Roberts v. State

OPINION ON STATE’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW

Vernon Walter Roberts, henceforth appellant, was convicted by a jury of the offense of murder. The trial judge assessed appellant’s punishment, enhanced with one prior felony conviction, at 62 years’ confinement in the Department of Corrections.

On direct appeal, the Second Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s judgment of conviction after finding that the trial court erred in refusing to give the jury appellant’s requested intructions on the lesser included offenses of involuntary manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. See…