Dennis Maurice Jones v. the State of Texas

Summary

The Texas Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, affirmed Dennis Maurice Jones’s convictions for two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The court held that Jones failed to preserve his appellate complaint concerning the exclusion of his mother’s testimony and a potential lesser-included-offense instruction because trial counsel offered the testimony solely in support of an insanity defense and neither requested the instruction nor objected to its omission from the jury charge.

Holdings

1. Jones failed to preserve his appellate complaint because the theory presented on appeal did not match the request and objection presented in the trial court. His counsel expressly stated that the mother's testimony was offered to support the insanity defense, never requested a reckless-aggravated-assault instruction, and did not object to the jury charge.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Jones preserved an appellate complaint that the trial court improperly excluded his mother's testimony because it would have supported a jury charge on the lesser-included offense of reckless aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Disposition

affirmed