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I'm really trying to wrap my head around Art. 18.19 regarding weapons. If a seized weapon is from a Ch. 46 charge and the defendant receives deferred or is convicted of the offense, the State does not need to provide notice to the defendant, but rather wait 61 days to see if the weapon is requested. Otherwise, it can be ordered for destruction or other disposition.
For criminal charges where a weapon was used, if the defendant is convicted (no deferred), the court is supposed to order the disposition of the weapon before the 61st day.
For those weapons charges that do not result in a prosecution or conviction, the original magistrate is supposed to provide notice once he/she determines that there will be no conviction or prosecution before the 61st day.

Questions: What about cases where a weapon is utilized and the defendant gets deferred? Does the notice requirement go back to the original magistrate once the defendant has been discharged from deferred?

If a defendant is given deferred for a Chapter 46 offense and is later discharged, but never requested the weapon within 60 days of the judgment and the weapon still happens to be lying around, is the original magistrate supposed to provide notice to the defendant because there was no conviction?

If the no notice was ever given on cases where there is no prosecution or conviction because the magistrate takes the position that his authority has ended once the case has been indicted or filed with the courts, what is the proper method of disposition? Art. 18.17?

Practically speaking, when should the 61 day window for notification by the magistrate begin and what is the prosecutor role in alerting the magistrate?
 
Posts: 30 | Location: Rockwall, Texas USA | Registered: December 12, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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