Criminal Defense Attorney | Hays County

Your Hays County Criminal Defense Team

The first thing people want to know after an arrest is not a broad legal theory. Am I going to jail? Will my boss find out? Is this court date real? Does that bond condition mean what it sounds like?

They want to know whether one mistake in San Marcos, Buda, Kyle, Dripping Springs, or Bear Creek is about to follow them for years. That is where this gets personal.

Seymour & Vaughn represent people facing criminal charges in Hays County and across Central Texas. We are former prosecutors, which does not mean we guess what the district attorney will do. It means we know how criminal investigations are built, how prosecutors evaluate weak facts, and how a case that looks simple on a jail sheet can change once reports, videos, lab records, and witness statements come in.

A Hays County criminal defense attorney should review the case before the State’s version hardens. The traffic stop. The search. The field sobriety tests. The body camera footage. The phone call someone made before the police arrived. The sentence in the report that does not match the video.

Those details are not small when your record, work, family, and freedom are all under the same case number.

Call (830) 282-8751 or use the online contact form for a free consultation. Talk to us before you make a statement, accept an offer, or assume the charge will work itself out.

Why Do the First Few Days After an Arrest Matter?

Texas requires a magistrate appearance within 48 hours of arrest, and that is where bond conditions are set. Those conditions govern where you can live, who you can contact, and whether you can drink or travel, and violating one can land you back in custody without a new charge.

A Hays County arrest can begin in ordinary places. A stop on I-35. A call from an apartment near Texas State. A family argument in Kyle. A weekend DWI stop in Dripping Springs.

The Magistrate Appearance

Once someone is arrested, Texas law requires that person to be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay, and Article 15.17 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure says this must generally occur no later than 48 hours after arrest.

At that appearance, the magistrate must warn the person about the accusation, the right to counsel, the right to remain silent, and related rights. That hearing is not just courtroom housekeeping.

Bond Conditions That Reshape Daily Life

• No contact with the alleged victim or certain witnesses.
• No alcohol, and sometimes required testing.
• No weapons in the home.
• Travel limits, and orders affecting where you can live.
• Reporting requirements or monitoring in some cases.

Texas bail law directs courts to consider factors such as the nature of the charge, public safety, and the defendant’s ability to make bail.

Where People Get Into Trouble

They guess. They guess a no-contact order is fine if the other person texts first. They guess the court will understand if work kept them from appearing. They guess the police report says what really happened.

Guessing is expensive in criminal law, and the cost usually arrives as a bond revocation rather than a warning.

Which Hays County Court Will Your Case Land In?

Class A and Class B misdemeanors go to the Hays County Courts at Law, along with juvenile matters and appeals from Justice and Municipal Courts. Felonies go to the Hays County District Court at the Government Center, 712 S. Stagecoach Trail, in San Marcos.

The case does not float around inside a single court system. It lands somewhere specific, and where it lands changes the pace and the pressure.

District Court and County Courts at Law

The county says the District Court serves Hays, Caldwell, and Comal counties, with trials heard by district court judges. The Courts at Law have jurisdiction over Class A and Class B misdemeanor criminal cases.

That matters because misdemeanor and felony cases do not move the same way. A Class B DWI does not carry the same risk as aggravated assault, and a drug possession case may turn on the weight, the lab, the search, and whether the State can prove the accused actually possessed the substance.

Municipal and Justice Courts

San Marcos Municipal Court handles certain lower-level matters within the city’s jurisdiction, and justice of the peace courts come up in citations and lower-level proceedings.

The name on the notice matters. So does the date, and so does whether the document is a citation, a bond condition, a complaint, an information, or an indictment.

We look at those papers early. Not because papers win cases by themselves, but because they tell us who has the case, where pressure may come from, and what deadlines are coming.

Is a Misdemeanor Really That Serious?

Yes. A Class A misdemeanor carries up to one year in county jail and a Class B up to 180 days. More importantly, a family violence finding or a DWI conviction at the misdemeanor level triggers firearm, licensing, and immigration consequences that outlast any sentence.

Texas Penal Code Chapter 12 sets the punishment ranges. A Class C misdemeanor is fine-only under the Penal Code, but that does not mean the record has no consequences.

Common Misdemeanor Charges Here

Hays County misdemeanor cases often involve DWI charges, theft, assault, marijuana, resisting arrest, criminal mischief, or family violence allegations. Some look minor on paper and some are not.

Family violence wording can affect firearms, housing, work, immigration, and future enhancement allegations. A DWI can create driver’s license problems, alcohol conditions, ignition interlock issues, and employment concerns.

The Hallway Offer

The offer made in the hallway before your first setting is not always the safe offer. It is the offer made before anyone has looked at the file closely.

Before a client pleads to anything, we want to know what the State can prove. Did the officer have a lawful reason for the stop? Did the report leave out part of the conversation? Was the person accused because they were closest to the drugs? Did the alleged victim change the story after the first call? Was there video from a patrol unit, apartment complex, store, or neighbor?

That is not a delay tactic. That is defense work.

How Does a Felony Case Change the Stakes?

Felony exposure runs from 180 days in a state jail facility to life in prison, and the discovery is far larger. Photos, medical records, 911 audio, lab submissions, phone extractions, and witness interviews all have to be pulled apart before anyone can evaluate an offer.

Felonies bring a different kind of fear. People start thinking about prison, their children, their job, and how to explain the arrest to anyone who depends on them.

What the Code Sets

Texas law separates felony punishment by degree. Chapter 12 of the Penal Code sets ranges for first-, second-, and third-degree felonies, as well as state jail felonies, including potential confinement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Felony cases in Hays County may involve aggravated assault, intoxication assault, burglary, robbery, drug delivery allegations, sex crimes, repeat family violence accusations, weapons allegations, or injury claims.

Texas Penal Code Section 22.02 covers aggravated assault, including allegations involving serious bodily injury or the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon. Texas Penal Code Chapter 49 includes DWI and intoxication assault provisions.

Taking the File Apart

Some of the State’s material may help the prosecution and some may not. Sometimes the first report sounds much cleaner than the evidence does three months later.

One detail can matter more than a long speech. Where was the weapon found? Who owned the bag? How long did the officer wait before expanding the stop? Did the blood result match the timeline? Did the witness see the event, or only hear about it afterward?

A felony defense cannot be built from panic. It has to be built from the file.

What Evidence Actually Decides DWI, Drug, and Assault Cases?

DWI cases turn on the officer’s pre-arrest decisions and the testing. Drug cases turn on the search and whether possession can be proven. Assault cases turn on injury, intent, and whether the first witness police believed was telling the whole story.

DWI

Why did the stop happen? What did the officer claim to observe? Were field sobriety tests given on a fair surface, under fair conditions, with proper instructions? Was there a breath test, a blood draw, or a refusal?

Each of those is a place where a case can weaken, and each is documented on video that the report does not always match.

Drug Crimes

Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 481 contains the Texas Controlled Substances Act, including controlled substance classifications and penalty provisions.

The defense may need to examine the search, the claimed possession, the weight, the lab report, and whether more than one person had access to the place where police found the substance.

Assault

Assault cases can be messier than the charging paper suggests. A family member may call 911 during a fight and later regret the wording. A neighbor may hear yelling but not see who started the physical contact.

A report may use the phrase serious bodily injury before the medical records support that claim, and that gap is worth finding early.

None of this means a case will be dismissed, and no lawyer should promise that. But a case dismissed, reduced, or prepared for trial usually starts with the same habit: refusing to accept the report as the whole story.

What Does Former Prosecutor Experience Actually Add?

It adds accurate prediction. Having sat on the other side, we know what makes a file look trial-ready to a prosecutor, what makes it look thin, and which facts actually change a plea position rather than just sounding good in a hallway conversation.

Seymour & Vaughn’s lawyers bring former prosecutor experience to criminal defense work in Central Texas. We defend clients facing serious charges throughout Texas, including DWI, felonies, homicide, juvenile crimes, probation violations, sex crimes, and theft.

We have seen how prosecutors talk about cases when defendants are not in the room. We know why some prosecutors dig in, why others negotiate, and why certain facts change the conversation entirely.

That does not replace preparation. It sharpens it.

The district attorney’s office still has the burden. The defense still has to read the discovery, challenge weak assumptions, file motions when needed, negotiate from a position of knowledge, and prepare for court. Our role is to make sure the person accused is not treated like a case number moving through a machine.

Is Deferred Adjudication a Good Deal?

Sometimes. Deferred adjudication can end without a conviction, but it is not the same as the case disappearing. If you violate a condition, the court can adjudicate guilt and sentence you anywhere within the full range for the original offense.

Under Chapter 42A of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, deferred adjudication community supervision may be available in some cases, subject to legal limits, the charge, the person’s history, and the court’s decision.

What It Actually Involves

Deferred adjudication may include supervision, fees, classes, testing, travel restrictions, reporting requirements, community service, or counseling. None of that is trivial, and the conditions run for the full term.

Some people may later look into nondisclosure, but eligibility depends on Texas law and the exact record. Texas Government Code Chapter 411 contains nondisclosure provisions that depend on the offense and the case history.

Judging the Offer Against the Evidence

A plea offer has to be judged against the evidence, not against fear. Sometimes the right move is to negotiate, sometimes the right move is to wait, and sometimes a client’s interests require pushing harder because the State’s proof has problems that are not obvious from the charge name.

Call Before the Case Gets Further Ahead of You

The State is already moving. Police reports get written, prosecutors review files, and court dates arrive whether you are ready or not.

Call Seymour & Vaughn at (830) 282-8751 or use the online contact form for a free consultation. We will give you direct guidance backed by former prosecutor insight and local Central Texas experience.