David Wayne Casey, Jr., Appellant v. the State of Texas, Appellee

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the Austin court of appeals, which had overturned appellant's sexual-assault conviction on two grounds. It held that photographs of an unidentified unconscious woman and of a conscious woman in group-sex scenes at appellant's house were admissible under Rules 404(b) and 403 because their non-propensity relevance — rebutting the defenses of consent, voluntary intoxication, and fabrication through a recurring drugged-and-photographed modus operandi ('doctrine of chances') — outweighed the danger of unfair prejudice. Although it agreed that 'partying' photographs of appellant, Cannon, and Diaz were irrelevant and admitted in error, it deemed that error harmless under Rule App. P. 44.2(b), and it held that the word 'victim' in the jury charge, tracking Penal Code section 22.021, was no impermissible comment on the evidence. Price, J., dissented.