Jacob Aaron Vera v. the State of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: November 21, 2023
• Docket: 07-23-00416-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-23-00415-CR No. 07-23-00416-CR

JACOB AARON VERA, APPELLANT

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, APPELLEE

On Appeal from the 100th District Court Hall County, Texas Trial Court No. 4144, 4145, Honorable Stuart Messer, Presiding

November 21, 2023 MEMORANDUM OPINION Before QUINN. C.J., and PARKER and YARBROUGH, JJ.

Appellant, Jacob Aaron Vera, appeals from the trial court’s judgments adjudicating

him guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child1 and sentencing him to

forty years’ confinement for each count, to be served consecutively. We dismiss the

untimely appeals for want of jurisdiction.

1 TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.021. Appellant was sentenced on September 18, 2023. Because no motion for new

trial was filed, a notice of appeal was due within thirty days after sentence was imposed,

i.e., by October 18, 2023. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a) (requiring a notice of appeal to be

filed within thirty days after sentence is imposed or within ninety days if the defendant

timely files a motion for new trial). Appellant filed a notice of appeal on October 31, 2023,

within the fifteen-day extension period, but did not file a motion for extension until

November 6, after the fifteen-day extension period expired. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.3

(permitting an appellate court to extend the time to file a notice of appeal if a notice and

a motion for extension are filed within fifteen days of the notice of appeal deadline).

Appellant’s motion for extension explained that his late notice of appeal was due to a

delay in the appointment of counsel.

The timely filing of a written notice of appeal is a jurisdictional prerequisite to

hearing an appeal. Castillo v. State, 369 S.W.3d 196, 198 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012).

Although appellate courts may extend the time to file a notice by fifteen days pursuant to

Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.3, when a notice of appeal but no motion for extension of

time is filed within the fifteen-day extension period, an appellate court lacks jurisdiction to

dispose of the purported appeal in any manner other than by dismissing it for want of

jurisdiction. See Olivo v. State, 918 S.W.2d 519, 523 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996) (en banc);

Lair v. State, 321 S.W.3d 158, 159 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 2010, pet. ref’d)

(explaining that in criminal appeals, no motion for extension is implied when a notice of

appeal is filed within fifteen days of the deadline).

Because Appellant did not file his motion for extension of time to file a notice of

appeal within the fifteen-day grace period provided by appellate rule 26.3, we must deny 2 the requested extension. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.3; Olivo, 918 S.W.2d at 522. Appellant’s

notice of appeal is, therefore, untimely.

Accordingly, we dismiss the appeals for want of jurisdiction.2

Per Curiam

Do not publish.

2 Appellant may be entitled to relief by filing an application for writ of habeas corpus returnable to

the Court of Criminal Appeals for consideration of an out-of-time appeal. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 11.07. 3