physical injury under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life by wantonly [recklessly] engaging in conduct that created a grave risk of death); see generally, Tim A. Thomas, Requirement of Jury Unanimity as to Mode of Committing Crime Under Statute Setting Forth the Various Modes by Which Offense May Be Committed,IS A.L.R.4A 91 (1989 & Cumulative Supp.).
. State v. Richardson, 24 Wash.App. 302, 600 P.2d 696, 698 (1979) (instruction given in second-degree assault prosecution, which authorized conviction if defendant either knowingly inflicted grievous bodily harm upon victim or if he caused that harm by criminal negligence, did not deny defendant a unanimous jury verdict). The Washington Legislature had expressly stated that proof of a knowing mental state is sufficient to prove criminal negligence, and the court explained that
[t]he rationale behind this statute doubtlessly is that, if one acts carelessly, the social vice of his conduct is sufficient to warrant a conviction and, if he possesses actual knowledge so that his social conduct is even more offensive, he should at least be liable equally with one who is merely negligent. This is particularly true because the penalty is the same in ehher case, and one should not be able to escape liability for negligence by saying that he was not negligent because he acted willfully or knowingly.
. Appellant’s Brief at 15.
. 186 S.W.3d 167, 174-75 (Tex.App.-Austin 2006, pet. ref'd).
. 197 S.W.3d 887, 893 (Tex.App.Dallas 2006, pet. ref'd).
. 191 S.W.3d 741, 748-49 (Tex.App.-Waco 2006, pet. ref’d).
. Marinos, 186 S.W.3d at 174-75; Dolkart, 197 S.W.3d at 893; Gonzales, 191 S.W.3d at 748-49.
. Marinos, 186 S.W.3d at 174-75; Dolkart, 197 S.W.3d at 893; Gonzales, 191 S.W.3d at 748-49. In Marinos, for example, the court of appeals stated that the trial court "erred by failing to require a unanimous verdict of finding him guilty of either aggravated bodily injury assault or aggravated assault by threat.” 186 S.W.3d at 174. These two aggravated offenses depend upon separate criminal acts. However, the court of appeals further explained that jury unanimity was not required "with respect to the specific manner or means by which the aggravated bodily injury assault or aggravated assault by threat was committed.” Id. at 175. The aggravating factors are simply different manners of committing a single offense. Id.
.The defensive theory was that he wielded the bottle solely in self-defense.
. The court of appeals relied heavily upon this Court’s reasoning in Stuhler v. State, 218 S.W.3d 706 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007), in concluding that "bodily injury” aggravated assault is really two separate crimes depending on which aggravating factor is proven. Landrian, 263 S.W.3d at 338-39. But in Stuhler, we noted that the Legislature defined three separate and distinct results — serious bodily injury, serious mental deficiency, or plain bodily injury- — in the injury to a child statute. 218 S.W.3d at 718. Two of those results — serious bodily injury and serious mental deficiency— are entirely different types of injuries; one is physical and the other mental. They are equally culpable and thus subject to the same punishment range. Two of those results— serious bodily injury and plain bodily injury— are the same type of injury, but they differ in degree. They are listed in separate subsections of the statute because they have different punishment ranges, with serious bodily injury being punished more severely than simple bodily injury. See Tex. Penal Code § 22.04(a), (e) & (f). In contrast, aggravated "bodily injury” assault is a second-degree offense regardless of which aggravating factor applies. Simple "bodily injury” assault is punished as a misdemeanor under Section 22.01(a)(1), while aggravated "bodily injury” assault is punished as a second-degree felony. They are not equally culpable crimes and are not the same criminal offense, but they are both based upon a single act of causing "bodily injury.”
. See State v. James, 698 P.2d 1161, 1166 (Alaska 1985) (“When a defendant commits first degree assault by any of the three methods, the victim is fortunate to survive. Moreover, we find no evidence that the legislature intended by [the aggravated assault statute] to expose defendants to multiple punishments. We may therefore assume that a single punishment was envisioned for violation of the statute.”).
. Landrian, 263 S.W.3d at 339.
Concurring Opinion
filed a concurring opinion in which MEYERS, J., joined.
I agree that there is no jury unanimity problem in this case. The jury’s affirmative answer to the special “deadly weapon” issue guaranteed that all of the jurors at least found the appellant guilty of aggravated assault under the theory that he caused bodily injury and used or exhibited a deadly weapon in the process. Under these circumstances, it does not matter that the jury might not also have unanimously found that the appellant was guilty under the other, “serious bodily injury” theory of aggravated assault. On the peculiar facts of this case, we can be certain that the jury unanimously found him guilty of at least one of the two ways of committing aggravated assault for which they were disjunctively authorized to find him guilty.
The majority goes on to hold that the jury need not have unanimously found that the appellant was guilty under at least one of these disjunctively-charged theories of aggravated assault, as long as it unanimously found he was guilty under one or the other. I am far from sanguine about this conclusion, for the reasons that follow. In any event, because I find it unnecessary to reach the issue on the facts of this case, I concur in the Court’s decision to reverse the judgment of the court of appeals, but do not join its opinion.
In Stuhler v. State,
It seems likely to me that the Court is mistaken to conclude that simple bodily injury constitutes the entire gravamen of the offense of aggravated assault. Simple assault and aggravated assault are separate offenses. The Legislature has chosen to enact them in two separately numbered
Section 22.02(a) embodies two alternative aggravating factors. The first is that the defendant must cause, not just bodily injury, but serious bodily injury. This is a result-of-conduct type factor. The second aggravating factor is the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon. This is a nature-of-conduct type factor. It seems quite plausible to me to argue that the aggravated assault statute thus embodies two very distinct gravamens, and that bodily injury constitutes a subset-gravamen of each. The first aggravated assault gravamen is that the defendant caused serious bodily injury. The second is that the defendant caused bodily injury and brandished a deadly weapon in the process. Are these not elemental? Are they not, in fact, the very additional elements that distinguish aggravated assault from simple assault? If they are not, then what statutory element does distinguish the offense of simple assault from the separate offense of aggravated assault?
The Court seems to acknowledge that the various ways of committing simple assault, embodied in Subsections 22.01(a)(1) through (a)(3) of the Penal Code, constitute distinct alternative statutory elements for the commission of that offense, not alternative manner and means. As the Court notes, there are the “bodily injury” and “physical contact” theories of simple assault, which are result-of-conduct theories of the offense, and then there is the “threat-of-imminent-bodily injury” theory, which is a nature-of-conduct theory of the offense. If I am not mistaken, I think the Court means to suggest that it regards these three theories to constitute separate, alternative elements of the offense of simple assault. They do not merely describe how the offense may be committed, but instead define what conduct constitutes the commission of the offense.
In short, it seems doubtful that the gravamen of aggravated assault is just bodily-injury. I am not at all sure that in order to set aggravated assault apart from simple assault, as the Legislature has done by defining the two offenses in different statutory provisions, we should not conclude that the gravamen of aggravated assault is either serious bodily injury, or else bodily injury plus the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon. Applying the eighth-grade grammar test to determine the elements of the offense as thus understood, we would presumably find the elements to be, at a minimum: the subject (the defendant); the main verbs (“causes” and/or “uses or exhibits”); and the direct objects (“bodily injury,” “serious bodily injury,” and/or “a deadly weapon”). By this reckoning, all of these statutory alternatives are elements of the offense of aggravated assault, not mere manner and means. Therefore, if they are pled alternatively in the indictment, the jury must be instructed that it must unanimously find one or the other (or both) before it may convict.
But I need not ultimately resolve this question today in order to agree that there is no jury unanimity problem in this particular case. It is clear here that all twelve jurors found that the appellant caused bodily injury and used or exhibited a deadly weapon in the process. I therefore concur.
. 218 S.W.3d 706 (Tex.Crim.App. 2007).
. Id., at 718, adopting Judge Cochran’s concurring position in Jefferson v. State, 189 S.W.3d 305, 315-16 (Tex.Crim.App. 2006).
. 235 S.W.3d 711, 719-722 (Price, J., concurring).
. Tex. Penal Code § 22.01(a) defines simple assault:
(a) A person commits an offense if the person:
(1) intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another, including the person’s spouse;
(2) intentionally or knowingly threatens another with imminent bodily injury, including the person’s spouse; or
(3) intentionally or knowingly causes physical contact with another person when the person knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.
Aggravated assault is defined in Tex. Penal Code § 22.02(a), which reads:
(a) A person commits an offense if the person commits assault as defined in § 22.01 and the person:
(1) causes serious bodily injury to another, including the person’s spouse; or
(2) uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault.
. See Jefferson v. State, supra, at 315 (Cochran, J., concurring) ("the specifics of how the defendant [caused a particular result] are not the gravamen of the offense and not the statutorily prohibited conduct.”).
Reference
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- Carlos LANDRIAN, Appellant, v. the STATE of Texas
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