Thomas Allen Stanton v. The State of Texas

Summary

The Tenth Court of Appeals of Texas affirmed Thomas Allen Stanton’s convictions for three counts of indecency with a child by contact and his 15-year sentences on each count. The court held that Stanton failed to preserve his challenge to the timing of the State’s election of offenses and waived his complaint about the absence of a limiting instruction because he did not request one when the extraneous-act evidence was admitted.

Holdings

1. A defendant who does not object at trial to the timing of the State's election of offenses, but instead acquiesces in the trial court's decision, fails to preserve the complaint for appellate review.
2. When extraneous-offense evidence is admitted, a defendant must request a limiting instruction at the time the evidence is admitted; absent that request, the trial court has no obligation to give a limiting instruction later in the jury charge, and the evidence may be considered for all purposes.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Stanton preserved his complaint that the trial court permitted the State to elect the acts supporting the convictions at the close of all the evidence rather than at the end of the State's case-in-chief.
2. Whether the trial court erred by failing to give the jury a limiting instruction concerning extraneous acts of indecency when Stanton did not request such an instruction when the evidence was admitted.

Disposition

affirmed