Sharpnack, Preston Joe, PD-1030-15

Defendant Preston Sharpnack punched Matthew Casey once on a downtown Austin street; Casey fell, struck his head on the sidewalk, developed a subdural hematoma and later died despite neurosurgery.
Medical testimony: the punch caused a facial laceration but was not, by itself, shown to produce the fatal brain injury; the fatal injury resulted from blunt force trauma to the back of Casey’s head when he hit the pavement.
Experts (medical examiner and neurosurgeon) testified a hand can be a deadly weapon when used in a way that causes a person to fall and strike their head, and characterized the death as a homicide.
Jury convicted Sharpnack of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; trial court assessed 10-year sentence and found affirmative deadly-weapon finding.
Sharpnack appealed the sufficiency of evidence for the deadly-weapon finding; the Third Court of Appeals affirmed, relying in part on Kennedy v. State.

Issue	Sharpnack's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Whether the evidence suffices to find Sharpnack used his hand as a "deadly weapon" under Tex. Penal Code § 1.07(a)(17)(B)	The punch did not, by itself, cause death or serious injury; appellate court's reliance on an attenuated causal chain imposes strict liability and ignores mens rea — there was no evidence he intended or should have known his punch would cause death	A hand can be a deadly weapon if, in the manner of its use, it was capable of causing death or serious bodily injury; experts testified the punch caused unconsciousness and a fall that led to fatal brain injury, so a rational jury could so find	The court of appeals affirmed: viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, testimony supported that the hand, in the manner of its use, was capable of causing serious bodily injury or death, so the deadly-weapon finding was legally sufficient

Brister v. State, 449 S.W.3d 490 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014) (standard for reviewing deadly-weapon sufficiency and related precedents)
Kennedy v. State, 402 S.W.3d 796 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2013) (upheld deadly-weapon finding where a push led to a fall and later death; disputed for expanding causation and mens rea scope)
Lane v. State, 151 S.W.3d 188 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004) (hands can be deadly weapons when used in a manner calculated to inflict serious bodily injury)
Turner v. State, 664 S.W.2d 86 (Tex. Crim. App. 1983) (recognizing that ordinarily innocuous instruments, including hands, can become deadly weapons depending on manner of use)
Drichas v. State, 175 S.W.3d 795 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005) (framework for deadly-weapon findings in felony transactions)