Marcus Johnson v. The State of Texas

Summary

The Texas Court of Appeals considered Marcus Johnson’s challenges to his convictions and sentences for two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and three counts of aggravated sexual assault. The court held that Johnson’s guilty pleas and written waiver permitted the trial court to adjudicate guilt before a jury assessed punishment, and that no additional jury finding of guilt was required. The court affirmed the judgments but ordered both bills of costs modified to remove the fines and time-payment fees and clarify that court costs were not yet due.

Holdings

1. Johnson was not sentenced without a finding of guilt because he waived a jury trial on guilt in writing, pleaded guilty before the trial court, and the trial court adjudicated him guilty before the jury was empaneled to assess punishment.
2. The trial court did not err by failing to instruct the punishment jury to return a guilty verdict because guilt had already been adjudicated and was not an issue before that jury.
3. The trial court properly included a $10,000 fine for each count in the judgments even though the sentences, including the fines, were ordered to run concurrently.
4. Fines are not court costs and must be deleted from the bills of costs, although the unitary concurrent fine remains part of the judgments.
5. The $15 time-payment fees were prematurely assessed during the pendency of the appeals and had to be deleted from the bills of costs, without prejudice to later assessment if the statutory conditions are met after mandate.
6. The bills of costs had to be modified to state that the assessed costs and fees were not payable until Johnson's release from confinement.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Johnson was sentenced without a finding of guilt because the jury assessed punishment without returning an express verdict of guilt.
2. Whether the trial court erred by failing to instruct the jury to return a guilty verdict after Johnson had pleaded guilty before the trial court and the jury.
3. Whether concurrent $10,000 fines were improperly included in the judgments.
4. Whether the fines were improperly included in the bills of costs.
5. Whether the $15 time-payment fees were prematurely assessed while the appeals were pending.
6. Whether the bills of costs should state that the assessed costs and fees were not payable until Johnson's release from confinement.

Disposition

affirmed