Opinion
05-22-00867-CR
01-03-2023
WILFRED JOSEPH LEGER, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the Criminal District Court No. 1 Dallas County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. F18-20692-H
ORDER
ROBERT D. BURNS, III CHIEF JUSTICE
Before the Court is the State's December 21, 2022 motion to abate the appeal and extend the time to file the State's brief. The State also notes that no certification of the right to appeal appears in the clerk's record filed in this case. We GRANT the State's motion.
We ORDER the trial court to prepare a certification of the right to appeal and to file it in the appellate record within THIRTY DAYS of the date of this order. See Tex. R. App. P. 25.2(a)(2), (d).
The record shows that on September 24, 2019, appellant filed a "Motion to Suppress Defendant's Statement." On September 26, 2019, the Honorable Michael Snipes, sitting by assignment, conducted a hearing on appellant's motion to suppress his statement made in a recorded interview with police detective Erin Blust. After hearing testimony from Blust and appellant, Judge Snipes took the matter under advisement pending a viewing of the recorded interview.
On September 26, 2019, Judge Snipes issued a written order denying the motion to suppress. The record contains the written order denying the motion, but it does not contain any findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the ruling or the voluntariness of appellant's recorded statement. The recorded statement was admitted into evidence during appellant's trial before the court and forms the basis for two of appellant's three issues on appeal, the first of which is an issue pointing out that there are no findings of fact on the voluntariness of the recorded statement.
When the trial court makes a determination regarding the voluntariness of an accused's statement, the trial court is required to enter an order stating its conclusion and setting forth the findings of fact upon which the conclusion is based. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 38.22, § 6; Vasquez v. State, 411 S.W.3d 918, 920 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013). When the record on appeal does not contain the proper findings, the court of appeals must abate the appeal to allow the trial court to make the proper findings. See Vasquez, 411 S.W.3d at 920, n.13 (quoting Wicker v. State, 740 S.W.2d 779, 784 (Tex. Crim. App. 1987)).
Accordingly, we ORDER the Honorable Michael Snipes to prepare and file, within THIRTY DAYS of the date of this order, findings of fact and conclusions of law on the merits of appellant's September 24, 2019 motion to suppress defendant's statement heard on September 26, 2019 and on the voluntariness of appellant's recorded statement.
If Judge Snipes is unavailable to prepare findings of fact and conclusions of law as ordered above, then we ORDER the trial court to conduct a hearing, within THIRTY DAYS of the date of this order, in accordance with Texas Code of Criminal Procedure 38.22, section 6, to determine the merits of appellant's September 24, 2019 Motion to Suppress Defendant's Statement and the voluntariness of appellant's recorded statement. After conducting such a hearing, the trial court is ORDERED to prepare written findings of fact and conclusions of law within THIRTY DAYS of the date of the hearing. The trial court's findings and conclusions should be forwarded to the Court as part of a supplemental clerk's record along with a supplemental reporter's record of the hearing. See generally Douglas v. State, 900 S.W.2d 760, 761-62 (Tex. App.-Corpus Christi-Edinburg 1995, pet. ref'd).
This appeal is ABATED to allow Judge Snipes to prepare and file the findings of fact and conclusions of law or for the trial court to conduct the hearing and prepare the necessary findings as ordered above. The appeal shall be reinstated when a supplemental clerk's record is filed containing the findings and conclusions or at such other time as the Court deems appropriate.
Upon reinstatement, the Court will reset the due date for the State's brief.
We DIRECT the Clerk to transmit copies of this order to the Honorable Michael R. Snipes, Senior Judge, Criminal District Court No. 7; the Honorable Tina Clinton, Presiding Judge, Criminal District Court No. 1; and to counsel for the parties.