-
About Our Speaker
Kevin Patrick Yeary is a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, a nine-member body which serves as the court of last resort in state criminal cases. He was elected to a six year term on that court in 2014. Since 1991 when Yeary was licensed to practice law, most of his practice has been focused on criminal appellate law. Yeary has litigated appeals in most of the appellate courts in this State, and he has argued cases before both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court. In one notable case, after the United States Supreme Court requested a brief from the State of Texas to answer a defendant’s petition, Yeary filed the brief for the State in that Court and the defendant’s petition was denied. He has personally written and filed direct appeal briefs in hundreds of cases, including capital murder death penalty cases, and he has answered and litigated numerous post-conviction applications for the writ of habeas corpus.
Yeary has written academic papers and has taught lawyers, investigators and victim advocates, in courses sponsored by the University of Texas, the Texas Attorney General’s Office, and the Texas District and County Attorney’s Association. He has also served as an adjunct professor in the paralegal studies program at San Antonio College, teaching legal research and writing and criminal law. He is currently the secretary of the San Antonio Bar Association’s Appellate Section. He serves on other committees as well within his local bar association, such as the law school and criminal law committees. He serves on the publications committee of the Texas District and County Attorney’s Association. And he participates as a commentator for the Texas Independent Bar Association G&S Report, a report that summarizes criminal law decisions.
He was raised in Laredo, where he graduated from Saint Augustine High School in 1984. He earned a BA in English Communication Arts from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio in 1988 and graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law in 1991.
Yeary began his legal career as briefing attorney to the late Honorable Bill M. White on Texas’ highest appellate court for criminal cases - the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. After leaving the Court, he joined a litigation firm in San Antonio, where he worked as an associate attorney representing a number of clients both in trial court matters and on appeal. In 1995, Yeary began his career as an appellate prosecutor, working in Dallas, Harris and Bexar counties. From 1988 until his election, he served in the appellate division of the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, the last ten years as a first chair (senior) prosecutor in that office.
Yeary has been married since 1997 to Mary Suzanne Basey-Yeary, a pediatrician in San Antonio. Together, they have four daughters. Kevin is an alumnus of both the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. He is a practicing Roman Catholic, active in the ACTS Community, the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Lawyers Guild. He serves on the board of the Encino Park Swim Team, and he acts as the lead Referee and Stroke and Turn Official for the team.