Texas Aggravated Sexual Assault Law

The crime of sexual assault in Texas is graphically defined in the Texas Penal Code as a person knowingly, intentionally, and without the consent of the victim doing any of the following acts:

• Penetration of the sexual organs or orifices of a victim by any means;
• Causing a victim’s sexual organs to come in contact with the offender’s orifices or sexual organs.

What Does “Without the Consent of the Other Person” Mean in a Sexual Assault Charge?

In the context of a sexual assault charge, the phrase “without the consent of the other person” means any of the following:

• The offender forces the other person to commit the acts or submit to the assault through the threat of force or violence, and the victim believes the offender has the ability to follow through on the threat;
• The victim is incapable of consenting because they are unconscious or unable to physically resist;
• The offender uses some kind of coercion to force the person to participate in the act;
• The offender is a mental health care who exploits their position of trust with a current or former patient in order to make them participate or submit to the act;
• The offender is a clergyman who uses their position of trust to influence the other person to participate or submit to the act;
• The offender knows that the victim is incapable of understanding the nature of the act or resisting it because of their mental disease or defect;
• The victim does not consent, and the offender knows the victim is unaware that a sexual assault is occurring;
• The offender intentionally impairs the victim’s power to evaluate or control the offender’s conduct by giving them a substance, e.g., Rohypnol, without the victim’s knowledge;
• The offender is a public servant who uses coercion to get the victim to submit or participate;
• The offender is a person who provides mental health care or and the victim is a patient or former patient of the offender. The offender causes the victim to submit or participate by exploiting the other person’s emotional dependency on the offender;
• The offender is an employee of a facility in which the victim lives,
• The offender is a healthcare provider who performs an assisted reproductive procedure on the victim using material from a donor to which the victim has not expressly consented.

How Is Aggravated Sexual Assault Defined in Texas?

A sexual assault becomes an aggravated sexual assault in Texas if any of the following applies:

• The offender causes serious bodily injury or attempts to cause the death of the victim or another person while committing the crime;
• The offender does or says something to put the victim in fear of suffering death, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping;
• The offender acts or speaks in such a way as to place the victim in fear of death, serious bodily injury, or kidnapping of any person, not only the victim;
• The offender uses or displays a deadly weapon in the course of the crime;
• The offender acts in agreement with another person who engages in criminal actions directed at the same victim and occurring during the course of the same criminal episode;
• The offender intentionally administers a substance that can impair the victim’s ability to evaluate the offender’s actions or resist them;
• The victim is under the age of 14, regardless of whether the offender is aware of the victim’s age;
• The victim is elderly or disabled.

Can I Be Charged With Aggravated Sexual Assault if the Victim Was Not a Child?

The circumstances that make the crime of sexual assault an aggravated sexual assault are noted above. The fact that the victim is a child is only one circumstance that makes the crime an aggravated sexual assault.

But there are other circumstances that also make the crime an aggravated sexual assault. Some of these include causing or attempting to cause death or serious bodily injury to the victim, putting the victim in fear of death, serious bodily injury or kidnapping, using or displaying a deadly weapon, and the like.

Once a person is charged with a crime, they become a “defendant” in a criminal case, in legal terminology. They are then accorded certain rights, e.g., the right against self-incrimination.

Is Aggravated Sexual Assault a Second-Degree Felony in Texas?

In Texas, the crime of sexual assault is typically a second-degree felony. The punishment is a term of imprisonment of from 2 to 20 years and/or payment of a fine of up to $10,000.

If the victim is a person whom the defendant was legally prohibited from marrying, the prosecutor may charge the crime of sexual assault as a first-degree felony. A first-degree felony in Texas is punishable by five to ninety-nine years in a state prison and/or payment of a fine of up to $10,000.

In Texas, the crime of aggravated sexual assault is generally a first-degree felony. The minimum prison sentence is 25 years if the victim was younger than 6 years of age when the crime was committed or if the victim was younger than 14 years of age and one of the following aggravating circumstances was present:

• A deadly weapon was used or displayed;
• The child was seriously hurt;
• The offender tried to kill the child; or
• The offender used a controlled substance to enable the crime.

What Is the Crime of Super Aggravated Sexual Assault in Texas?

An offender is charged with super aggravated sexual assault when the victim of their crime is a child under the age of 6 or when the victim is under the age of 14, and certain aggravating factors are present.

A prosecutor may also charge a crime as a super aggravated sexual assault if the offender engaged in continuous child sexual abuse or has prior convictions for sexual abuse of a minor or aggravated sexual assault of a minor.

Super aggravated sexual assault of a child is a term prosecutor sometimes use to describe a case of aggravated sexual assault of a child, in which the normal punishment of 5 to 99 years imprisonment is enhanced to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment.

What Is the Punishment for Super Aggravated Sexual Assault?

In Texas, the crime of super aggravated sexual assault is charged as a first-degree felony. In Texas, it is considered to be one of the most serious crimes with which a person can be charged, in the same league as capital murder.

If a person is convicted of super aggravated sexual assault, under certain circumstances, they might be sentenced to life in prison or even the death penalty. A person convicted of a first-degree felony faces a minimum prison sentence of 25 years and a maximum prison sentence of 99 years.

The offender may also have to pay a fine of not more than $10,000. The death penalty is a possible punishment if a case involves a defendant who has multiple convictions of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Parole is not going to be a sentencing option for a defendant convicted of super aggravated sexual assault.

Do I Need the Help of a Lawyer for My Aggravated Sexual Assault Issue?

If you have been charged with any form of the crime of sexual assault in Texas, you need to consult a Texas criminal defense lawyer. The punishment for all degrees of sexual assault includes time in prison. So a person charged with any level of crime definitely needs the help of an experienced Texas criminal defense lawyer.