Stephenson v. State

673 S.W.3d 370

Christopher STEPHENSON, Appellant

v.The STATE of Texas

No. 02-22-00101-CR

No. 02-22-00102-CR

No. 02-22-00103-CR

No. 02-22-00104-CR

No. 02-22-00105-CR

No. 02-22-00106-CR

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

Delivered: July 20, 2023

Reconsideration En Banc Denied August 10, 2023

Discretionary Review Refused November 1, 2023

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: J. EDWARD NIEHAUS, BODKIN NIEHAUS DORRIS & JOLLEY, PLLC, FLOWER MOUND, TEXAS.

ATTORNEY FOR STATE: PAUL JOHNSON, CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY; RICK H. DANIEL, ASSISTANT CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY, CHIEF APPELLATE DIVISION; LINDSEY SHEGUIT, RACHEL NICHOLS, LARA TOMLIN, ASSISTANT CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEYS DENTON COUNTY CRIMINAL DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, DENTON, TEXAS.

Before Sudderth, C.J.; Bassel and Womack, JJ.

Opinion by Chief Justice Sudderth

Appellant Christopher Stephenson sexually abused four of his wife's children. A jury convicted him of two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a young child under the age of 14, three counts of sexual assault of a child under the age of 17, and one count of indecency with a child under the age of 17. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. §§ 21.02(b), 21.11(a), 22.011(a)(2). Stephenson appeals his convictions and raises a slew of issues, which we construe as six: two Sixth Amendment challenges, one sufficiency challenge, one evidentiary challenge, and two Double Jeopardy challenges. Although one of his Double Jeopardy challenges presents an issue of first impression, none of his arguments unearth error, much less reversible error. Accordingly, we will affirm.

I. Background

Christopher Stephenson married a woman—B.S. (Brittney)¹ —who had nine children. The family had already been through a lot when Stephenson entered the picture.

A. Before Stephenson

Brittney's nine children had four different fathers. In 2009, one of those fathers shot and killed Brittney's oldest child. After the death, the Department of Family and Protective Services—commonly referred to as Child Protective Services (CPS)—removed Brittney's remaining children² from her home for about six months. The children were initially placed in foster homes before CPS transferred them to their uncle's care, but that transfer was not an improvement; one of Brittney's daughters—C.W. (Courtney)—later reported that the uncle had anally raped her.³ Needless to say, even after the children were ultimately reunited with their mother, they were "all scared because of [the experience]."

Stephenson began a relationship with Brittney a few years later,⁴ and he was aware of this CPS history.

B. Stephenson's Sexual Abuse

Brittney and Stephenson married in January 2014. For the majority of the six years that followed, Brittney worked long hours and had a lengthy commute, while Stephenson was unemployed. Left at home with the children, Stephenson sexually abused four of them: Courtney, S.R. (Simon), R.R. (Rebecca), and T.R. (Tina).

1. Courtney

Courtney was Brittney's oldest surviving daughter. Born in 2002, she was 11 years old when Stephenson married her mother. Within about six months, Stephenson started abusing her.

At first Stephenson grabbed Courtney's breasts, butt, and inner thigh, claiming it was "on accident." Then he began "repetive[ly]" slipping his hand under her blanket during family movie nights and touching and rubbing her vaginal area. Stephenson also came into Courtney's bedroom when she was alone and digitally penetrated her, asking her if she liked it. And on one occasion, he anally raped her, leaving her with blood and semen running down her legs.

Brittney later recalled how, around this time, Stephenson began referring to Courtney as "[h]is girlfriend," despite her being 11 or 12 years old. Brittney told him that it "was highly inappropriate" and that "it needed to stop," but Stephenson insisted "it was a joke."

Stephenson continued to digitally penetrate Courtney and ask her if she liked it, and then when she was 12 years old, he progressed to vaginally raping her, increasing in frequency until he was raping her "three, four times a week." The "very regular vaginal raping" continued through her 14th birthday in March 2016.

Even after she turned 14, it did not stop; the rapes were, in Courtney's words, "very repetitive, very constant."

The next year, on her 15th birthday, Courtney tried to run away with her boyfriend.⁵ When she returned home, Stephenson insisted on inspecting her underwear, he accused her of "whor[ing] around," and then he raped her again. At that point, the rapes increased to "almost every day."⁶

In October 2018, when Courtney was 16 years old, she, her mother, and Stephenson attended a concert, and Stephenson told Courtney that she "owed him for that" by not only having sex with him but also "acting like [she] enjoyed" it and performing oral sex.⁷ Courtney's birth control had lapsed at the time, and she soon realized she was pregnant.

Stephenson took Courtney to get an abortion, but she was too far along in the pregnancy by then, so, in an attempt to force a miscarriage, he "started hitting [her] in the stomach, punching [her], kicking [her], [and] shoving [her] down" on an almost daily basis.⁸ Meanwhile, he continued to rape and inappropriately touch her "[a]lmost every day."

When Courtney was about seven months pregnant, she began bleeding profusely, and she was taken to the hospital where she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. Courtney later explained that she "didn't want to get beat more by telling the truth" about the father's identity, so she lied and claimed the father was a boy at school.

Soon after the birth, Stephenson resumed raping Courtney.⁹ He had grown increasingly physically abusive as well;¹⁰ when Courtney "said no, [she] would get kicked into a dresser or hit in the back or screamed at."

Courtney graduated from high school in mid-2020, and Stephenson urged her to move into his friends’ home so he and she could "get married and start [their] own lives together." Instead, Courtney—feeling so trapped that she penned a suicide note—finally told her mother about the sexual abuse.

2. Simon

Simon was also a victim of Stephenson's abuse. Simon was born in 2003 and was 10 years old when Stephenson married his mother. He testified that Stephenson grabbed his penis "about three times" over the years that followed.

The first incident occurred when Simon was 13. He was playing a video game on his bed, and Stephenson came in, started joking around, then grabbed Simon's penis and tugged. When asked if Stephenson said anything at the time, Simon remembered that he "just laugh[ed]."

The second incident was similar. When Simon was 15, Stephenson came into Simon's room and again grabbed his penis while he was playing a video game on his bed. But this time, Stephenson asked him, "Do you like that?" When Simon responded negatively and pushed Stephenson away, Stephenson got angry and "started yelling at [Simon] for hitting him," stating that he would fight Simon "like a man, one-on-one." Stephenson also "threaten[ed Simon] with CPS," which—due to the family's prior CPS experience—Simon feared would "split the family apart." At that time, Stephenson told Simon "that he [wa]sn't gay and that he only like[d] women and that all of it was a joke." Simon, though, testified that he did not think it was a joke.

In the third touching incident, Simon was riding in the front seat of Stephenson's truck, and Stephenson reached for Simon's penis, but Simon managed to push his hand away.¹¹

Simon told the jury that, on multiple occasions, Stephenson verbalized his concern that Brittney would look at him (Stephenson) differently if Simon told her about the touching. And Simon reiterated how Stephenson used CPS-related threats to keep him quiet. Stephenson repeatedly warned Simon that, if he told, CPS would take Simon from his mother and siblings just as it had in the past. So although Simon was "sometimes ... tempted" to tell, he "was always scared because [he] didn't like CPS."

Despite this fear, in 2020, Simon disclosed his abuse while being forensically interviewed as a witness to Stephenson's sexual abuse of Courtney.

3. Rebecca

In addition to Courtney and Simon, Stephenson sexually abused Rebecca. Rebecca was born in 2005, so she was eight when Stephenson married her mother. Although the family did not know it at the time, Rebecca is autistic.¹²

She testified that, when she was in sixth grade, Stephenson "made [her] use [her] mouth on his man private part." She remembered him repeating this type of sexual abuse between three and five times over the two years that followed.

He committed other acts of sexual abuse during this same time period as well, "[b]asically, all throughout [Rebecca's time in] middle school." On one occasion, he made her touch "his private part." On another, he lay down beside her on her bed and digitally penetrated her. Rebecca remembered how, when he penetrated her, Stephenson "asked [her] if [she] liked it."

She also recalled his saying multiple times that if she told anyone, "CPS w[ould] get involved." She explained that she "was afraid of that because [she] didn't want to lose [her] mom or [her] siblings." Rebecca told her father about Stephenson's abuse in June 2019, just a few weeks after her 14th birthday.

4. Tina

Stephenson also abused Tina. Tina—born in 2006—was seven when Stephenson married her mother.

Stephenson first inappropriately touched Tina about three years later, when she was around the age of 10. On that occasion, Stephenson took her four-wheeling. During that excursion, he drove them off the main trail, made her touch "his front private area," and then "touched [her] front private area" in turn. Stephenson told Tina that such touching was "how people show love," and he told her not to tell anyone. He continued to touch her during subsequent four-wheeler rides, "maybe twice a month."

Later, when Tina was 11 or 12 years old, Stephenson began coming into her room at night and "touching [her] in [her] front private area" underneath her clothes. Tina...