Texas v. Torres (original by judge yeary)
Annotate this CaseWhen Appellee Sebastian Torres was sixteen years old, he was brought before a magistrate and read his statutory Miranda warnings. Pursuant to Texas Family Code Section 51.095(f), the magistrate requested that law enforcement officers return Appellee and the video recording of Appellee’s interview to the magistrate at the conclusion of questioning so that he could determine whether any statements Appellee gave during interrogation were voluntary. Following interrogation, the officers did not comply with the magistrate’s request. Appellee was never returned, and the magistrate never made a determination. A few months after Appellee’s interview with law enforcement, a juvenile court transferred Appellee’s case to the appropriate district court for adult criminal proceedings. Appellee filed a pretrial motion to suppress his recorded statements, arguing that since the magistrate did not ultimately make a determination whether the statements were given voluntarily, the statements were inadmissible under Section 51.095(f). The trial court granted Appellee’s motion to suppress, and the State made an interlocutory appeal. The issue presented for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was whether the court of appeals erred to agree with the trial court that Appellee’s statements were inadmissible under Section 51.095(f). To answer this question, the Court first had to construe the meaning of Section 51.095(f): what does it mean for a magistrate to “use” the procedure described by Subsection (f)? The Court ultimately concluded that the magistrate did “use” the procedure, and since the magistrate did not determine whether Appellee’s statements were given voluntarily, Appellee’s statements were inadmissible under Section 51.095(f).
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.