Unreported / Non-Citable
Background
Marshall Cody Gagnon pleaded nolo contendere during one August 2025 hearing to four drug offenses involving fentanyl, LSD, psilocin, and MDMA. At the same hearing, he pleaded true to violations of his deferred-adjudication community supervision in two earlier drug cases, and the trial court adjudicated him guilty of those offenses.
The trial court assessed court costs for each of the six offenses. Gagnon appealed, arguing that Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 102.073 permitted the court to assess each court cost only once because all six matters were resolved during a single proceeding.
The Court’s Holding
The Fourth Court of Appeals held that the trial court improperly assessed duplicative costs for the four offenses to which Gagnon pleaded nolo contendere in the 2025 proceeding. Because article 102.073 permits each court cost to be assessed only once in a single criminal action, the court retained the costs in trial court cause number 2025CR005677, deleted the costs from the three convictions in cause number 2025CR005689, and struck that cause’s bill of costs.
The court also held that, for purposes of Chapter 102, Gagnon was “convicted” in the two deferred-adjudication cases when deferred adjudication was imposed in 2022—not when he was adjudicated guilty in 2025. Those cases therefore did not form part of the same criminal action as the four 2025 pleas. Applying the prohibition against duplicative costs to the deferred-adjudication matters, the court retained the costs in cause number 2020CR9246 and deleted $290 in costs from cause number 2022CR3086W. It affirmed all judgments as modified.
Key Takeaways
- Article 102.073 allows each court cost to be assessed only once when multiple offenses are presented in a single trial or plea proceeding.
- For purposes of Chapter 102, placement on deferred adjudication constitutes the relevant conviction, rather than a later adjudication of guilt.
- When duplicative costs are assessed for offenses in the same category and the costs are equal, the costs are retained under the lowest trial-court cause number.
Why It Matters
The decision clarifies that resolving new charges and adjudicating older deferred-adjudication cases at the same hearing does not necessarily make every matter part of one “single criminal action” under article 102.073. Courts must identify when each conviction occurred and eliminate duplicative costs within each qualifying criminal action.