Opinion
No. 14-04-00690-CR
Memorandum Opinion filed August 12, 2004. DO NOT PUBLISH. Tex.R.App.P. 47.2(b).
On Appeal from the 400th District Court Fort Bend County, Texas, Trial Court Cause No. 38,417. Dismissed.
Panel consists of Justices YATES, EDELMAN, and GUZMAN.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
After a guilty plea to aggravated robbery and a jury trial on punishment, appellant was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years' confinement on March 24, 2004. The next day, his trial counsel filed a motion to withdraw, which the trial court granted on April 6, 2004. Appellant filed a pro se request for appellate counsel, file stamped on April 28, 2004. The clerk's record also contains an undated request from appellant, "Please give me a lawyer soon." Therefore, appellant was not represented by counsel when a motion for new trial or a notice of appeal was due. Appointed appellate counsel filed a notice of appeal on July 6, 2004. A defendant's notice of appeal must be filed within thirty days after sentence is imposed when the defendant has not filed a motion for new trial. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a)(1). A notice of appeal which complies with the requirements of Rule 26 is essential to vest the court of appeals with jurisdiction. Slaton v. State, 981 S.W.2d 208, 210 (Tex.Crim.App. 1998). If an appeal is not timely perfected, a court of appeals does not obtain jurisdiction to address the merits of the appeal. Under those circumstances it can take no action other than to dismiss the appeal. Id.; see also Ater v. Eighth Court of Appeals, 802 S.W.2d 241, 243 (Tex.Crim.App. 1991) (explaining that article 11.07 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure governs out-of time appeals). Because the notice of appeal was untimely, we lack jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. Accordingly, the appeal is ordered dismissed.
The judgment was not file stamped until April 15, 2004, which appellant's counsel suggests is the "formal" date of sentencing. However, for purposes of the notice of appeal, this Court considers "the day sentence is imposed in open court." The trial court imposed the sentence in open court on March 24, 2004.
The handwritten date is either April 1 or April 6, 2004. The order is file stamped April 15, 2004.