## Facts

- Joshua Thompson, an associate pastor involved in a church children’s program, was told an 11-year-old boy had misbehaved.
- Thompson drove the boy to Thompson’s twin brother’s home.
- Thompson beat the child with a tree branch, striking him more than 100 times over roughly 90 minutes.
- Thompson’s brother assisted by holding the child down for at least part of the beating.
- The child suffered extensive bruising across his back and showed medical signs consistent with severe blood loss and muscle breakdown.
- Medical testimony indicated that without prompt treatment the child would have died from renal failure.
- Thompson was prosecuted for injury to a child, including a first-degree theory (intentional/knowing serious bodily injury) and a lesser theory (intentional/knowing bodily injury).

## Issues

1. Whether Texas Penal Code § 6.04(b)(1) permits “transferred intent” to support conviction for intentionally/knowingly causing serious bodily injury when the defendant intended only bodily injury but caused serious bodily injury, even though both grades are within the same statutory offense.
2. If § 6.04(b)(1) is used to elevate the offense grade, whether the defendant is entitled, upon request, to a mistake-of-fact instruction under Texas Penal Code § 8.02.

## Decision

- The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas affirmed Thompson’s first-degree injury-to-a-child conviction.
- The trial court did not err by instructing the jury under § 6.04(b)(1) that intent to cause bodily injury could support liability where serious bodily injury was actually caused, if the only difference was that a different offense occurred.
- The court held that when this form of transferred-intent theory is submitted, the defendant is entitled, upon request, to a mistake-of-fact instruction.
- On the record presented, no reversible charge error required a new trial.

## Legal Principles

- Under Tex. Penal Code § 6.04(b)(1), a defendant may be criminally responsible for a result when the only difference between what was desired, contemplated, or risked and what occurred is that a different offense was committed.
- “Different offense” in § 6.04(b)(1) can include a higher-grade variant of the same statutory offense (e.g., serious bodily injury rather than bodily injury) when the result element elevates the offense.
- When the State relies on § 6.04(b)(1) to transfer intent from a lesser-injury offense to a greater-injury offense, the defendant is entitled (upon request) to a Tex. Penal Code § 8.02 mistake-of-fact instruction if a mistaken belief, if true, would negate the culpability required for the higher offense.
- The purpose of the mistake-of-fact instruction in this setting is to allow the jury to consider whether a reasonable mistaken belief negates the mental state needed for conviction of the offense as actually committed under the transferred-intent theory.

## Conclusion

The court approved using § 6.04(b)(1) to permit conviction for causing serious bodily injury to a child when the defendant intended only bodily injury but inflicted serious bodily injury, while requiring that a properly requested mistake-of-fact instruction accompany this elevated transferred-intent submission.


Thompson v. State, 236 S.W.3d 787 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007)