Aggravated Sexual Assault of An Adult Example Case In Texas

In Murray v. State, 804 S.W.2d 279 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth 1991, pet. ref'd), an aggravated sexual assault case with an adult female victim, the court recognized that the offense had not been categorized as requiring only one conduct element, either a result or nature of conduct culpable mental state. Id. at 281. The court agreed an offense may contain any one or more of the "conduct elements" which alone or in combination form the overall behavior which the legislature criminalized and to which the culpable mental state must apply. Id. But when an offense is both a "result" and a "nature of the conduct" type of offense, with respect to the intent or knowledge required, the trial court should submit statutory definitions of "intentionally" and "knowingly" to enable the jury to consider both the result of the offender's conduct and the nature of his conduct. Id. Aggravated sexual assault of a child is that type of offense. Therefore, the trial court did not err in charging the jury on "knowingly" and "intentionally" because this allowed the jury, in applying the law to the facts as instructed, to consider the nature of appellant's conduct as well as the result of his conduct.