Tzendal Aragon-Canales v. the State of Texas

• Court: Court of Appeals of Texas
• Decided: June 20, 2024
• Docket: 02-24-00163-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

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

No. 02-24-00163-CR ___________________________

TZENDAL ARAGON-CANALES, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

On Appeal from the 43rd District Court Parker County, Texas Trial Court No. CR23-0394

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

Tzendal Aragon-Canales, proceeding pro se, attempts to appeal from the trial

court’s judgment of conviction that was signed after Aragon-Canales entered into a

plea bargain and pleaded guilty to the felony offense of aggravated assault with a

deadly weapon. Based on that plea bargain, on August 14, 2023, the trial court

imposed upon Aragon-Canales a sentence of eight years’ confinement.1 As no motion

for new trial was filed, Aragon-Canales’s notice of appeal was due by September 13,

2023, but he did not file it until May 13, 2024. See Tex. R. App. P. 26.2(a)(1)

(requiring in criminal cases where no motion for new trial is filed that notice of appeal

is due within 30 days after sentence imposed).

Because Aragon-Canales’s notice of appeal was untimely, we notified him of

our concern that we lack jurisdiction over this appeal. We warned him that we would

dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction unless, within ten days, he or any party

desiring to continue the appeal filed with this court a response showing grounds for

its continuance. We received no response.

A timely-filed notice of appeal is a jurisdictional prerequisite to perfecting an

appeal. See Olivo v. State, 918 S.W.2d 519, 522 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996); see also Castillo v.

State, 369 S.W.3d 196, 198 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012). If a notice of appeal is untimely,

an appellate court must dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. Castillo, 369 S.W.3d

The trial court’s certification of defendant’s right to appeal indicates that this 1

was a plea-bargain case and that Aragon-Canales waived the right of appeal.

2 at 198. We thus dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Olivo, 918 S.W.2d at

523; see also Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f).

/s/ Brian Walker

Brian Walker Justice

Do Not Publish Tex.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

Delivered: June 20, 2024