Boy friend and girlfriend have baby less than a year old with them in Smith County in eighteen wheeler and have an altercation. CPS takes child and Court in Smith County Gives grandma (girlfriend's mother) custody and she lives in Haskell County witch is in our District. Boy friend makes some threats to grandma and she gets a protective order from the District Court in Haskell County. Girlfriend lives in Lubbock County and boy friend is now in TDCJ-State Jail. Boy friend sends letter to girlfriend in Lubbock making a threat to kill grandma. girldfriend contacts grandma and gives her the letter. Boy friend is mad about grandma getting custody of the child and she was a witness at the court hearing. We thank we have a retaliation charge if we have venue. Would appreciate any help you all could give us. Thanks

I think you have venue where the letter was sent from (the tdcj unit) and where the letter was received.

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Smith County Gives grandma (girlfriend's mother) custody and she lives in Haskell County witch is in our District.

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Whether or not Haskell has venue seems like it would come down to the issue of whether venue for a threat can be established where the reasonable person would expect the threat to be communicated. Venue is most obvious where the bf is incarcerated where it was sent from or in Lubbock County, to where it was sent. But it would not be unreasonable to infer venue in Haskell where the threat will have its greatest effect, particularly if the letter instructs the gf to communicate the threat to her mother.

Soliz v. State, 97 S.W. 3d 137 touches on this issue. It implies that venue can be had where ever the actor has an effect. Seems too broad and obviously requires a lot more in depth research. But that may be a good starting point.

Thanks for your help. DA says we are going to try and make it work. Mr. Gibbs, the one thing that almost kept me out of the police academy in 1988 was the spelling part of the entrance exam. My secretary was out yesterday and was unable to proofread my post. Anytime we can have a good laugh at my expense, I am all for it.
Thanks again.