Mata v. State

OPINION

DON BURGESS, Justice.

To address the recent decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals in Howland v. State, 1999 WL 173260 (Tex.Crim.App. March 31, 1999)(not yet reported), we withdraw our opinion of March 3, 1999, and substitute the following in its place.

A jury convicted Laura Mata, a/k/a Laura Martinez (Mata) of injury to a child and assessed punishment at forty-nine years’ confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice — Institutional Division. From that conviction, Mata appeals raising nine issues.

In her first issue, Mata questions the authority of Judge Carl Walker, Jr. to…