People v. Smith CA5

INTRODUCTION

Appellant and defendant Derell Musantha Smith was convicted of four felonies and sentenced to a third strike term after he tried to drive over his estranged spouse and then stabbed her. On appeal, he contends the court improperly admitted evidence of his prior acts of domestic violence and abused its discretion when it denied his request to dismiss four of his five prior strike convictions. Defendant further asserts certain fees must be stricken, and the abstract of judgment must be corrected. We order the abstract of judgment corrected and otherwise affirm.

FACTS

At the time of trial in 2019, Shannon Smith (Ms. Smith) had been married to defendant for 10 years, and they had a six-year-old child. Prior domestic violence incidents 1 Ms. Smith testified that in 2016, she was living in Dallas with defendant and their child, and two domestic violence incidents occurred. Ms. Smith testified the first incident occurred sometime in 2016. She was in a car with defendant and their child, and they were stopped near a park. They argued, and defendant used a pocketknife to stab her in the leg three times. She did not require medical attention and did not report the incident to…