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Sorrells v. State

A Travis County jury convicted the appellant of aggravated robbery. On appeal, the court of appeals found that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction of aggravated robbery and reformed the judgment to reflect conviction of the lesser-included offense of assault by threat. This case is one of force antecedent to, or during, the theft. A rational juror could draw a reasonable inference that the assault and the theft occurred simultaneously, and thus the assault was committed during the commission of theft. The evidence in this case was thus sufficient to prove both that the appellant committed theft and that he committed assault in the course of committing theft. The court of appeal's decision is reversed and remanded. Court of Criminal Appeals, No. PD-1802-09, 06-22-2011.

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Womack, J., delivered the opinion of the unanimous Court.

A Travis County jury convicted the appellant, Eric Deshon Sorrells, of aggravated robbery. On appeal, the Thirteenth Court of Appeals*fn1 found that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction of aggravated robbery, and reformed the judgment to reflect conviction of the lesser-included offense of assault by threat. We granted the State’s petition for discretionary review on three grounds: (1) whether the Court of Appeals properly reviewed the sufficiency of the evidence; (2) whether the Court of Appeals properly applied the law of parties; and (3) in the alternative, whether the Court of Appeals properly reformed the judgment. We hold that the Court of Appeals erred in its review of the sufficiency of the evidence. We therefore need not address the State’s second and third grounds. We will reverse the Court’s decision and remand for consideration of the appellant’s remaining claims.

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