Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

The court of appeals' reversal of defendant's murder conviction of his girlfriend is reversed where: 1) the two-pronged rule in Hicks is overruled and instead, where the state has alleged "unknown" manner and means in the indictment and/or jury charges, the defendant may challenge the propriety of the "unknown" allegation before trial and at the conclusion of evidence, but before the charge is submitted to the jury; and 2) although the jury charge was erroneous because the indictment contained an allegation of "manner and means to the grand jury unknown," when the manner and means were not truly unknown, the charge error was harmless in nature as the evidence was sufficient to convict based on one of the alternate theories in the jury charge other than "unknown" manner and means.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/06/2010
• Published 10/06/2010

Judges

• Womak

Court

• Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

Counsel