Lorenza Andre Sam v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: August 7, 2018
• Docket: 14-18-00470-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

Appeal Dismissed and Memorandum Opinion filed August 7, 2018.

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals

NO. 14-18-00470-CR

LORENZA ANDRE SAM, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 434th Judicial District Court Fort Bend County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 10-DCR-055360A

MEMORANDUM OPINION Appellant was convicted of capital murder in 2013. We affirmed his conviction in 2016. Sam v. State, No. 14-13-00840-CR, 2016 WL 6134445 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Oct. 20, 2016, pet. ref’d).

On April 9, 2018, appellant, acting pro se, filed a document entitled, “Notice of Appeal and Request for Certificate of Appealability.” The words “In the Fifth Court Circuit Court of Appeals, New Orleans, Louisiana” are typed at the top of the document. The document is addressed to “Clerk of Court; Lyle Cayce.” According to the website for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, that court’s clerk is Lyle W. Cayce. The document contains a certificate of service in which appellant declares he mailed the document to “Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Clerk of Court Lyle Cayce, 600 Maestri P., New Orleans, Louisiana 70130-3408” and that “an exact carbon-copy has been courtesy delivered by same to” this court.

The Fort Bend County District Clerk assigned this appeal to us on June 8, 2018. Since that time, the clerk’s record has been filed, and the trial court appointed counsel to represent appellant.

This court lacks jurisdiction over this appeal. We have already affirmed his conviction on direct appeal. Further, it appears appellant did not intend to pursue his appeal in this court; rather, he was notifying this court of his intent to challenge our decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

On July 18, 2018, we notified appellant and his newly-appointed counsel, Kristen Jernigan, that we would dismiss the appeal unless any party demonstrated, by July 30, 2018, meritorious grounds for retaining the appeal. No response has been filed.

The appeal is DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.

PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Justices Donovan, Wise, and Jewell Do Not Publish—Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b)