Applin v. State

Appellant appeals the trial court's judgments revoking her community supervision. Appellant argues that the evidence is insufficient to prove that she violated terms of her community supervision. The crux of appellant's argument is that the trial court had already subjected her to confinement for the alleged violations of her community supervision; thus, citing double jeopardy, she contends that the trial court erroneously used the same violation as a basis for revoking her probation and sentencing her to the penitentiary as it did when it imposed its additional conditions in October and December 2008. Even assuming that the infractions that led to these conditions of community supervision serve in part as the same foundation that supports the state's petition for revocation, there is no double jeopardy issue. Under Texas law, a trial court does not err by imposing conditions of jail time for violations of community supervision and also finding true that these violations occurred for revocation purposes. Furthermore, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it revoked her community supervision. The state need only prove that she violated her conditions by a preponderance of the evidence as to any one condition imposed in the community supervision arrangement, and it did that. For example, among other evidence, she admitted to smoking marijuana and taking prescription cough medicine. As for her final issue, appellant has failed to overcome the presumption that trial counsel's actions were consistent with sound trial strategy. The trial court's judgments are affirmed. It appears that counsel's strategy was to appeal to the trial court's discretion and ask the court to assign to appellant a new partner in recovery and to continue community supervision rather than revoke the suspension of her sentences. Given the evidence that appellant had violated multiple conditions of her community supervision, counsel's tactic was not unreasonable under the circumstances. Fort Worth Court of Appeals, Nos. 02-09-00089-CR , NO. 02-09-00090-CR, 04-14-2011