Second Court of Appeals | Case Summaries

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued – Week of December 15, 2008

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Vafaiyan v. State, No. 02-06-00144-CR (Dec. 18, 2008) (Gardner, J., joined by McCoy and Walker, JJ.).: Held: The trial court did not err by refusing to grant Appellant’s motion to suppress because the acquired evidence was the result of proper police conduct. Additionally, the trial court received sufficient nonaccomplice evidence to corroborate accomplice evidence, and the trial court’s omission of an accomplice witness instruction was harmless. The evidence was legally and factually sufficient to support Appellant’s conviction because the jury was rationally justified in finding Appellant knowingly acquired funds from a criminal activity.

Murray v. Murray, No. 02-08-00031-CV (Dec. 18, 2008) (McCoy, J., joined by Livingston and Dauphinot, JJ.).: Held: The trial court did not abuse its discretion in rendering an order awarding to the ex-wife a percentage of her ex-husband’s income stream that had been earned during marriage. However, the trial court did abuse its discretion in expanding that award to include the income stream’s growth after divorce.