Opinion issued May 7, 2020. In The Court of Appeals For The First District of Texas ———————————— NO. 01-19-00301-CR ——————————— KHANCHANAT PHANKHAO, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee On Appeal from the 176th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Case No. 1498433 MEMORANDUM OPINION Khanchanat Phankhao was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced to confinement for life. See TEX. PENAL CODE § 22.021(a)(1)(B)(i). In two issues, Phankhao contends that (1) there is legally insufficient evidence to support his conviction and (2) the trial court abused its discretion in allowing him to waive his right to counsel and represent himself pro se at trial. We affirm. Factual Background This is a sexual assault case in which the defendant, Khanchanat Phankhao, was convicted for having sexual intercourse with his friend’s minor daughter. The following facts are undisputed. Phankhao becomes friends with Jane’s family In 2011, Lamoune Douangdara moved from Laos to the United States with her twin boys and her daughter, the complainant, Jane1. They eventually settled in Houston, Texas, where Douangdara began working at an electronics manufacturing plant. There, she met Phankhao, another immigrant from Southeast Asia, and the two became friends. Over the years, Phankhao would often come over to Douangdara’s house to visit her and her children. When Phankhao would visit, Jane always seemed very happy to see him, and she eventually began to act like she was in love with him. At some point, Phankhao and Jane began talking at night over the phone. Their conversations would often last for hours. 1 To protect her privacy and for ease of reading, we refer to the complainant by the pseudonym Jane. 2 Jane admits to her mother that Phankhao had sex with her One night in 2015, Douangdara discovered that Jane, then 13 years old, had sneaked out of the house. Douangdara stayed up so that she could confront Jane when she returned. Early that following morning, Douangdara observed Phankhao dropping off Jane at a stop sign near their house. When Jane entered the house, Douangdara asked her where she had been, and Jane stated that she had gone for a walk. But upon further questioning, Jane admitted that she had been with Phankhao and that they had had sex. A sexual assault examination, forensic interview, and analysis of semen recovered from Jane’s body corroborate Jane’s outcry Douangdara called the police, who instructed her to take Jane to Texas Children’s Hospital for a sexual assault examination. At the hospital, Jane was examined by sexual assault nurse examiner A. Diaz. During the examination, Diaz questioned Jane about the incident, and Jane admitted that she had sexual intercourse with Phankhao. Diaz found Jane to be credible. Diaz then collected vaginal and anal swabs from Jane, which were submitted to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences for DNA analysis. After her sexual assault examination, Jane was taken to the Children’s Assessment Center, where she spoke with forensic interviewer A. Diop. Jane told Diop that she ...
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