Anthony v. Texas (original by judge keasler)
Annotate this CaseIn 2009, John Anthony pleaded guilty to an indictment alleging aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than fourteen years old in exchange for the State’s recommendation for deferred-adjudication community supervision. Accepting the plea agreement, the trial judge deferred a guilty finding and placed Anthony on an eight-year term of deferred-adjudication community supervision. The judge’s deferred-adjudication order listed the victim’s age as three years old at the time of the assault. In 2013, the State moved to adjudicate alleging Anthony violated his community supervision’s terms and conditions. The judge found the violations true, found Anthony guilty, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The judgment again noted that the victim was three years old at the time of the assault. The court of appeals found that the trial judge had no authority to grant Anthony deferred adjudication because the judge’s deferred-adjudication order contained a finding that the victim was three years old. From this conclusion, the court found that Anthony was prejudiced by counsel’s deficient performance in advising him on the offense’s punishment range. After review, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the judge properly imposed deferred adjudication. The Court reversed the court of appeals.
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