In The
Court of Appeals
Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo
No. 07-14-00369-CR
No. 07-14-00370-CR
ZAVIER ALLEN, APPELLANT
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, APPELLEE
On Appeal from the 364th District Court
Lubbock County, Texas
Trial Court Nos. 2013-400,580 & 2013-400-581;
Honorable Bradley S. Underwood, Presiding
April 2, 2015
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Before QUINN, C.J., and HANCOCK and PIRTLE, JJ.
Zavier Allen entered open pleas of guilty to the offenses of aggravated sexual
assault and aggravated robbery and was convicted of the same. He now contests
those convictions by claiming that he was not admonished as to the requirement that he
register as a sex offender which rendered both pleas involuntary. We affirm the
judgments.
Statute provides that before accepting a plea of guilty, the trial court shall
admonish the defendant of the fact that he will be required to meet the registration
requirements of Chapter 62 (Sex Offender Registration Program) if he has been
convicted of aggravated sexual assault. TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 26.13(a)(5)
(West Supp. 2014). That the requisite admonishment was not afforded by the trial court
to appellant here is undisputed. Nevertheless, the purported error is harmless.
First, the legislature also provided in article 26.13 that the failure to admonish the
accused about the need to register as a sex offender is not a ground for the defendant
to set aside the conviction, sentence, or plea. Id. art. 26.13(h). And, various
intermediate courts of appeals have rejected issues identical to the one at bar for that
reason. See e.g., Fluellen v. State, 443 S.W.3d 365, 372 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2014,
no pet.); Morin v. State, 340 S.W.3d 816, 818 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2011, pet. ref’d);
James v. State, 258 S.W.3d 315, 318 (Tex. App.—Austin 2008, pet. dism’d, untimely
filed).
Second, the record also contains the following exchange that occurred at the
plea hearing:
MR. SKELTON: Zavier, prior to us coming in here today we discussed the
requirements that you’ll have upon release, whenever that may be, that
you’ll have to register, correct?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
MR. SKELTON: And you knew that prior to entering your plea?
THE DEFENDANT: Yes, sir.
(Emphasis added). To that, we add the following information incorporated into the trial
court’s judgment: “Defendant understands that he/she will be required to meet the
2
registration requirements as a sex offender under Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of
Criminal Procedure. Further, the Defendant represents that his/her counsel has
explained the requirements of Chapter 62 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure as it
applies to the Defendant.” These circumstances compel us to hold that appellant
actually knew of the registration requirements in question even though the trial court
may not have reiterated them. See Anderson v. State, 182 S.W.3d 914, 920 (Tex.
Crim. App. 2006) (stating that “if the appellant already were aware of the registration
requirement, the effect of the court's error on his decision to plead guilty would be much
less.”).
Accordingly, we overrule appellant’s issue and affirm the judgments.
Brian Quinn
Chief Justice
Do not publish.
3