Opinion
No. 06-20-00028-CR
05-07-2020
DAVID ALLEN HAMILTON, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 276th District Court Marion County, Texas
Trial Court No. F15004 Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
David Allen Hamilton appeals his conviction for family violence assault, alleging that the evidence was not sufficient to prove the victim was a member of the same household as Hamilton. Because the evidence demonstrates that, at the time of the assault, Hamilton and the victim lived in the same residence, we affirm the trial court's judgment and sentence.
See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.01(b)(2)(B). This statute incorporates, inter alia, the definition of household found in Section 71.005 of the Texas Family Code.
Hamilton waived a jury trial. The trial court sentenced him to nine years' confinement.
The complainant, Donald Gibson, was the fiancée of Hamilton's mother, Deborah. On Mother's Day weekend 2018, Gibson invited Deborah, Hamilton, Hamilton's girlfriend, and the girlfriend's daughter to Gibson's lake house on Lake O' the Pines. At some point during the weekend, Hamilton became enraged and commanded the women to return to Linden. He forced them out of the cabin, and they took refuge in a vehicle belonging to one of them. Deborah called Gibson, who was out fishing on the lake, and told him of the developments. Gibson came to the cabin and found that Hamilton had locked and barricaded himself inside the lodge. Gibson was able to unlock and open the door. Inside, Gibson confronted Hamilton about his boorish behavior, and Hamilton attacked him. Gibson described Hamilton pulling out clumps of Gibson's hair and choking him. Gibson suffered three cracked ribs and three fractured vertebrae.
Gibson and Deborah both testified that, before this assault at the lake, Hamilton had lived with them at Deborah's residence after being released from a Georgia prison. After living at Deborah's residence for several weeks, Hamilton returned to Georgia and lived with his girlfriend and her mother. Deborah returned to Georgia to collect Hamilton and his girlfriend after the girlfriend's mother kicked Hamilton out of her residence. Deborah's testimony suggests that this was in the month leading up to the Mother's Day weekend during which the assault occurred and that Hamilton and Gibson both lived in her residence at the time of the assault.
Hamilton's argument is that there was no evidence of any kinship between Hamilton and Gibson within any degree of affinity or consanguinity. Hamilton, though, ignores the definition of "household" in the Texas Family Code: "'Household' means a unit composed of persons living together in the same residence, without regard to whether they are related to each other." TEX. FAM. CODE ANN. § 71.005.
As cited above, the evidence is that Hamilton was part of the same household as Gibson at the time of the assault. Nothing in the Texas Family Code requires a particular length of time for one to live with another to qualify as a household. In Shah v. State, 414 S.W.3d 808, 812-14 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2013, pet. ref'd), the victim testified that Shah was "living" in the victim's apartment at the time the assaults occurred. Id. at 814. Shah had moved enough of his personal items into the apartment that it had become "crowded" with those things. Id.; see Manning v. State, 112 S.W.3d 740, 745 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2003, pet. ref'd) (evidence sufficient to support conviction when some evidence existed that defendant and his girlfriend were living together at time of assault).
Because the evidence was sufficient to prove that, at the time of the assault, Hamilton and Gibson lived in the same residence, we overrule Hamilton's point of error and affirm the trial court's judgment and sentence.
Josh R. Morriss, III
Chief Justice Date Submitted: April 16, 2020
Date Decided: May 7, 2020 Do Not Publish