NUMBER 13-14-00747-CR

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG 

 

RAFAEL TREVINO, Appellant,

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

 

On appeal from the 379th District Court 

of Bexar County, Texas.

 

ORDER ABATING APPEAL

Before Justices Rodriguez, Garza and Longoria

Order Per Curiam

During trial, appellant Rafael Trevino orally moved to suppress a statement 

he made to police officers before his arrest. He cited articles 38.22 and 38.23 

of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure as a basis for his motion to suppress

and argued that the officer’s failure to read him his statutory rights negated the 
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voluntariness of his statement. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. arts. 38.22, .23 

(West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.). The trial court heard Trevino’s motion to 

suppress outside of the presence of the jury and subsequently denied the motion. 

No findings of fact or conclusions of law regarding the voluntariness of Trevino’s 

statement were entered by the trial court. 

Under article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, in all cases 

where a question is raised as to the voluntariness of a statement of an accused, 

the trial court must enter an order stating whether or not the statement was 

voluntarily made, along with the specific finding of fact upon which the trial court’s

conclusion was based. Vasquez v. State, 411 S.W.3d 918, 920 (Tex. Crim. App. 

2013) (determining that there are no exceptions to article 38.22’s requirement 

that written findings are required in all cases concerning voluntariness). The 

trial court’s failure to make specific factual findings regarding the voluntariness 

of Trevino’s statement require this Court to abate the appeal and remand for an 

evidentiary hearing on the voluntariness issue. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN.

art. 38.22, § 6; Vasquez, 411 S.W.3d at 920; Douglas v. State, 900 S.W.2d 760, 762 

(Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 1995, pet. ref’d).

We ABATE the appeal, and REMAND the case to the trial court, and order the 

judge of the 379th District Court of Bexar County to conduct a hearing in accordance 

with Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.22, section 6, to determine the 

voluntariness of any statement or confession made by appellant which was introduced

into evidence at trial. The hearing shall be conducted within thirty days of the issuance 
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of this order, or the trial court shall inform this Court within thirty days of the issuance of 

this order of the hearing date. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6; 

Douglas, 900 S.W.2d at 762. It is further ordered that the judge of the 379th District 

Court thereafter: (1) prepare written findings of fact and conclusions of law in 

compliance with article 38.22, section 6 of the code of criminal procedure; (2) cause 

them to be included in a supplemental clerk’s record, (3) cause the hearing to be 

transcribed and included in a supplemental reporter’s record; (4) and forward the 

supplemental record to the Clerk of this Court within twenty days of the hearing. See 

TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6.

Upon receipt of the supplemental record, this cause will be resubmitted for 

further consideration by the Court upon the original briefs filed by the parties, unless 

prior permission for supplementation of the same is requested and granted. 

IT IS SO ORDERED.

PER CURIAM

Do not publish.

TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).

Delivered and filed the 5th

day of October, 2015.