Damon Kendrick Dove v. The State of Texas

Summary

This document is Damon Kendrick Dove’s Petition for Discretionary Review filed in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, challenging the Fourteenth Court of Appeals’ affirmance of his sexual-assault conviction. The petition raises issues concerning preservation of evidentiary error, exclusion of the complainant’s mental-health records, sufficiency of the evidence, and the defendant’s right to present and confront evidence. The document also includes the Fourteenth Court of Appeals’ November 20, 2014 memorandum opinion affirming the conviction.

Holdings

1. The evidence was legally sufficient because, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, a rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Dove intentionally or knowingly caused sexual penetration without the complainant's consent.
2. Dove waived his complaint about the exclusion of the complainant's mental-health records because he neither offered the records into evidence at trial nor made a timely offer of proof setting forth their substance.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support the jury's finding that Dove caused sexual penetration without the complainant's consent by using or threatening force or violence.
2. Whether Dove preserved error concerning the exclusion of the complainant's mental-health records by making a timely offer of proof under Texas Rule of Evidence 103.

Disposition

affirmed