Jury finds defendant guilty of aggravated robbery and assault; judge imposes concurrent 40- and 50-year terms

In the 187th District Court on a date not specified in the record, a jury returned guilty verdicts against the defendant identified in the record as Mr. Lopez on counts of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault, and Judge Stephanie Boyd sentenced him to concurrent prison terms of 40 and 50 years, the judge said.

The jury wrote in its verdict form: "We, the jury, having found that the defendant is guilty of the offense of aggravated robbery as charged in count 1 of the indictment ... We find beyond a reasonable doubt that both of the enhancement allegation paragraphs and the habitual offender enhancement allegation are true." The jury's written verdict also assessed the punishment for count 1 at 40 years and for count 2 at 50 years and found the habitual-offender allegations and enhancement paragraphs true for both counts.

Judge Stephanie Boyd told the defendant, "So in count 1, the court will sentence you to 40 years in the prison." She repeated the jury's separate punishment assessment for count 2 and explained that "Counts 1 and counts 2 will run concurrently. Legally, they must run concurrently." The court recorded that the deadly-weapon allegations had been found true and that the jurors had not assessed any fines.

The record shows the court will give the defendant credit for any time served. Judge Boyd asked the defendant whether he had reviewed a form titled "Certification of Defendant's Rights to Appeal" with his attorney; the defendant replied he had signed it and that he understood, and the judge noted that either the defendant's attorney would serve as appellate counsel or counsel would be appointed if he could not afford one.

After confirming the verdicts were unanimous, the judge directed that the deputy take the jury back to the jury room and then proceeded to pronounce sentence and close the record.