Court Opinion

ID: 3068610
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-10-15 23:55:20.750133+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:40:44.976703
License: Public Domain

In The

                                  Court of Appeals
                      Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont
                                  ________________

                                 NO. 09-14-00228-CR
                                  ________________

                    GREGORY ALLEN DERUTTE, Appellant

                                            V.

                  THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
__________________________________________________________________

             On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 3
                        Jefferson County, Texas
                        Trial Cause No. 287595
__________________________________________________________________

                            MEMORANDUM OPINION

       A jury found Gregory Allen DeRutte guilty of driving while intoxicated, and the

trial court sentenced him to one year of confinement and assessed a $2000 fine, then

suspended imposition of DeRutte’s sentence and placed DeRutte on community

supervision for two years. DeRutte filed a pro se notice of appeal. The court reporter filed

a notice stating that the reporter’s record was not filed because the reporter’s fee has not

been paid. After DeRutte failed to respond to this Court’s notices indicating that his brief

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was overdue, we abated the appeal and remanded the cause to the trial court for a hearing.

See Tex. R. App. P. 38.8(b)(2), (3).

       The trial court held the hearing, and DeRutte failed to appear. Attached as exhibits

to the record of the hearing were the notice the clerk had sent to DeRutte and a copy of

the envelope in which it was mailed to DeRutte at his last known address. The trial court

found that DeRutte no longer wishes to move forward with his appeal.

       DeRutte’s failure to file a brief constitutes abandonment of the appeal. See Parker

v. State, 69 S.W.3d 667, 678 (Tex. App.—Waco 2002, no pet.). DeRutte has not claimed

indigence and has failed to make arrangements for filing a brief. Accordingly, we

exercise our authority to consider this appeal without briefs. See Tex. R. App. P.

38.8(b)(4). We review the clerk’s record in the interest of justice. See Lott v. State, 874
S.W.2d 687, 688 (Tex. Crim. App. 1994); see Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(c). Our review of the

limited record presented does not justify reversal on unassigned error. We affirm the trial

court’s judgment.

       AFFIRMED.
                                          ________________________________
                                                 STEVE McKEITHEN
                                                     Chief Justice

Submitted on March 31, 2015
Opinion Delivered April 1, 2015
Do Not Publish

Before McKeithen, C.J., Horton and Johnson, JJ.
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