Preston Mercedes Liddell v. the State of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: July 31, 2025
• Docket: 02-25-00230-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

In the Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth ___________________________

No. 02-25-00230-CR ___________________________

PRESTON MERCEDES LIDDELL, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

On Appeal from County Criminal Court No. 3 Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 1850316

Before Sudderth, C.J.; Kerr and Birdwell, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Sudderth MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Preston Mercedes Liddell attempts to appeal from an interlocutory

order denying his motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him. But “in a

criminal case[, appeals] are permitted only when they are specifically authorized by

statute,” State ex rel. Lykos v. Fine, 330 S.W.3d 904, 915 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) (orig.

proceedings), and no statute authorizes a defendant’s appeal from an interlocutory

order denying a motion to dismiss, Williams v. State, No. 02-23-00330-CR, 2024 WL

368947, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Feb. 1, 2024, no pet.) (mem. op., not

designated for publication) (“An order denying a motion to dismiss is neither a

judgment of conviction nor an interlocutory order made appealable by statute.”);

Awadalla v. State, No. 02-20-00102-CR, 2020 WL 5949918, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort

Worth Oct. 8, 2020, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op., not designated for publication)

(“No statute authorizes an interlocutory appeal from a motion to dismiss.”); see Abbott

v. State, 271 S.W.3d 694, 696–97 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008) (“The standard for

determining jurisdiction is not whether the appeal is precluded by law, but whether

the appeal is authorized by law.”).

Accordingly, we notified Appellant that we lacked jurisdiction over his appeal,

and we warned that we could dismiss the appeal unless he showed grounds for

continuing it. See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f), 44.3. Appellant responded by arguing the

merits of his dismissal complaint and by alleging that the trial court had handled his

motion in a “fundamentally unfair” manner. Even if Appellant’s contentions were

2 true, though, they would not confer the appellate jurisdiction needed for our review of

the challenged interlocutory order.

We therefore dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.1 Tex. R. App. P.

43.2(f); see Williams, 2024 WL 368947, at *1 (dismissing attempted appeal from

interlocutory denial of dismissal motion).

/s/ Bonnie Sudderth

Bonnie Sudderth Chief Justice

Do Not Publish Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b)

Delivered: July 31, 2025

1 All pending motions are denied as moot.