Nos. 01-02-00839-CR, 01-02-00840-CR, 01-02-00841-CR, 01-02-00842-CR
Opinion issued July 29, 2004. DO NOT PUBLISH. Tex.R.App.P. 47.2(b).
On Appeal from the 180th District Court Harris County, Texas, Trial Court Cause Nos. 888,985; 888,986; 888,987; 888,988.
Panel consists of Chief Justice RADACK and Justices KEYES and BLAND.
EVELYN V. KEYES, Justice.
After a bench trial, appellant, Henry Potthast Massey, was found guilty of three offenses of tampering with a government record and one offense of theft. The trial court sentenced appellant to a $10,000 fine and two years' confinement for each tampering offense, and eight years' confinement for the theft, with the sentences to run concurrently. The trial court also ordered appellant to pay restitution of $329,600 to his deceased daughter's estate trust. On appeal, appellant contends that the order of restitution conflicts with the oral pronouncement of judgment and that he was denied due process when the trial court failed to apply the doctrine of unclean hands and refused to grant his motion for a continuance. We affirm.
Appellant identified mixed issues of law and fact in the section he entitled "Issue Presented," but we are not able to discern the actual issues from that section. Therefore, we identify the issues based on appellant's arguments in the body of his brief.
Background
In 1995, two years after appellant's daughter, Courtney, was killed in a car accident, appellant settled a wrongful death lawsuit; $371,138.94 was awarded to his daughter's estate. Appellant's ex-wife sought to use appellant's portion of Courtney's estate to satisfy a judgment she had obtained against appellant. The probate judge placed the money in a safekeeping account pending resolution of the matter. Appellant's other daughter, Ann, obtained an order from the judge permitting her to withdraw money from the account to pay burial costs and attorney's fees related to Courtney's death. Appellant used this court order as a template for creating fictitious orders to withdraw more money from the safekeeping account, without judicial knowledge or permission. He then persuaded Ann to disburse funds, created false accounting statements to provide to the trial court, and forged Ann's signature on these statements and other documents. Within four years, appellant depleted the entire account. At trial, appellant admitted tampering with documents and offered more than once to make full restitution, but contended he was not guilty of theft because the assets in Courtney's estate belonged not to the estate, but to him. Order of Restitution
In his first point of error, appellant contends that, because the trial court's oral pronouncement of eight years imprisonment for the theft offense made no mention of restitution, this Court should strike the written addendum to the judgment requiring him to make restitution of $329,600 to Courtney's estate. The oral and written pronouncements of appellant's punishment are the same — eight years' imprisonment. Restitution is not part of a judgment; rather, it is a separate recommendation to the parole board based on evidence adduced at trial. See Campbell v. State, 5 S.W.3d 693, 696 (Tex.Crim.App. 1999). We review a restitution award under an abuse of discretion standard. Id. The amount of restitution recommended must be just and must (1) have a factual basis in the record; (2) be ordered for a crime the defendant committed; and (3) be within the amount of loss sustained by the victim. Id. at 699. Here, the record shows that appellant misappropriated at least $329,600 from his deceased daughter's trust. This is the amount of restitution recommended as a condition of parole and is thus a just amount. Morever, as the State notes and the record reflects, appellant repeatedly expressed his willingness and ability to make full restitution, and promised to do so whenever the judge determined that he should. Accordingly, he cannot now complain on appeal about being ordered to pay restitution. See id. at 702 (noting that because defendant asked court to award restitution to victims, he was precluded from raising complaint regarding restitution on appeal). We overrule the first point of error. Due Process
In his second, multifarious point of error, appellant argues that he was denied due process when (1) his attorney failed to establish the application of the doctrine of unclean hands and (2) the trial court denied his motion for continuance. Appellant, however, has failed to develop any legal argument with proper citations to authority or to relate the law to the facts with appropriate citations to the record. Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 38 provides that a brief to this Court shall contain, among other things, a concise statement of the facts of the case, supported by record references, and a clear and concise argument for the contentions made with appropriate citations to authorities and the record. Tex.R.App.P. 38.1. Rule 38.1 is not satisfied by merely uttering brief, conclusory statements, unsupported by appropriate legal citation. See Vuong v. State, 830 S.W.2d 929, 940 (Tex.Crim.App. 1992); Franklin v. Enserch, Inc., 961 S.W.2d 704, 711 (Tex. App.-Amarillo 1998, no pet.). Moreover, mere citations are not sufficient to comprise an argument that suffices under Rule 38.1. An appellant's brief also must argue to the court the law and the facts that weigh in the party's favor. See State v. Gonzalez, 855 S.W.2d 692, 697 (Tex.Crim.App. 1993); McFarland v. Sanders, 932 S.W.2d 640, 647 (Tex. App.-Tyler 1996, no writ). When appellant cites to the exhibits, he wholly fails to discuss the facts in light of legal authority to uphold his burden of demonstrating to this court that the trial court committed error. Given the foregoing, we conclude that appellant has failed to adequately brief this point of error. See Swearingen v. State, 101 S.W.3d 89, 100 (Tex.Crim.App. 2003); McCarthy v. State, 65 S.W.3d 47, 49 n. 2 (Tex.Crim.App. 2001). It is not this court's burden to formulate appellant's argument. See Tex.R.App.P. 38.1(h). Because appellant has failed to discuss the law and the facts and to make cogent arguments concerning how we should decide the issue, appellant has waived these issues on appeal. The State interprets appellant's second point of error as an assertion of ineffective assistance of counsel. To the extent that appellant makes this argument, he cannot prevail. There is nothing in the record to indicate trial counsel's strategy. Without such information, we cannot evaluate the merits of such a complaint. See Bone v. State, 77 S.W.3d 828, 833 (Tex.Crim. App. 2002). Finally, had appellant preserved his complaint regarding denial of his motion for continuance, the record reflects that the trial court did not err in denying the motion. Appellant's written reasons — to locate missing witnesses — varied from the reasons he orally gave to the trial court — to obtain paperwork and replace his counsel. Moreover, the motion for continuance contained neither the addresses nor the content of the testimony appellant expected his missing witnesses to provide. This information must be provided to properly preserve error. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 29.06 (Vernon 1989); Cates v. State, 72 S.W.3d 681, 691-92 (Tex. App.-Tyler 2001, no pet.). We overrule appellant's second point of error. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.