Martell v. Texas (original by judge slaughter)
Annotate this CaseAfter Appellant Mario Martell was placed on deferred adjudication community supervision for a third-degree felony drug offense, he stopped reporting to his probation officer and was considered an absconder. Nearly twenty years later, he was found and arrested. After a hearing, the trial court revoked Appellant’s community supervision, adjudicated him guilty of the drug offense, and placed him on community supervision for a period of ten years. The court of appeals reversed, concluding that the trial court erred in rejecting Appellant’s statutory due diligence defense under Code of Criminal Procedure Article 42A.109. On discretionary review to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the State contended the court of appeals erred by failing to consider one of its arguments in support of the trial court’s ruling - namely, that Appellant should have been estopped from relying on the due diligence defense because he had received special permission to live in Mexico during his period of community supervision such that it would have been impossible for the State to make in-person contact with him at that location. Accordingly, the State asked the Court to remand the case to the lower court for consideration of that issue. The Court concluded the State was entitled to consideration of its estoppel argument; it reversed the court of appeals’ judgment and remanded this case for further proceedings.
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