The Dallas-area state appeals court reversed Dallas County's first fentanyl dealing conviction Tuesday because the trial record shows the jury was short one person.
A Dallas County jury convicted Richard Leal of the manufacture or delivery of between four and 200 grams of fentanyl in 2024. According to a press release from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, Dallas police pulled Leal over in 2023 and found he had fentanyl pills and other drugs. He told police he distributed pills and bricks "as samples for his people."
It was the first fentanyl dealing case that was tried and sentenced in front of a Dallas County jury, the DA's office said. Leal was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
But according to court transcripts, there were only 11 jurors chosen during jury selection when there should have been 12.
“It defies logic that neither the trial judge, nor the bailiff, nor the court reporter, nor either party noticed throughout the entire trial that the jury box was missing a twelfth juror,” Fifth Court of Appeals Justice Mike Lee wrote for the court. “Yet, the record demonstrates exactly that.”
Leal’s appellate attorney Brett Ordiway — who was not involved in Leal’s trial — raised the missing juror issue upon appeal. The DA’s office responded in court filings that it was “unclear today whether a twelfth juror was seated and their name not called or recorded in the record, or whether only eleven jurors were seated.”
Still, the DA’s office said Leal didn’t raise that issue during jury selection or throughout the trial, so he forfeited his right to make that complaint in his appeal. But the appeals court ruled prosecutors failed to prove the existence of a 12th juror, and lacking one violated Leal’s right to a 12-person jury under the Texas Constitution, even if he didn’t immediately speak up about it.
“This decision is an emphatic victory for the rule of law,” Ordiway said in an email. “Mr. Leal’s conviction was the product of numerous errors in the trial court. As the justices unanimously made clear, a constitutional violation, explicit in the record, cannot be brushed aside.”
Leal's trial attorney declined to comment on the case. KERA News reached out to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and will update this story with any response.
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
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