Roberson v. State

Derrick Dwayne Roberson appeals the revocation of his deferred adjudication community supervision. Roberson pleaded guilty, as part of a plea bargaining agreement, to aggravated sexual assault of a child. The trial court deferred a finding of guilt and placed him on ten years’ community supervision. The State later filed a motion to adjudicate Roberson’s guilt alleging he committed eleven violations of the terms of his supervision. Roberson pleaded not true to each of the allegations. The trial court found the allegations true, found Roberson guilty, and sentenced him to imprisonment for life.

Except in certain narrowly defined circumstances, see Nix v. State, No. 793-00, 2001 WL 717453, at *1-2 (Tex. Crim. App. June 27, 2001), if Roberson wished to appeal issues arising from the original plea proceeding in an appeal taken from that proceeding, he must have done so at that time. Manuel v. State, 994 S.W.2d 658, 661-62 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999). Nix addressed the void judgment exception, which recognizes there are some rare situations in which a trial court’s judgment is accorded no respect due to a complete lack of power to render the judgment in question. Nix, 2001 WL 717453, at *2. The judgment being a nullity can be attacked at any time. Id.