Duran v. Texas (original by judge newell)
Annotate this CaseIn this case, the victim, Gonzalo Gonzalez, threw something at Appellant Francisco Duran, Jr. and his friends. Later that same day, Appellant and his friends retaliated by breaking into Gonzalo’s apartment and throwing a DVD player at him. A jury convicted Appellant of both burglary of a habitation and aggravated assault in two separate counts. The jury found Appellant guilty of both counts, but the State abandoned the aggravated assault conviction prior to the punishment phase of the trial. The issue on appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals was whether the court of appeals erred by: (1) upholding the conviction on the aggravated assault charge even though the State had abandoned that charge prior to punishment; and (2) upholding the trial court’s modification to the judgment to include a deadly-weapon finding. The Court reversed, finding the court of appeals should have vacated the conviction for aggravated assault because the State unequivocally abandoned the charge in the middle of trial and after jeopardy had attached. The Court disagreed with the State that the trial court could have relied upon the abandoned jury verdict in the aggravated assault case to support the entry of a deadly weapon finding in Appellant’s burglary case.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.