Opinion
NO. 03-12-00474-CR
04-17-2015
Christina Lyons, Appellant v. The State of Texas, Appellee
FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF HAYS COUNTY, 22ND JUDICIAL DISTRICT
NO. CR-11-0101, HONORABLE WILLIAM HENRY, JUDGE PRESIDING
ORDER
PER CURIAM
We issued our opinion in this cause on February 26, 2015. Counsel for appellant moved for, and we granted, an extension of the deadline to file a motion for rehearing (originally March 13, 2015) until thirty-three days thereafter, April 15, 2015. During the evening hours of April 14, 2015, the date immediately prior to the extended deadline, counsel filed a second extension motion requesting an additional thirty days, or until May 15, 2015.
While this Court is typically fairly generous in exercising its discretion to grant briefing extensions, we cannot overlook the prologue to counsel's now-multiple extension requests on rehearing: On original submission, counsel obtained five extensions of the deadline to file appellant's brief, totaling 160 days. Moreover, after this Court granted counsel's fifth extension motion, accompanied by an order instructing him that no further extensions would be granted, counsel still failed to file the brief by the specified deadline and instead merely advised the Court that he would file the brief "as soon as possible." Counsel ultimately did not file the brief until twenty days after the ordered deadline. Rather than take additional action that would further delay the submission of the cause, this Court accepted the untimely brief.
Given this history and the delays that prior extensions have already caused, we will grant one final extension and ORDER counsel to file any motion for rehearing on appellant's behalf no later than Monday, May 18, 2015. No further extensions will be granted, nor will any late filings be accepted.
It is ordered on April 17, 2015. Before Chief Justice Rose, Justices Puryear and Pemberton Do Not Publish
See Tex. R. App. P. 49.1 (providing 15-day deadline for filing motion for rehearing), 49.8 (affording discretion to courts of appeals to extend the deadline).