Zachery Rene Lamas v. the State of Texas

• Court: Texas Court of Appeals, 7th District (Amarillo)
• Decided: February 6, 2026
• Docket: 07-26-00006-CR
• Status: Published

Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07-26-00006-CR

ZACHERY RENE LAMAS, APPELLANT

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, APPELLEE

On Appeal from the 242nd District Court Hale County, Texas Trial Court No. B21040-1903, Honorable Kregg Hukill, Presiding

February 6, 2026 MEMORANDUM OPINION Before PARKER, C.J., and DOSS and YARBROUGH, JJ.

Appellant, Zachery Rene Lamas, proceeding pro se, appeals his conviction for

sexual assault of a child1 and sentence to seventeen years of confinement. We dismiss

the untimely appeal for want of jurisdiction.

The trial court sentenced Appellant on January 27, 2022. Because Appellant did

not file a motion for new trial, his notice of appeal was due within thirty days after sentence

1 See TEX. PENAL CODE § 22.011(a)(2). was imposed, by February 28, 2022. See TEX. R. APP. P. 21.4(a), 26.2(a)(1). Appellant

filed a notice of appeal with the Clerk of this Court on January 2, 2026.

The timely filing of a written notice of appeal is a jurisdictional prerequisite to

hearing an appeal. Castillo v. State, 369 S.W.3d 196, 198 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012). If a

notice of appeal is not timely filed, an appellate court has no option but to dismiss the

appeal for want of jurisdiction. Id. By letter of January 7, 2026, we notified Appellant of

the consequences of his late notice of appeal and directed him to show how the Court

has jurisdiction over the appeal by January 20, 2026. To date, Appellant has not filed a

response demonstrating grounds for continuing the appeal.

Because Appellant’s untimely notice of appeal prevents this Court from acquiring

jurisdiction over the appeal, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.2

Per Curiam

Do not publish.

2 Appellant may be entitled to relief by filing an application for writ of habeas corpus returnable to

the Court of Criminal Appeals for consideration of an out-of-time appeal. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 11.07.