Opinion
No. 10-18-00159-CR
04-17-2019
ANDREW LEE JONES, JR., Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
From the 85th District Court Brazos County, Texas
Trial Court No. 16-04190-CRF-85
ABATEMENT ORDER
This appeal was abated to the trial court to hold a hearing regarding correcting inaccuracies, if any, in the reporter's record. See TEX. R. APP. P. 34.6(e)(2). After a hearing, the reporter's record was corrected and, as corrected, was filed with this Court on December 3, 2018. An exhibit, however, was not filed. The exhibit, offered both as Motion to Suppress Exhibit 2 and as State's Exhibit 4, an in-car video, could not be converted by the reporter to be electronically filed with this Court.
The parties at the abatement hearing and at the motion to suppress hearing refer to this Exhibit as Motion to Suppress Exhibit 2. However, it is labeled in the Exhibit volume as Motion to Suppress Exhibit 1. The Court lacks the in-car video that was introduced.
By order issued on January 2, 2019, the appeal was reinstated, and the reporter was ordered to provide the Court with a DVD containing a copy of the in-car video admitted into evidence as Motion to Suppress Exhibit 2 and as State's Exhibit 4 within 14 days from the date of the Order. The copy was ordered to be in a format that would allow the Court to view the video using industry standard video software rather than any type of proprietary software.
The next day, the reporter filed a "corrected" record. With it, Motion to Suppress Exhibit 1, an audio-only exhibit, was uploaded into our case-management system, TAMES, as Motion to Suppress Exhibit 2. State's Exhibit 4 (the in-car video) was copied onto a CD and sent to the Court. The disc was not viewable by the Court. The State informed the Court that the disc should be viewable through a computer with Windows 10. The Court does not use Windows 10. Further, the disc was not viewable on even a personal computer with Windows 10.
The Court was also given a CD of "Motion to Suppress Exhibit 2." However it is also the audio exhibit admitted as Motion to Suppress Exhibit 1, not the in-car video admitted both as Motion to Suppress Exhibit 2 and State's Exhibit 4. Because of continuing confusion as to what Motion to Suppress Exhibit 2 should contain, this order will only pertain to State's Exhibit 4.
Accordingly, this appeal is ABATED to the trial court to, within 21 days from the date of this Order, oversee the filing of a copy of State's Exhibit 4 in a format that is viewable after it has been uploaded/filed via the clerk/reporter portal into the Court's cases management software, a.k.a. TAMES. If this is functionally impractical to accomplish, then the trial court is ordered to oversee the transfer of State's Exhibit 4 to a format that is viewable on any modern DVD player or computer drive without any other proprietary software and labeled to identify the specific software needed to view the file.
PER CURIAM Before Chief Justice Gray, Justice Davis, and Justice Neill
Appeal abated
Order issued and filed April 17, 2019