Consequence of insufficient habitual offender notice

Lewis v. State (Unpublished Memo): The State wanted to sentence Lewis as a habitual offender.  The State’s initial notice of intent to use prior convictions was insufficient.  On remand, Lewis contended that the insufficient notice placed one of his prior convictions off-limits for sentence enhancement purposes.  The Tyler court, in keeping with prior cases, rejects that argument.  The consequence of the insufficient notice is a re-sentencing.  At that re-sentencing, the State has the option to issue a new notice and (if the new notice is proper) use all prior convictions for enhancement purposes.

In another point, Lewis challenges the State’s proof that he is the same Lewis from earlier cases.  As in the earlier case of Hack v. State, a matching fingerprint from any document in the old case file will do.

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