Jones v. State (Unpublished Memo): Facing a state jail felony cocaine possession charge, the defendant pled guilty, but decided to represent himself as sentencing was put to the jury. The trial judge gave the required warnings. Jones now says those warnings weren’t strong enough. The trial court’s judgment is affirmed.
Jones asked to represent himself. The trial judge tells him it’s a bad idea. Spends six pages of the record giving him detailed warnings about the challenges of voir dire, the Rules of Evidence, etc. Tells him that his court-appointed attorney is one of the best there is, and the defendant would do best to keep him. The defendant’s one and only point of error on appeal is that the trial judge was right, but just wasn’t strong enough with his warnings. The Tyler court says the trial judge did his part. It was the listening part where Jones had trouble.
