Court Opinion

ID: 9398799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-06-01 08:09:41.4598+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:19:36.606844
License: Public Domain

In The
                                   Court of Appeals
                          Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

                                         No. 07-22-00285-CR

                              DUSTY LEE WINKLER, APPELLANT

                                                   V.

                               THE STATE OF TEXAS, APPELLEE

                              On Appeal from the 396th District Court
                                      Tarrant County, Texas1
                Trial Court No. 1614611D, Honorable Robert P. Brotherton, Presiding

                                           May 30, 2023
                        ORDER OF ABATEMENT AND REMAND
                         Before PARKER and DOSS and YARBROUGH, JJ.

        Appellant, Dusty Lee Winkler, appeals his conviction for continuous sexual abuse

of a child2 and sentence to forty years’ confinement. Appellant’s brief is due May 30,

2023. Now pending before this Court is Appellant’s motion to substitute his appointed

counsel, William R. Biggs, for newly retained counsel, Tonya Rolland. Because the trial

        1Originally appealed to the Second Court of Appeals, this appeal was transferred to this Court by
the Texas Supreme Court pursuant to its docket equalization efforts. See TEX. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 73.001.
        2   See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 21.02.
court has responsibility for appointing counsel to represent indigent defendants in criminal

cases as well as the authority to relieve or replace appointed counsel, we abate the

appeal and remand the cause to the trial court to rule on Appellant’s motion to substitute

counsel. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. arts. 1.051(d), 26.04(j)(2); Enriquez v. State,

999 S.W.2d 906, 907–08 (Tex. App.—Waco 1999, order) (per curiam).

       Upon remand, the trial court shall determine (1) whether Appellant still desires to

prosecute the appeal; and (2) whether to permit Appellant’s appointed attorney to

withdraw and Appellant’s retained attorney to substitute as counsel. The trial court shall

enter such orders necessary to address the aforementioned questions. The trial court’s

orders shall be included in a supplemental clerk’s record to be filed with this Court by

June 13, 2023.

       It is so ordered.

                                                        Per Curiam

Do not publish.

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