Alvarado v. State

In Alvarado v. State, 775 S.W.2d 851 (Tex. App.--San Antonio 1989, pet. ref'd), the San Antonio Court of Appeals reversed a defendant's conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child on the ground that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial. Id. at 857. There, the defendant's trial counsel had failed to object to the inadmissible testimony of: (1) a counselor, regarding the complainant's statements made to her and the assertions of the complainant's brother that the defendant had also sexually abused him; (2) the complainant's mother, regarding the complainant's statements made to the counselor and the mother's own statements made to the defendant's mother and sister; (3) a doctor, regarding the complainant's statements made to him. Id. at 853-55. The court noted that the evidence that the jury was improperly allowed to consider might "easily" be described as "overwhelming." Id. at 857. And when the inadmissible evidence was disregarded, the remaining evidence consisted primarily of the testimony of the complainant and her younger brother, which constituted a "very small part" of the record. Id. at 855.