Cutrer v. State

995 S.W.2d 703, 1999 WL 360541
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 8, 1999
Docket06-98-00084-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 995 S.W.2d 703 (Cutrer v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cutrer v. State, 995 S.W.2d 703, 1999 WL 360541 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

ROSS, J.

Clint Cutrer was indicted, with enhancements, for the offense of aggravated robbery. He entered into a plea agreement with the State by which he waived his right to a jury trial, pled nolo contendere to the primary offense and true to the enhancements. The court found that the evidence substantiated his guilt for the offense of aggravated robbery and accepted his pleas of true to the enhancement paragraphs. The court then deferred adjudging Cutrer guilty and placed him on community supervision for ten years. Cutrer did not appeal from the court’s order placing him on deferred adjudication supervision. More than two years later, the State filed a motion to proceed with an adjudication of guilt, alleging that Cutrer violated certain conditions of his community supervision. At the hearing on the State’s motion, Cutrer pled true to the alleged violations without a plea agreement. The court accepted Cutrer’s pleas of true, revoked supervision, adjudged him guilty, and assessed punishment at twenty-five years’ confinement. The court granted Cutrer permission to appeal pursuant to Tex.R.App.P 25.2(b)(3)(C). Cutrer contends the trial court erred at the initial hearing when he was placed on deferred adjudication supervision by failing to admonish him of the consequences of pleading nolo contendere and in failing to inform him of the consequences of violating his deferred adjudication supervision.

This Court has previously held, along with other jurisdictions, that appellate courts lack jurisdiction in appeals claiming error in the order placing a defendant on deferred adjudication where notice of appeal was not timely filed after the original proceeding. Session v. State, 978 S.W.2d 289, 290 (Tex.App.—Texarkana 1998, no pet. h.); see also Hammack v. State, 963 S.W.2d 199, 200 (Tex.App.—Austin 1998, no pet. h.); Alejandro v. State, 957 S.W.2d 143, 144 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1997, pet. ref'd); Smith v. State, 957 S.W.2d 571, 574-75 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1997, no pet.). Cutrer was placed on deferred adjudication supervision on October 5, 1995. He did not appeal from that proceeding until he was finally adjudicated guilty and sentenced in February 1998. Cutrer did not comply with Tex.R.App.P. 26.2, which required him to file a notice of appeal within thirty days after the day sentence was imposed or suspended in open court, or after the day the trial court entered an appealable order.

*705 Since Cutrer’s complaints in this appeal relate solely to the initial proceeding where he was placed on deferred adjudication supervision and he did not timely appeal from that proceeding, we are without jurisdiction to consider his complaints. This conclusion is based on our holding in Session and the rationale of the other appellate courts that have reached the same conclusion. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, while not addressing the jurisdictional issue directly, has implied that the appellate courts do have jurisdiction in these circumstances. Joyner v. State, 921 S.W.2d 234 (Tex.Crim.App.1996); Ray v. State, 919 S.W.2d 125 (Tex.Crim.App.1996).

In Joyner, the court allowed the appellant to challenge his original guilty plea as involuntary because he was not at that time properly admonished on the consequences of violating deferred adjudication. On October 4, 1989, Joyner pled guilty, without an agreed recommendation. The trial court deferred adjudication and placed him on probation for six years. On August 24, 1992, on the State’s motion, the trial court adjudicated guilt and sentenced Joyner to seven years’ confinement. Neither the court of appeals nor the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals addressed the issue of jurisdiction, but both went on to address the merits of Joyner’s contentions attacking his original guilty plea, which occurred almost three years prior to his appeal. 1

The court in Ray allowed the appellant to challenge his original guilty plea as involuntary because he was not at that time properly admonished on the consequences of violating deferred adjudication probation. On July 15, 1991, Ray entered a plea of guilty without a plea agreement. On September 10, 1991, the trial court deferred finding Ray guilty and placed him on deferred adjudication probation for ten years. In February of 1993, the State filed a motion to proceed with adjudication of guilt, and on July 2,1993, the trial court granted the State’s motion, entered a finding of guilt, revoked Ray’s probation, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Neither the court of appeals nor the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals addressed the issue of jurisdiction, but both went on to address the merits of Ray’s contentions attacking his original guilty plea occurring almost two years prior to his appeal. 2

In the recent case of Ex parte McCullough, 966 S.W.2d 529, 531 (Tex.Crim.App.1998), the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stated that, just because an appellant could have appealed from an order placing him on deferred adjudication community supervision, but did not, does not affect jurisdiction. However, because McCullough arose out of a habeas coi'pus proceeding, it is not clear that this language was intended to allow an appellant to wait more than two years and four months, as in the instant case, or, depending on the length of the term of supervision imposed, even as long as ten years or more, to make a direct appeal of alleged errors occurring at the time of his initial trial.

The jurisprudence of this state dealing with appeals from orders placing defendants on deferred adjudication community supervision has not always been consistent. The statutory rules governing appeals in this area changed in the mid-1980’s and, with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision in Dillehey v. State, 815 S.W.2d 623 (Tex.Crim.App.1991), an appellant was allowed to appeal immediately after being placed on deferred adjudication. Watson v. State, 924 S.W.2d 711, 713-15 (Tex.Crim.App.1996) (citing Dillehey, 815 S.W.2d 623). This right to appeal is limited by the express terms of Tex.R.App.P. 25.2, which requires the notice of appeal to (A) specify that the appeal is for jurisdictional defect, (B) specify that the. substance of the appeal was raised by written *706 motion and ruled on before trial, or (C) state that the trial court granted permission to appeal.

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Bryan Gene Wilson v. State of Texas
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Bluebook (online)
995 S.W.2d 703, 1999 WL 360541, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cutrer-v-state-texapp-1999.