Corley v. State (1999)

In Corley v. State, 987 S.W.2d 615, 619-20 (Tex. App.--Austin 1999, no pet.), the Court determined that an extraneous sexual assault was substantially similar to the charged sexual assault because, in both instances, the appellant followed the victim home without her consent, the victims were young and not acquainted with the appellant, the attacks occurred at night as the victims were getting out of their cars in the parking lots of their apartment complexes, and the appellant shoved a rag in the victims' mouths and threatened to kill them. Id. at 619. The extraneous offense was relevant despite some differences from the charged offense; in only one attack did the appellant use a weapon, drag the victim to the woods, make numerous sexual advances, and attempt to rape her. Id. at n.2 (extraneous offense "need only be substantially similar, . . . not exactly the same as the offense charged").