Defendant plead guilty to sexual assault of a child. Defendant violates the conditions and MTR hearing is set. At the hearing the judge sentenced him to 12 years in TDC. Defense counsel has subsequently filed a motion to reconsider. Is this legal? Help.

Motions to reconsider are often filed where a motion for new trial is not available.

The court probably has plenary jurisdiction to reconsider a decision for a period of 30 days. (You do not mention the time frame involved).

Since I assume your case actually involved a motion to adjudicate (because regular probation was prohibited under 42.12 sec. 3g), the court had authority to set the punishment anywhere within the range specified by law. And thus, can legally now chose a different lower [but not higher] punishment.

The problem is really this. Reconsideration should be based on a legal argument founded on the evidence at the hearing (e.g., some procedural issue in the conduct of the hearing). The court's plenary jurisdiction should not be exercised just to allow presentation of evidence not produced earlier (unless perhaps it meets the definition of newly available evidence, similar to art. 40.001). If a defendant fails to take full advantage of the one fair opportunity the law provides to mitigate or plea for mercy, he should not get a second bite.