Background
Shanelle Anquinette Craig pleaded guilty to the third-degree felony of injury to a child causing bodily injury after initially being indicted for a first-degree felony following the death of her three-month-old daughter. Under a plea agreement, the trial court deferred adjudication and placed her on community supervision for seven years.
About a year and a half later, the State sought adjudication, alleging two assaults against Craig’s boyfriend, a diluted urine sample, failure to report, and failure to perform community service. Craig pleaded true, with an explanation, to the community-service allegation and not true to the others. The trial court found the assault, failure-to-report, and community-service allegations true, adjudicated Craig guilty, and sentenced her to nine years in prison. Appointed appellate counsel filed an Anders brief and moved to withdraw, while Craig submitted a pro se response.
The Court’s Holding
The Seventh Court of Appeals independently reviewed the record and agreed with counsel that no arguable ground for reversal existed. Craig could not use the appeal from adjudication to challenge her guilt, her original plea, or counsel’s pre-plea representation because those complaints had to be raised when deferred adjudication was imposed. Her claim that the State withheld a recanting text message was not preserved by a timely continuance request, objection, or motion for new trial.
The court also concluded that Craig’s plea of true to the community-service violation, corroborated by her probation officer’s testimony, independently supported adjudication. It nevertheless modified the bill of costs to remove a $15 time-payment fee assessed while the appeal was pending, without prejudice to reassessment after mandate if Craig fails to pay timely. The court affirmed the judgment as modified, granted counsel’s motion to withdraw, and denied Craig’s motion to send exhibits.
Key Takeaways
- A defendant generally must challenge matters arising from the original deferred-adjudication proceeding when deferred adjudication is first imposed, not in a later appeal from adjudication.
- Proof of one community-supervision violation is sufficient to support adjudication, and Craig’s plea of true to performing no community service supplied that proof.
- A time-payment fee assessed while an appeal is pending must be deleted, although it may be reassessed after mandate if payment is not timely made.
Why It Matters
The opinion reinforces the strict procedural divide between an appeal from the original deferred-adjudication order and an appeal from a later adjudication of guilt. Defendants who wait until adjudication to attack the underlying plea or pre-plea representation generally cannot obtain review of those issues.
It also illustrates that an Anders review may uncover a correctable court-cost error even when no nonfrivolous basis exists for reversing the conviction or sentence.