J. Eddie Dyer v. Ronald Cotton--Appeal from 278th District Court of Grimes County

State: Texas

Court: Texas Northern District Court

Docket No: 01-09-00228-CV

Case Date: 11/18/2010

Plaintiff: Tandy Danna Marshall

Defendant: The State of Texas--Appeal from 262nd District Court of Harris County

Preview:Affirmed and Memorandum Opinion filed July 14, 2011.

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals
NO. 14-10-00443-CR NO. 14-10-00444-CR TANDY DANNA MARSHALL, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee On Appeal from the 262nd District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Cause Nos. 1260203 & 1260205

MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant, Tandy Danna Marshall, contends the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support her convictions of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault.1 We affirm.

Appellant was convicted of two separate counts of aggravated assault, cause numbers 1260205 and 1260204. On appeal, she does not challenge her conviction in cause number 1260204.

1

I. BACKGROUND Robert Shannon and Keith Sebring stole over two-hundred pounds of marijuana from Reginald Nollie. After learning Nollie was aware of his participation in the theft, Shannon began living in motel rooms. After several months, Shannon returned to his girlfriend Katherine Bennett's house. It is undisputed that on May 18, 2009, appellant and two males went to Bennett's house, retrieved Shannon, and brought him to Nollie's house where Shannon was assaulted and later placed in a closet in the garage. However, appellant testified that she did not participate in a kidnapping because Shannon willingly accompanied her to Nollie's house and she did not participate in the assault. Subsequently, appellant was charged with (1) aggravated kidnapping for allegedly exhibiting a deadly weapon--a firearm--in the course of abducting Shannon with intent to prevent his liberation by secreting and holding him in a place where he was unlikely to be found and (2) aggravated assault for allegedly causing bodily injury to Shannon by using a deadly weapon--a piece of wood or an electrical cable. At trial, the jury was instructed that it could find appellant guilty either as a principal or as a party to the charged offenses. The jury convicted appellant on both charges and sentenced her to fifteen years' confinement for aggravated kidnapping and five years' confinement for aggravated assault, to run concurrently. II. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE In her first and second issues, appellant contends the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the jury's verdict. A. Standard of Review and Relevant Law While this appeal was pending, five judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that only one standard should be employed to evaluate whether the evidence is sufficient to support a criminal conviction beyond a reasonable doubt: legal sufficiency. See Brooks v. State, 323 S.W.3d 893, 894

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