Jeremiah Ponder v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: May 13, 2026
• Docket: A26A1929
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ May 13, 2026

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A26A1929. JEREMIAH PONDER v. THE STATE.

In December 2023, a jury found Jeremiah Ponder guilty of unlawful acts of violence in a penal institute and related charges stemming from his attack on a corrections officer while he was incarcerated. Following the denial of his motion for new trial, we affirmed Ponder’s convictions on appeal in an unpublished opinion. Ponder v. State, Case No. A25A0611 (June 26, 2025).1 On October 9, 2025, Ponder filed a pro se notice of appeal seeking to appeal the judgment of conviction entered on December 14, 2023. We, however, lack jurisdiction for two reasons. First, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of entry of the judgment or trial court order sought to be appealed. OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). The proper and timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer appellate jurisdiction on this Court. See Kelly v. State, 311 Ga. 827, 828 (860 SE2d 740) (2021). Ponder’s notice of appeal was untimely filed nearly two years after entry of the order he seeks to appeal, thereby depriving us of jurisdiction over this appeal. See id. Second, Ponder’s current appeal is barred because any issues he might raise has been or could have been litigated in his prior appeal. See Echols v. State, 243 Ga. App. 775, 776 (534 SE2d 464) (2000) (“It is axiomatic that the same issue cannot be relitigated ad infinitum. The same is true of appeals of the same issue on the same

1 Ponder filed a pro se notice of appeal seeking an appeal from the denial of his motion for new trial, which we dismissed because it was duplicative to Case No. A26A0611. See Case No. A26A0610 (Jan. 8, 2025). grounds.”) (punctuation omitted); Jackson v. State, 273 Ga. 320, 320 (540 SE2d 612) (2001) (a party “is not entitled to another bite at the apple by way of a second appeal”). Accordingly, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 05/13/2026 I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.