Juvenile is charged with having engaged in indecency with a child by touching the victim's genitals. Victim says the juvenile used his mouth; juvenile made a voluntary statement to police that he touched with his hand.

Our petition, per the TDCAA Charging Manual, does not allege what instrumentality did the touching. Must a jury be unanimous as to hand or mouth in order to find that the juvenile engaged in the conduct?

I know this is a juvenile-related question, but it seems to belong in this forum a little more than the juvenile one.

A good starting point might be Pizzo v. State, 235 S.W.3d 711 in the Court of Criminal Appeals analyzed Indecency by Contact in the content of deciding whether jury unanimity was required as to what enumerated body parts of the child had been touched. Here is the quote:

"Under our state constitution, jury unanimity is required in felony cases, and, under our state statutes, unanimity is required in all criminal cases." Unanimity ensures that all jurors reach a consensus “on the same act for a conviction.” To discern what a jury must be unanimous about, appellate courts examine the statute defining the offense to determine whether the Legislature “creat[ed] multiple, separate offenses, or a single offense” with different methods or means of commission. “[J]ury unanimity is required on the essential elements of the offense” but is “generally not required on the alternate modes or means of commission.”

After determining that Indecency by Contact is a conduct oriented offense, the Court decided that the statute basically outlines three separate offenses

All that to say that basically the offense is the touching of one of the three enumerated areas of a child. How or with what limb or body part a defendant touches one of those three areas would appear to be the manner and means of committing the offense and therefore not require jury unanimity.