Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of June 7, 2021.

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Kingsbury v. State, No. 02-19-00239-CR (June 10, 2021) (Sudderth, C.J., joined by Womack and Wallach, JJ.).

Held:  The trial court did not abuse its discretion by allowing a domestic-violence expert to provide testimony about the dynamics of family violence—“soft” science expert testimony under Nenno v. State, 970 S.W.2d 549 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998)—in this aggravated-assault-with-a-deadly-weapon case arising out of a domestic-violence incident.  The testimony was admissible to explain the victim’s tolerance of her abusive relationship with the appellant and to put into context for the jury the way their relationship worked because the average juror would not typically be familiar with the effect of domestic violence on victims and the dynamics of the abuser-victim relationship.