Summary
The Texas Court of Appeals for the Seventh District reviewed the revocation of Jennifer R. Fulton's deferred-adjudication community supervision and her ten-year sentence for assault causing bodily injury to a family or household member with a previous conviction. The court held that the judgment and related financial orders improperly included attorney's fees, a fine, reparations, and a premature time-payment fee. The court modified the judgment, Bill of Costs, and inmate-account withdrawal order, leaving $300.00 in costs to be withdrawn, and affirmed as modified.
Court
Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo
Jurisdiction
Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo
Decision date
May 11, 2026
Docket number
No. 07-26-00035-CR
Disposition
affirmed
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court improperly assessed $787.50 in appointed-attorney fees without evidence that Fulton had the financial resources to pay them.
- Whether the written judgment could include a $500 fine that was not orally pronounced when Fulton was adjudicated and sentenced.
- Whether the record supported the $443 reparations assessment.
- Whether the order to withdraw $2,045.50 from Fulton's inmate trust account lacked a factual basis and procedural opportunity to object.
- Whether the $15 time-payment fee should be stricken as premature while the appeal was pending.
Holdings
- A trial court may not order reimbursement of court-appointed attorney's fees without record evidence demonstrating that the defendant has financial resources to offset the cost of legal services. Because the record showed Fulton remained indigent and contained no evidence of changed financial circumstances, the attorney's-fee assessment had to be deleted.
- When the oral pronouncement of sentence conflicts with the written judgment, the oral pronouncement controls. A fine not orally pronounced when guilt is adjudicated and sentence is imposed may not remain in the written judgment.
- A reparations assessment in a judgment adjudicating guilt must be supported by evidence in the record. Because the record did not establish what the $443 assessment represented or support its amount, the assessment had to be deleted.
- A time-payment fee assessed before appellate mandate issues is premature and must be stricken in its entirety, without prejudice to refiling if the fee later becomes ripe.
- The withdrawal order had to be reduced by the amounts improperly assessed in attorney's fees, the fine, reparations, and the premature time-payment fee, leaving $300.00 consisting of uncontested court costs and a reimbursement fee.
Court Document
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