Rachel Nicole Spelman v. the State of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: December 5, 2024
• Docket: 02-24-00341-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

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

No. 02-24-00341-CR ___________________________

RACHEL NICOLE SPELMAN, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

On Appeal from the 432nd District Court Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 1665014

Before Womack, Wallach, and Walker, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Womack MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Rachel Nicole Spelman filed a notice of appeal expressing her intent

to appeal the trial court’s “Orders, Rulings and/or Judgements [sic] of August 26th –

29th, as well as any other rulings subsumed therein.” Based on our review of

Spelman’s notice of appeal and other documents received from the trial court, it did

not appear to us that Spelman was appealing from a judgment of conviction.1

Accordingly, on September 20, 2024, we notified Spelman of our concern that

we lack jurisdiction over this appeal. We explained that in criminal cases, our

jurisdiction is generally limited to appeals from judgments of conviction. See McKown

v. State, 915 S.W.2d 160, 161 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1996, no pet.) (per curiam).

We warned Spelman that unless she or any party desiring to continue the appeal filed

a response by September 30, 2024, showing grounds for continuing the appeal, we

could dismiss it for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f), 44.3.

We later received notice that on October 4, 2024, the trial court had signed an

order disqualifying Spelman’s counsel. Subsequently, we received notice that Spelman

had retained new counsel to represent her. Accordingly, on October 23, 2024, we

sent Spelman a second letter—addressed to her newly-retained counsel—regarding

our concern that we lack jurisdiction over this appeal. We again explained that our

1 Indeed, in the trial court’s certification of Spelman’s right of appeal that was attached to her notice of appeal, the trial court stated, “The defendant has NO right of appeal. -- Case is pending.”

2 jurisdiction is generally limited to appeals from judgments of conviction. See McKown,

915 S.W.2d at 161. We warned Spelman that unless she or any party desiring to

continue the appeal filed a response by November 4, 2024, showing grounds for

continuing the appeal, we could dismiss it for want of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App.

P. 43.2(f), 44.3.

Spelman has not filed a response to either of our letters expressing our

jurisdictional concern. Accordingly, we dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.

See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f); McKown, 915 S.W.2d at 161.

/s/ Dana Womack

Dana Womack Justice

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

Delivered: December 5, 2024