in the Interest of J.R., a Child, 06-17-00045-CV

Background

While police investigated a weapons complaint, appellant Lacey confessed to Officer Wells and later in a recorded interview that she had sexually abused the five children in her home and had conspired to kill her boyfriend and the children; she admitted drug use.
Handwritten journals found in Lacey’s apartment and two children’s outcry statements corroborated parts of her statements.
TDFPS sought termination of Lacey’s parental rights to J.R.; a Harrison County jury found statutory grounds for termination and that termination was in J.R.’s best interest.
At trial, defense counsel focused on undermining the reliability of Lacey’s confessions (e.g., unverified details, possible fabrication) and argued Lacey was emotionally battered and manipulated by her boyfriend Gabe.
Defense called witnesses (including family members) to support the battering/brainwashing theory; one child witness (B.P.) was found incompetent and did not testify.
On appeal, Lacey raised a single issue: ineffective assistance of counsel, alleging multiple specific errors by trial counsel; she did not challenge sufficiency of the evidence.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Lacey received effective assistance of counsel under Strickland	Trial counsel committed numerous errors (listed 18 ways) that prejudiced Lacey and likely changed the outcome	Counsel’s actions were reasonable trial strategy, many complaints are conclusory/waived, and no showing of prejudice	Court held counsel was not ineffective; Lacey failed to meet Strickland burden
Failure to timely and adequately conduct discovery	Counsel filed discovery late, preventing use of potentially exculpatory evidence	Counsel obtained court order to review State file and obtained criminal discovery, including videos; no showing of what additional discovery would have produced	Court found no proof of what discovery would have changed outcome; no prejudice shown
Failure to rehabilitate/qualify child witness (B.P.) and preserve testimony	Counsel failed to rehabilitate B.P. after incompetency ruling and did not preserve his testimony, harming defense	Other witnesses (e.g., Amy) provided B.P.-related testimony undermining abuse allegations; appellant did not show what additional testimony B.P. would have given or its effect	Court held appellant did not prove resulting prejudice; claim fails
Multiple asserted trial errors (voir dire time, objections, evidentiary predicates, jury charge, Batson, hearsay, etc.)	Cumulative list of alleged procedural and evidentiary mistakes demonstrating deficient performance	Many allegations are conclusory, lack record-based argument or authority, and are therefore waived; record does not show ‘‘outrageous’’ conduct or reasonable probability of different outcome	Court waived most complaints for inadequate briefing and rejected the ineffective-assistance claim on the merits for lack of prejudice

Key Cases Cited

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (establishes two-prong ineffective-assistance standard: performance and prejudice)
In re M.S., 115 S.W.3d 534 (Tex. 2003) (applies Strickland in parental-termination context; deference to strategic choices)
In re J.O.A., 283 S.W.3d 336 (Tex. 2009) (addresses counsel effectiveness in parental-rights proceedings)
Ex parte Martinez, 330 S.W.3d 891 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (clarifies prejudice standard: reasonable probability sufficient to undermine confidence in outcome)
In re K.S., 420 S.W.3d 852 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2014) (recognizes right to effective counsel in termination cases)