Court Opinion

ID: 9895197
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-06 13:11:54.219208+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:37.482941
License: Public Domain

In the
         Court of Appeals
 Second Appellate District of Texas
          at Fort Worth
       ___________________________

            No. 02-23-00264-CR
       ___________________________

GLADYS MARIA GRAHAM-O’DELL, Appellant

                      V.

           THE STATE OF TEXAS

  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
                           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 Graham-
O’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.

                                            2
      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

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