Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of January 14, 2013

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.

Colyer v. State, No. 02-11-00473-CR (Jan. 17, 2013) (Gabriel, J., joined by Dauphinot, J.; Walker, J., dissents with opinion) [Note: both opinions in same PDF file].

Held: Because the uncontroverted evidence established that a juror changed his vote to guilty and that his vote was contrary to a fair expression of his opinion, the trial court abused its discretion by denying Appellant's motion for new trial.

Dissent: The trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the motion for new trial based on jury misconduct because the telephone call that the juror received from his doctor's office during the jury's deliberations informing the juror that his daughter had MRSA was a personal pressure on the juror and did not fall within the "outside influence" exception to rule of evidence 606(b).

Sandone v. State, No. 02-12-00033-CR (Jan. 17, 2013) (Livingston, C.J., joined by Dauphinot and Gardner, JJ.).

Held: Under the evidence presented at trial, a store's loss prevention supervisor was the legal owner of the store's merchandise, and he was therefore competent to testify about the value of the merchandise without being qualified as an expert on value. Also, appellant was not harmed by any improper admission of evidence, over her objection, concerning statements that she made on the day of her arrest, because the same evidence had already been admitted without objection.

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