I have a guy with a SJF theft case. He has 2 paragraphs on him, a 1998 3rd degree felony PCS case and a 2002 SJF PCS case with 2 regular felony enhancement paragraphs that were found true (=2-20 punish. range) that led to a 3 year TDC pen trip.

Does anyone know of any authority that provides that the enhanced SJF prior is or is not usable as a regular felony pen trip?

Remarkably, neither the staff attorneys nor our appellate DA's can find a definitive answer on this - which suggest maybe it hasn't been litigated or maybe it is so common sense that only I think the pen trip caused the SJF to become a regular felony for the purposes of future enhancement.

See Ricks v. State, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 2988, it's a case out of the Austin COA

Thanks Corey, we had that case as well but the judge was not convinced and decided not to follow its "persuasive" authority since it was an unpublished opionion and is outside the Dallas jurisdiction.

That Levario would find it "unpersuasive" . . .

Lee, are you back on this side? Shoot me an email. mjarrett@wilco.org Jason, good luck with that.

Michael J. Jarrett

It's standard practice anywhere I've practiced. I can't say I recall it ever being challenged though. Must be a big city/small town thing.