BELTON, Texas — A Bell County judge declared a mistrial Thursday for a man charged in a 2022 child abuse case after determining the District Attorney's office did not disclose a piece of evidence to the defense in a timely manner.
Demeterious Desharni Woods was charged with Injury to a child on March 1, 2022. According to two indictments, he struck two children under the age of 14 "with a belt, a rope or a stick."
His trial began on Aug. 27, 2024 in the 478th District Court with Judge Wade Faulkner.
The mistrial ruling centered around a 17-page police report filed by a Nolanville police officer on April 15, 2023. The report recapped an interview of the alleged victim's mother with Child Protective Services.
In the interview, the mother admits to striking the alleged victim with a switch and a belt "and offering her opinion that her mother may have coached the alleged victim to make certain statements implicating Woods."
According to court records, the officer uploaded the report on May 30, 2023 to a portal the District Attorney Office has for reports, documents, video and other electronic information. The records show the officer uploaded the report to a case number assigned to the alleged victim's mother, not to the case number for Woods.
However, according to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 39.14, it is the State's duty to disclose evidence provided by law enforcement to the Defense.
"When the Defense requested discovery on March 20, 2023, this commenced a specific duty on the District Attorney's part to ascertain what discoverable evidence was held by the Nolanville Police Department and disclose it as soon as practicable," the court records show.
Faulkner ruled because the DA's office didn't disclose the police report to the defense until the Friday before the trial (approximately 16 months after the report was made and 14 months after the DA's office had the report) they were in violation of Article 39.14. As such, the report had to be excluded from evidence.
In addition, because the Nolanville police officer had already testified, his testimony was stricken, and because the jury had already heard the testimony, Faulkner declared a mistrial because he found "it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the jury to set aside the testimony."
"There's been a lot made about the fact that the report had not been provided," Garza said. "I think that's the key to this ruling by the court and what he had discovered was simply that it had been attached to another case."
Garza said the defense nor his office requested the mistrial. Faulkner made that decision on his own.
Garza and Woods' attorney Brett Pritchard sent statements to 6 News. You can read the details of those at this link.