TEXARKANA, Texas - A Texas appellate court in Texarkana has upheld the conviction and 99-year sentence assessed a man who stalked a woman in his neighborhood before breaking into her home and sexually assaulting her at gunpoint.
LaDavion Deshaun White, 22, was found guilty by a Bowie County jury in September of two counts of aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon. At trial, the victim testified that she was awake and watching television alone in her living room when she felt a "presence" and looked up to see a gun pointing at her at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2017. White's face was covered but he left his DNA behind.
He told her he'd been hiding in her young child's closet since 5 p.m. the day before. He also admitted to leaving a note in her home that she discovered after finding a broken window in the house a few days before the assault. She slept at her mother's and didn't return until the window was repaired.
On appeal, White complained that a juror was released from service and replaced with an alternate during the trial. The trial court judge released the man without any questions of the juror from the defense. The higher court ruled that the argument was not preserved at the trial level and that White's lawyer was asked during the trial if he objected and he did not.
White's argument that his trial lawyer was ineffective was rejected by the 6th Court of Appeals in Texarkana as well. White alleged in his appeal that his lawyer didn't object to testimony elicited by the state about White's prior statements as a juvenile to classmates at a local high school about forcible rape and wanting to place them in a car trunk.
White complained that his lawyer didn't object to a statement made by the prosecutor during her closing remarks in the punishment phase of trial, but the higher court found such did not warrant a new trial.
White is being held at the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls, Texas. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website, White becomes eligible for parole July 10, 2048. He will have served his full term July 10, 2117.