Jose Angel Dominguez Valdez AKA Julio Banderas Guadarama v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: August 31, 2000
• Docket: 13-99-00048-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

NUMBER 13-99-048-CR

COURT OF APPEALS

THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS

CORPUS CHRISTI

____________________________________________________________________

JOSE ANGEL DOMINGUEZ VALDEZ, Appellant,

v.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.

____________________________________________________________________

On appeal from the 139th District Court of Hidalgo County, Texas.

____________________________________________________________________

O P I N I O N

Before Justices Hinojosa, Chavez, and Rodriguez Opinion by Justice Hinojosa

Pursuant to a plea bargain agreement, appellant, Jose Angel Dominguez Valdez,⁽¹⁾ pleaded guilty to the offense of unlawfully carrying a weapon on a licensed premises.⁽²⁾ The trial court found him guilty and assessed his punishment at five years imprisonment and a $500.00 fine. However, the sentence was suspended, and appellant was placed on community supervision for five years. By two points of error, appellant contends: (1) the evidence was legally and factually insufficient, and (2) section 46.02 of the Texas Penal Code is unconstitutional due to vagueness and lack of notice. We dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.

On August 20, 1996, appellant and two other men were found by a police officer in an improperly parked vehicle near the rear door of A's Food Store. The store owner had called the police and reported that there was a suspicious vehicle behind the store. The owner feared that the store was being staked out for a crime, as there had been a history of theft at the store. Upon asking for identification, the officer noticed a loaded handgun magazine in the glove box. Appellant and the two passengers were asked to step out of the vehicle, and the officer noticed the butt of a handgun underneath the front passenger seat. All three men denied knowledge of the handgun. Appellant claimed ownership of the vehicle and was arrested for unlawfully carrying a handgun on a licensed premises.

The right to appeal from an agreed plea of guilty is restricted by rule 25.2(b)(3) of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. This rule requires that in an appeal from a plea-bargained conviction where the punishment assessed did not exceed the punishment recommended by the prosecutor, the notice of appeal must specify that: (1) the appeal is for a jurisdictional defect, (2) the substance of the appeal was raised by written motion and ruled on before the trial, or (3) the trial court granted permission to appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 25.2 (b)(3); see Bruce v. State, 8 S.W.3d 700, 701 (Tex. App.--Fort Worth 1999, no pet.); see Hulshouser v. State, S.W.2d 866, 867-68 (Tex. App.--Fort Worth 1998, pet. ref'd).

Appellant pleaded guilty to the offense of unlawfully carrying a weapon on licensed premises pursuant to a plea bargain agreement. Appellant's punishment did not exceed the recommendation of the prosecutor. Appellant's general notice of appeal does not specify any jurisdictional defect; there is no issue raised by written pre-trial motion; and the trial court did not give permission to appeal. Therefore, appellant's notice of appeal confers no jurisdiction on this Court to hear this appeal.

We conclude we are without jurisdiction to consider this appeal. Accordingly, we dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.

FEDERICO G. HINOJOSA

Justice

Do not publish. Tex. R. App. P. 47.3.

Opinion delivered and filed this the

31st day of August, 2000.

1. Appellee, Jose Angel Dominguez Valdez, is also known as Julio Banderas Guadarama.

2. Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 46.02 (Vernon 1994).