Kevin Edison Smith v. State, 01-12-00423-CR

Victim: 13-year-old Krystal Baker found strangled near Trinity River Bridge in 1996; DNA from her clothing and fingernail scrapings matched Smith in 2010.
Smith arrested in 2010; buccal swab DNA matched the single-source male profile from the evidence; expert testified match probability extremely small for unrelated person.
Smith made inculpatory statements in an interview and a recorded jail call admitting sexual contact and describing choking the victim with a bucket strap and dumping her body.
At trial the State charged capital murder alleging the murder occurred during an aggravated sexual assault (sexual assault of a child under 14 elevates murder to capital murder).
Before empaneling the jury, Smith raised Batson objections to the State’s peremptory strikes of the three African-American veniremembers; the trial court denied the Batson challenge.
Smith requested a jury instruction on the lesser-included offense of murder (arguing a mistake-of-fact about the victim’s age); the trial court refused and the court of appeals affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Smith)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Batson challenge to strikes of three African-American veniremembers	Strikes were racially motivated; prima facie case met	Offered race-neutral reasons: relative connection, too young, apparent juror-card inconsistency	Denied — trial court’s acceptance of race-neutral explanations not clearly erroneous; appellant failed to prove pretext
Request for lesser-included offense (murder) based on mistake-of-fact about victim’s age	Smith argued he believed victim was an adult, so jury could convict only of murder, not capital murder	Aggravated sexual assault involving a child is a strict liability offense re: victim’s age; mistake of fact is not a defense; no evidence to negate the aggravating felony	Denied — no legally cognizable mistake-of-fact defense to child sexual assault; no evidence supporting lesser-included instruction; jury nullification not required

Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (prohibits race-based peremptory strikes)
Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765 (proffered explanation need only be facially race-neutral)
Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352 (three-step Batson framework)
Snyder v. Louisiana, 552 U.S. 472 (deference to trial court on credibility of explanations)
Miller–El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322 (Batson review may require attention to demeanor and other trial-court observations)
Watkins v. State, 245 S.W.3d 444 (Texas standard on Batson and race-neutral explanation)
Gibson v. State, 144 S.W.3d 530 (pretext is a question of fact for trial court)
Cavazos v. State, 382 S.W.3d 377 (procedure for lesser-included offense instruction)
Guzman v. State, 188 S.W.3d 185 (two-step test for lesser-included offense instruction)