Eual Eldon Hayes, III v. the State of Texas

Opinion

In the

Court of Appeals

Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-26-00111-CR

EUAL ELDON HAYES, III, Appellant V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 8th District Court Hopkins County, Texas

Trial Court No. 2430205

Before Stevens, C.J., van Cleef and Rambin, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice van Cleef

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Eual Eldon Hayes, III, has filed an untimely notice of appeal from the trial court’s judgment in this matter. We dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.

The judgment of conviction in this matter indicates that the trial court imposed Hayes’s sentence on January 29, 2026. Because Hayes did not file a motion for new trial, his notice of appeal was due on or before March 2, 2026. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a)(1). Hayes did not file his notice of appeal until June 22, 2026, well beyond the March 2, 2026, deadline. Consequently, Hayes’s attempt to appeal his conviction in this matter was untimely.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has expressly held that, without a timely filed notice of appeal, we cannot exercise jurisdiction over an appeal. See Olivo v. State, 918 S.W.2d 519, 522 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996); see also Slaton v. State, 981 S.W.2d 208, 209 n.3 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998) (per curiam).

We notified Hayes by letter that his notice of appeal appeared to be untimely and that the appeal was subject to dismissal for want of jurisdiction. We gave Hayes ten days to respond to our letter and to demonstrate how we had jurisdiction over the appeal notwithstanding the noted defect. While Hayes responded, he did not provide a sufficient basis for retaining this matter on our docket.

3

Because Hayes has not timely perfected his appeal, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.3(b), (c).

Charles van Cleef

Justice

Date Submitted: July 20, 2026 Date Decided: July 21, 2026

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