Zafres Lamonn McDonald v. The State of Texas Appeal from 188th District Court of Gregg County (memorandum opinion)
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
In The Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana No. 06-21-00055-CR ZAFRES LAMONN MCDONALD, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee On Appeal from the 188th District Court Gregg County, Texas Trial Court No. 51753-A Before Morriss, C.J., Stevens and Carter,* JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Stevens ____________ *Jack Carter, Justice, Retired, Sitting by Assignment MEMORANDUM OPINION Zafres Lamonn McDonald entered an open plea of guilty to evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.04. After hearing evidence on punishment, the trial court sentenced McDonald to ten years’ imprisonment. McDonald appeals. In addition to this appeal, in companion cause numbers 06-21-00052-CR, 06-21-00053CR, and 06-21-00054-CR, McDonald appeals his convictions for another count of evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and credit card abuse. McDonald has filed a single brief raising a sole issue common to all his appeals. He argues that the trial court erred by failing to enforce an alleged plea agreement. We addressed this issue in detail in our opinion of this date on McDonald’s appeal in cause number 06-21-00052-CR. For the reasons stated therein, we likewise conclude that the trial court properly concluded that there was no binding plea agreement in this case. As a result, we overrule McDonald’s sole point of error on appeal. Even so, we must modify the trial court’s judgment to reflect the proper statute of offense. Under Section 38.04(b)(2)(A), evading arrest with a motor vehicle is a third-degree felony. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.04(b)(2)(A). The evidence at trial established that, after the Longview Police Department had successfully stopped McDonald for a traffic violation in a parking lot, McDonald placed his truck in reverse, almost pinned a peace officer between his truck and a patrol car, jumped a curb, hit a fire hydrant and a fence, and evaded arrest on foot. The evidence at trial, McDonald’s plea, and the trial court’s judgment show that the offense was a third-degree felony. While the trial court’s judgment lists the correct degree of offense, it lists 2 the statute of offense as Section 38.04(b)(1)(B) of the Texas Penal Code, which sets forth circumstances not applicable here under which the offense of evading arrest or detention is a state jail felony. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 38.04(b)(1)(B). “This Court has the power to correct and modify the judgment of the trial court for accuracy when the necessary data and information are part of the record.” Anthony v. State, 531 S.W.3d 739, 743 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2016, no pet.) (citing TEX. R. APP. P. 43.2(b); Bigley v. State, 865 S.W.2d 26, 27 (Tex. Crim. App. 1993); Asberry v. State, 813 S.W.2d 526, 529 (Tex. App.—Dallas 1991, pet. ref’d)). “The authority of an appellate court to reform incorrect judgments is not dependent upon the request of any party, nor does it turn on the question of whether a party has or has not objected in the trial court.” Id. (quoting Asberry, 813 S.W.2d at 529–30). We modify the trial court’s judgment to reflect that the correct statute of offense is Section 38.04(b)(2)(A) of the Texas Penal Code. As modified, we affirm the trial court’s judgment. Scott E. Stevens Justice Date Submitted: Date Decided: January 10, 2022 March 2, 2022 Do Not Publish 3
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.
