COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE

FIRST DISTRICT OF TEXAS AT HOUSTON

ORDER

Appellate case name: Agustin Calderon v. The State of Texas

Appellate case number: 01-18-00422-CR

Trial court case number: 15CR3346

Trial court: 10th District Court of Galveston County

Appellant, Agustin Calderon, has filed a notice of appeal of his conviction for the 

offense of capital murder. In a single issue in his brief, appellant challenges the trial 

court’s denial of his motion to suppress his oral statements made to a law enforcement

officer, asserting that his “waiver of his Miranda rights” was not knowing, intelligent, and 

voluntar[y].” He states that this issue “addresses the voluntariness of [his] waiver of his 

Miranda Rights.” The State has filed a motion to abate the appeal and remand the case to 

the trial court “with instructions to render specific findings of facts required under Article 

38.22 Section 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.”

1 We grant the motion.

The record shows that appellant filed a motion to suppress his statements, 

asserting, in part, that they were “involuntary.” The trial court held a hearing on 

appellant’s motion. Afterwards, the trial court signed an order denying the motion to 

suppress and an order granting appellant’s request for findings of fact and conclusions of 

law. However, the record does not reflect that the trial court made findings of fact or 

conclusions of law, related to appellant’s motion to suppress, either written or dictated on 

the record, as required by article 38.22, section 6.

Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.22, section 6, provides, in pertinent 

part:

If [a] statement has been found to have been voluntarily made and held 

admissible as a matter of law and fact by the court in a hearing in the 

absence of the jury, the court must enter an order stating its conclusion as 

to whether or not the statement was voluntarily made, along with the 

 

1 Appellant has not responded to the State’s motion.
specific finding of facts upon which the conclusion was based, which order 

shall be filed among the papers of the cause.

TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 38.22, § 6 (West 2018) (emphasis added); see Urias v. State, 

155 S.W.3d 141, 142 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005) (explaining “Article 38.22, § 6 ‘is 

mandatory in its language and that it requires a trial court to file its findings of fact and 

conclusions of law’” without regard to whether defendant objects to their absence);

Wicker v. State, 740 S.W.2d 779, 783 (Tex. Crim. App. 1987) (“[T]he trial court must 

make findings of fact and conclusions of law adequate to provide an appellate court with 

a basis upon which to review the trial court’s application of the law to the facts.”). When 

a trial court fails to make findings of fact and conclusions of law in compliance with 

article 38.22, section 6, we must abate the appeal and remand the cause to permit 

compliance with the statute. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6; Urias, 155 

S.W.3d at 142 (remanding to court of appeals with instructions to require compliance); 

Wicker, 740 S.W.2d at 784.

Accordingly, we grant the State’s motion, abate the appeal, and remand the case 

for the trial court to enter written findings of fact and conclusions of law, separate and 

apart from any docket sheet notations in this case, in conjunction with its denial of

appellant’s motion to suppress. The trial court may review the reporter’s record to refresh 

its recollection of the reasons for its rulings on the issue of voluntariness. Wicker, 740 

S.W.2d at 784. The trial court shall cause its findings and conclusions to be filed with the 

trial court clerk within 30 days of the date of this order. We further order the trial court 

clerk to file a supplemental clerk’s record containing the trial court’s findings of fact and 

conclusions of law with this Court within 30 days of the date of this order.

This appeal is abated, treated as a closed case, and removed from this Court’s 

active docket. The appeal will be reinstated on this Court’s active docket without further 

order of the Court when the supplemental clerk’s record is filed in this Court.

It is so ORDERED.

Judge’s signature: __/s/ Russell Lloyd_____

  Acting individually  Acting for the Court

Date: __December 20, 2018____