Opinion issued October 12, 2023

In The

Court of Appeals 

For The 

First District of Texas 

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NO. 01-18-01014-CR

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EX PARTE CAMERON MICHAEL MOON

On Appeal from the 182nd District Court

Harris County, Texas

Trial Court Case No. 1467534A

MEMORANDUM OPINION

In December 2008, a juvenile court waived jurisdiction over 16-year-old 

Cameron Michael Moon (“Moon”) and certified him to stand trial as an adult in 

criminal district court for the charged offense of murder. After a jury convicted him 

and assessed his punishment at 30 years’ imprisonment, Moon appealed. This Court 

held that the juvenile court abused its discretion in waiving jurisdiction over Moon, 
2

vacated the criminal district court’s judgment, and dismissed the case. See Moon v. 

State, 410 S.W.3d 366, 378 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2013), aff’d, 451 

S.W.3d 28 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014). On the State’s petition for discretionary review, 

the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed this Court’s judgment. See Moon v. State, 

451 S.W.3d 28, 52 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014).

On remand, the juvenile court again waived jurisdiction over Moon, who was 

then over the age of 18, and recertified him to stand trial as an adult in criminal 

district court for the same charged offense of murder. Moon filed a motion to 

dismiss and an application for a pretrial writ of habeas corpus with the criminal 

district court, both of which the district court denied.

Moon appealed the district court’s denial of his application for a pretrial writ 

of habeas corpus. In our original opinion, this Court affirmed the trial court’s denial 

of the pretrial writ of habeas corpus. On rehearing, we reversed the criminal district 

court’s order denying Moon’s application for a pretrial writ of habeas corpus, and 

we remanded the matter to the criminal district court with instructions to enter an 

order granting Moon’s pretrial writ of habeas corpus and dismissing the case for lack 

of jurisdiction. Ex parte Moon, 649 S.W.3d 700, 720−21 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st 

Dist.] 2022).

The Court of Criminal Appeals granted the State’s petition for discretionary 

review to consider three issues related to the juvenile court’s second transfer order,
3

including whether this Court erred in holding that Moon’s challenge was cognizable 

in pretrial habeas, and it raised a fourth ground on its own motion. See Ex parte 

Moon, 667 S.W.3d 796, 803 (Tex. Crim. App. 2023). The Court ultimately 

concluded that Moon’s “appeal from the pretrial habeas corpus application in this 

case constitutes a ‘criminal law matter’” and that this Court lacked authority to 

entertain his appeal. The Court held that

given former [Texas Code of Criminal Procedure] Article 44.47(b)’s 

history and plain import, any purported appeal of the district court’s 

pretrial habeas corpus order relating to the juvenile court’s transfer 

order in this case was without authority. The court of appeals should 

not have entertained [Moon’s] appeal but should have simply dismissed 

it as premature—under former Article 44.47(b).

Id. at 801 (holding that former Article 44.47 “limits a defendant’s appeal, of any 

kind, that challenges the validity of a juvenile court’s transfer order solely to the 

context of criminal post-conviction (or post-deferred adjudication) appellate 

review”). The Court thus reversed our judgment and remanded the case for this 

Court “to issue an order dismissing the appeal as unauthorized under former Article 

44.47.” Id. at 85.1

Pursuant to the Court’s directive, we dismiss this appeal “as unauthorized 

under former [Texas Code of Criminal Procedure] Article 44.47.” See TEX. CODE 

1 Moon filed a motion for rehearing of the Court’s opinion which the Court denied on 

September 13, 2023. Justice Newell filed a dissenting opinion to the denial of 

rehearing, in which Justices Richardson and Walker joined.
4

CRIM. PROC. art. 44.47(b) (repealed by Acts 2015, 84th Leg., ch. 74 (S.B. 888), § 4, 

p. 1066, eff. Sept. 1, 2015).

PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Justices Goodman, Hightower, and Rivas-Molloy.

Do not publish. TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).