Texas Case Summaries
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Coverage since June 4, 2026

Texas

TexasCriminalCriminal ProcedureEvidence
Texas Court of Appeals, Seventh District (Amarillo)
Uncategorized

Nichols v. State — Threats Relayed Through Crisis Negotiators Satisfy Aggravated Assault on Public Servant; Felony Deadly Conduct Is Not a Lesser-Included Offense When Indictment Charges Exhibiting, Not Discharging, a Weapon

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The Seventh Court of Appeals affirmed a fifteen-year conviction for aggravated assault on a public servant, holding that threats relayed through crisis negotiators to officers on scene satisfy the statute, and that felony deadly conduct is not a lesser-included offense of aggravated assault by threat where the indictment charges only exhibiting — not discharging — a weapon. The court modified the judgment to delete an attorney’s fees provision entered without the required finding of financial resources.

TexasCriminalEvidencePost-Conviction Relief
Texas Court of Appeals, Eighth District (El Paso)
Uncategorized

Johnson v. State — Post-Conviction DNA Retesting Denied Where Law-of-Parties Conviction Leaves Third-Party DNA Non-Exculpatory

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The Eighth Court of Appeals affirmed denial of a second post-conviction DNA testing motion in a capital murder case, holding that Chapter 64 does not permit comparison of a DNA specimen to a specific named individual, and that third-party DNA on the murder weapon is not exculpatory where the defendant was convicted under a law-of-parties theory and substantial evidence of guilt exists independent of the DNA.

TexasCriminalCriminal Procedure
Texas Court of Appeals, Seventh District (Amarillo)
Uncategorized

McGruder v. State — Defendant Who Refused Court-Ordered Sanity Evaluation Cannot Complain of Its Denial on Appeal

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The Seventh Court of Appeals affirmed convictions after holding that a defendant who refuses a court-ordered sanity evaluation waives any right to such an evaluation and cannot complain on appeal of its denial, and that a December 2022 incompetency finding was legally irrelevant to the separate question of the defendant’s sanity at the time of the offenses.

TexasConstitutionalCriminal
Texas Court of Appeals, Thirteenth District (Corpus Christi–Edinburg)
Uncategorized

Magnuson v. State — Trial Court Violated Defendant’s Faretta Right to Self-Representation at Deferred Adjudication Hearing

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The Texas Thirteenth Court of Appeals reversed a ten-year deferred-adjudication conviction, holding the trial court violated Magnuson’s Faretta right to self-representation at the adjudication hearing when it denied his unequivocal request to proceed pro se—over the State’s delay-tactic objection—without making the required findings that the request was knowing, voluntary, and timely.

TexasConstitutionalCriminal
Texas Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District
Uncategorized

Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners v. Youniacutt — Automatic License Bar for Violent Felony Convictions Survives Constitutional Challenge

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The Texas Fifteenth Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and dismissed challenges to Texas Occupations Code § 108.052(2)’s automatic denial of social worker licenses to applicants with prior violent felony convictions, holding that the categorical disqualification survives rational-basis review under Patel because protecting vulnerable patients is a legitimate government interest and the bar is not oppressively burdensome.

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