State v. Daniel Cabral-Tapia

Opinion

In The

Court of Appeals

Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-18-00252-CR

THE STATE OF TEXAS, APPELLANT V.

DANIEL CABRAL-TAPIA, APPELLEE

On Appeal from the County Court Hale County, Texas

Trial Court No. 2017C-200, Honorable Bill Coleman, Presiding

October 11, 2018

ABATEMENT AND REMAND

Before QUINN, C.J., and CAMPBELL and PARKER, JJ.

Pending before this court is the State’s motion to abate the appeal and remand the cause to the trial court to prepare findings of fact and conclusions of law. The record reflects that the trial court granted appellee Daniel Cabral-Tapia’s motion to suppress the horizontal gaze nystagmus test and that the State timely filed a request for findings of fact and conclusions of law. However, none were filed. In State v. Cullen, 195 S.W.3d 696, 699 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006), the Court of Criminal Appeals held that, “[u]pon the request of the losing party on a motion to suppress evidence, the trial court shall state its essential

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findings.” There, the Court explained that the trial court’s refusal to state its findings and conclusions prevented the court of appeals from a meaningful review of the decision to grant or deny the motion to suppress. Id. at 698.

Accordingly, we abate the appeal and remand the cause to the trial court. See TEX. R. APP. P. 44.4. Upon remand, the trial court shall execute findings of fact and conclusions of law as required by State v. Cullen, supra. So too shall it include its findings and conclusions in a supplemental clerk’s record and cause that record to be filed with this court. Because we must “give precedence in [our] docket to an appeal filed” by the State from an order granting a motion to suppress evidence, Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 44.01(a)(5), (f) (West 2018), we set October 24, 2018, as the deadline by which the findings and conclusions must be filed with this court. Should further time be needed to perform these tasks, then same must be requested before October 24, 2018.

It is so ordered.

Per Curiam

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