William Baucum v. State

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-19-00114-CR

WILLIAM BAUCUM, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 202nd District Court Bowie County, Texas Trial Court No. 16F0100-202

Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Morriss MEMORANDUM OPINION William Baucum has filed an untimely notice of appeal from a conviction of aggravated

sexual assault. 1 We dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.

The judgment of conviction in this matter indicates that Baucum’s sentence was imposed

on February 11, 2019, and Baucum timely filed a motion for new trial. Under Rule 26.2(a) of the

Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, the deadline for filing a notice of appeal under these

circumstances was May 13, 2019. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a)(2). Baucum’s notice of appeal was

not filed until May 28, 2019. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has expressly held that, without

a timely notice of appeal, we cannot exercise jurisdiction over an appeal. See Olivo v. State, 918

S.W.2d 519, 522 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996); see also Slaton v. State, 981 S.W.2d 208, 209 n.3 (Tex.

Crim. App. 1998).

We notified Baucum by letter that his notice of appeal appeared to be untimely and that the

appeal was subject to dismissal for want of jurisdiction. Baucum, through counsel, filed a response

to our jurisdictional defect letter asking us to abate the appeal to the trial court to conduct a hearing

on his motion for a new trial. Alternatively, Baucum asked us to utilize Rule 2 of the Texas Rules

of Appellate Procedure to excuse the untimely filing of his notice of appeal. See TEX. R. APP. P. 2.

Baucum’s response, however, did not address the simple fact that we lack jurisdiction over the

appeal.

1 See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.021.

2 Because Baucum did not timely file his notice of appeal, we dismiss the appeal for want of

jurisdiction.

Josh R. Morriss, III Chief Justice

Date Submitted: June 25, 2019 Date Decided: June 26, 2019

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