Court Opinion

ID: 5122275
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2021-11-01 07:17:26.936798+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:02:12.689608
License: Public Domain

NUMBER 13-21-00295-CR

                              COURT OF APPEALS

                    THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

                      CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG
____________________________________________________________

JAMES WILLIAM RUSAW JR.,                                                     Appellant,

                                           v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS,                                 Appellee.
____________________________________________________________

              On appeal from the 36th District Court
                   of Aransas County, Texas.
____________________________________________________________

                           MEMORANDUM OPINION
    Before Chief Justice Contreras and Justices Hinojosa and Silva
                Memorandum Opinion by Justice Silva

       Appellant filed a notice of appeal attempting to appeal convictions of both assault

family violence-impeding breath and aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury

entered by the 36th District Court of Aransas County, Texas on July 28, 2021. We dismiss

the appeal for want of jurisdiction.
       Sentence in this matter was imposed with a judgment of conviction entered on July

28, 2021. On September 9, 2021, a notice of appeal was filed. On September 15, 2021,

the Clerk of the Court notified appellant that it appeared the appeal was not timely

perfected. Appellant was advised the appeal would be dismissed if the defect was not

corrected within ten days from the date of receipt of the Court’s directive.

       Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.2 provides that an appeal is perfected when

notice of appeal is filed within thirty days after the day sentence is imposed or suspended

in open court unless a motion for new trial is timely filed. TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a)(1).

Where a timely motion for new trial has been filed, notice of appeal shall be filed within

ninety days after the sentence is imposed or suspended in open court. TEX. R. APP. P.

26.2(a)(2). The time within which to file the notice may be enlarged if, within fifteen days

after the deadline for filing the notice, the party files the notice of appeal and a motion

complying with Rule 10.5(b) of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. See TEX. R. APP.

P. 26.3.

       This Court's appellate jurisdiction in a criminal case is invoked by a timely filed

notice of appeal. Olivo v. State, 918 S.W.2d 519, 522 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996). Absent a

timely filed notice of appeal, a court of appeals does not obtain jurisdiction to address the

merits of the appeal in a criminal case and can take no action other than to dismiss the

appeal for want of jurisdiction. Slaton v. State, 981 S.W.2d 208, 210 (Tex. Crim. App.

1998). Appellant may be entitled to an out-of-time appeal by filing a post-conviction writ

of habeas corpus returnable to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; however, the

availability of that remedy is beyond the jurisdiction of this Court. See TEX. CODE CRIM.

                                             2
PROC. ANN. art. 11.07, § 3(a); see also Ex parte Garcia, 988 S.W.2d 240 (Tex. Crim. App.

1999).

         Additionally, the trial court has certified that this “is a plea-bargain case, and the

defendant has NO right of appeal” without permission of the Court. See TEX. R. APP. P.

25.2(a)(2).

         The Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure provide that an appeal must be dismissed

if the trial court’s certification does not show that the defendant has the right of appeal.

TEX. R. APP. P. 25.2(d); see TEX. R. APP. P. 37.1, 44.3, 44.4. Accordingly, this appeal is

dismissed for want of jurisdiction.

                                                                  CLARISSA SILVA
                                                                  Justice

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

Delivered and filed on the
28th day of October, 2021.

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