Background

• Defendant Ricky Ramos was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, with one enhancement alleging a prior harassment of a public servant conviction.
• Defendant pled not guilty; enhancement admitted true; jury found him guilty and sentenced him to 25 years in the Institutional Division.
• Punishment phase admitted extraneous evidence, including prior criminal history and Facebook photographs showing Tango Blast tattoos.
• State argued extraneous evidence; no witnesses were called by the State in punishment; defense highlighted mitigation and mental health and parental involvement.
• Defense did not object to the punishment charge’s lack of a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt instruction for extraneous offenses; appellant challenged egregious harm on appeal.
• Appellate briefing contends the trial court’s omission, and the State’s open-questions framing of gang affiliation, were not egregiously harmful given the verdict and the court’s instructions.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• Abdnor v. State, 871 S.W.2d 726 (Tex. Crim. App. 1994) (harm analysis for jury charge error)
• Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984) (four-factor harm standard for Almanza review)
• Ellison v. State, 86 S.W.3d 226 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002) (egregious-harm framework for punishment-phase errors)
• Allen v. State, 253 S.W.3d 260 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008) (no egregious harm when evidence supports sentence)
• Hutch v. State, 922 S.W.2d 166 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996) (Harm analysis framework for charge errors)
• Huizar v. State, 29 S.W.3d 249 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2001) (reasonable-doubt instruction not required when sentence within range)
• Graves v. State, 176 S.W.3d 422 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2004) (punishment within range supports harmless error ruling)
• Prenger v. State, 108 S.W.3d 501 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2003) (contextual cites for extraneous evidence treatment in punishment)
• Allen v. State, 47 S.W.3d 47 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2001) (sua sponte instruction on extraneous offenses; harm analysis)