Cardenas v. State

Full title: ROBERTO CARDENAS, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS , Appellee.

Court: COURT OF APPEALS THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG

Date published: Mar 17, 2015

NUMBER 13-14-00530-CR (Tex. App. Mar. 17, 2015)

Opinion

NUMBER 13-14-00530-CR

03-17-2015

ROBERTO CARDENAS, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS , Appellee.

Per Curiam

On Appellant's Motion to Abate Appeal and Remand to Trial Court to Enter Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law on its Denial of Motion to Suppress.

ORDER OF ABATEMENT

Before Justices Garza, Benavides and Perkes
Order Per Curiam

Appellant, Roberto Cardenas, has perfected an appeal of his capital murder conviction. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 19.03(a)(2) (West, Westlaw through 2013 3d C.S.). He has filed a motion to abate the appeal and to remand to the trial court to enter findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the denial of a motion to suppress.

Article 38.22, section 6 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states in relevant part:

In all cases where a question is raised as to the voluntariness of a statement of an accused, the court must make an independent finding in the absence of the jury as to whether the statement was made under voluntary conditions. If the statement has been found to have been voluntarily made and held admissible as a matter of law and fact by the court in a hearing in the absence of the jury, the court must enter an order stating its conclusion as to whether or not the statement was voluntarily made, along with the specific finding of facts upon which the conclusion was based, which order shall be filed among the papers of the cause.

TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6 (West, Westlaw through 2013 3d C.S.). The entry of such findings and conclusions is mandatory even when "neither party requested written findings at any level of the proceedings, and the issue was not considered by the lower court." Vasquez v. State, 411 S.W.3d 918, 920 n.14 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (noting that section 6 of article 38.22 is "'mandatory in its language and . . . requires a trial court to file its findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the voluntariness of a confession whether or not the defendant objects to the absence of such omitted filing).

The record in this cause reflects that Cardenas filed a motion to suppress certain statements he made to police on grounds that the statements were made involuntarily, and that the trial court denied the motion but failed to file findings of fact and conclusions of law in connection therewith. See id.

Therefore, we hereby ABATE the appeal and REMAND the cause to the trial court for entry of findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to article 38.22, section 6 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6. The trial court shall make its findings and conclusions within THIRTY days from the date of this order, and the trial court shall cause a supplemental clerk's record containing the findings and conclusions to be filed with the Clerk of this Court within SIXTY days from the date of this order. The appeal will be reinstated upon receipt of the supplemental clerk's record and upon further order of this Court.

PER CURIAM Do not publish.
TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
Order delivered and filed the 17th day of March, 2015.