Opinion
NO. 09-14-00382-CRNO. 09-14-00383-CRNO. 09-14-00384-CRNO. 09-14-00385-CRNO. 09-14-00386-CRNO. 09-14-00387-CR
02-04-2016
JOSHUA LUKE MCDONALD, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 128th District Court Orange County, Texas
Trial Cause Nos. A-140025-R, A-140028-R, A-140031-R, A-140034-R, A-140037-R, and A-140040-R
ORDER
Joshua Luke McDonald filed notices of appeal following his guilty plea and the jury's verdict on punishment in six cases in which he was indicted for sexual assault of a child. See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 22.011 (West 2011). After the briefs were filed and the appeals were submitted to the Court, it came to the attention of the Court that a formal procedural defect affects this Court's jurisdiction over the appeals.
On August 13, 2014, a jury assessed punishment at confinement in prison for fifteen years in each case. The trial court sentenced McDonald in accordance with the jury's verdicts, but immediately rescinded the pronouncement of the sentences and recessed for consideration of the State's request to order one of the sentences to be served consecutively to one of the other sentences. When the trial court reconvened the hearing two days later, the trial court called all six cases and announced its decision to order that the sentence in trial court case number A-140034-R run consecutive to the fifteen-year sentence received August 15, 2014, in trial court case number A-140025-R, but the trial court failed to orally pronounce the sentence in each of the six cases. Oral pronouncement of sentence in the presence of the defendant is mandatory. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art. 42.03 § 1(a) (West Supp. 2015). The trial court's failure to orally pronounce sentence is remediable error. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.4(a).
It is, therefore, ORDERED that the Appeal Numbers 09-14-00382-CR, 09-14-00383-CR, 09-14-00384-CR, 09-14-00385-CR, 09-14-00386-CR, and 09-14-00387-CR are abated and trial court case numbers A-140025-R, A-140028-R, A-140031-R, A-140034-R, A-140037-R, and A-140040-R are remanded to the trial court for oral pronouncement of each sentence in the presence of the defendant upon notice and hearing. A reporter's record of the sentencing hearing shall be prepared and filed in the records of theses appeals within sixty days of the date of this order. These appeals will be reinstated without further order of this Court when the supplemental reporter's records are filed.
ORDER ENTERED February 4, 2016.
PER CURIAM Before McKeithen, C.J., Kreger and Horton, JJ.