Jesus a Zuniga-Hernandez v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: September 25, 2014
• Docket: 14-14-00346-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order filed September 25, 2014.

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals ____________

NO. 14-14-00346-CR ____________

JESUS A. ZUNIGA-HERNANDEZ, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the County Criminal Court at Law No. 3 Harris County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 1923852

ORDER

Appellant challenges the trial court’s order denying his motion to suppress evidence in the appeal from his conviction for driving while intoxicated. Although requested in appellant’s motion to suppress and at the hearing on the motion, the trial court failed to make findings of fact and conclusions of law. In his brief, appellant requests that we abate the appeal and direct the trial court to make the required findings and conclusions. The State agrees that abatement is the proper remedy. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.4. Upon request of the losing party on a motion to suppress, the trial court is required to make “essential findings,” meaning “findings of fact and conclusions of law adequate to provide an appellate court with a basis upon which to review the trial court’s application of the law to the facts.” See State v. Saenz, 411 S.W.3d 488, 495 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (citing State v. Cullen, 195 S.W.3d 696, 699 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006)). The findings and conclusions must be “adequate and complete, covering every potentially dispositive issue that might reasonably be said to have arisen in the course of the suppression proceedings.” See State v. Elias, 339 S.W.3d 667, 676 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011).

We abate this appeal and remand this case to the trial court. We direct the trial court to reduce to writing its essential findings of fact and conclusions of law related to its ruling on appellant’s motion to suppress. A supplemental clerk’s record containing the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law shall be filed with this court no later than October 30, 2014.

The appeal is abated, treated as a closed case, and removed from this court’s active docket. The appeal will be reinstated on this court’s active docket when the supplemental clerk’s record containing the trial court’s findings and conclusions is filed in this court. The court will also consider an appropriate motion to reinstate the appeal filed by either party.

PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Chief Justice Frost and Justices Christopher and Busby.