In the

Court of Appeals

Second Appellate District of Texas

at Fort Worth

___________________________

No. 02-23-00264-CR

___________________________

On Appeal from County Criminal Court No. 1

Tarrant County, Texas

Trial Court No. 1778480

Before Womack, Wallach, and Walker, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Womack

GLADYS MARIA GRAHAM-O’DELL, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS
2

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Gladys Maria Graham-O’Dell (Graham) attempts to appeal an order 

granting her plea in bar under Texas Penal Code Section 12.45.

1 See Tex. Penal Code 

Ann. § 12.45 (authorizing a person—with the consent of the attorney for the State—

to admit during the sentencing hearing her guilt of one or more adjudicated offenses 

and request the court to take each offense into account in determining sentence of the 

offense or offenses of which she stands adjudged guilty, which in turn, bars the 

prosecution of the admitted offenses if the court lawfully takes them into account). 

Generally, with exceptions inapplicable here, this court has jurisdiction to consider 

appeals by criminal defendants only after a final judgment of conviction. See McKown 

v. State, 915 S.W.2d 160, 161 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1996, no pet.) (per curiam). An 

order granting a plea in bar is not a final judgment of conviction. Courtney v. State, 

No. 02-22-00161-CR, 2022 WL 17494604, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Dec. 8, 

2022, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op., not designated for publication); Hillburn v. State, 

946 S.W.2d 885, 886 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1997, no pet.).

1

In her notice of appeal, Appellant refers to herself as “Gladys Maria GrahamO’Dell.” The defendant listed in the underlying order granting her plea in bar, 

however, is listed as “Glady Maria Graham.” We will simply refer to Appellant as 

“Graham.” Further, Graham’s notice of appeal references trial court cause number

1778480, a case involving Graham occurring in County Criminal Court No. 1 of 

Tarrant County. We note, however, that the order granting her plea in bar appears to 

have been signed by the presiding judge of the 396th District Court of Tarrant County

to bar further prosecution of Graham in trial court cause number 1778480. For the 

reasons explained in this opinion, we lack jurisdiction over this appeal regardless of 

whether it flows from County Criminal Court No. 1 or the 396th District Court.
3

On October 6, 2023, we notified Graham of our concern that we lack 

jurisdiction over this appeal, and we warned her that we would dismiss the appeal 

unless we received a response by October 16, 2023, showing grounds for continuing 

the appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.3. Graham did not file a response. Thus, we 

dismiss Graham’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f); Courtney, 

2022 WL 17494604, at *1 (dismissing appeal from an order granting a plea in bar for 

lack of jurisdiction); Ramos v. State, No. 02-17-00179-CR, 2017 WL 3428861, at *1 

(Tex. App.—Fort Worth Aug. 10, 2017, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op., not 

designated for publication) (same).

/s/ Dana Womack

Dana Womack

Justice

Do Not Publish

Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b)

Delivered: November 2, 2023