Opinion
NO. 09-18-00339-CR
01-07-2020
JASON BENJAMIN MILLER, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 221st District Court Montgomery County, Texas
Trial Cause No. 18-05-05638-CR
ORDER
In this appeal, Appellant Jason Benjamin Miller challenges the trial court's ruling on his motion to suppress. Miller requested findings of fact and conclusions of law, but the record contains no written or oral findings on the motion to suppress.
When the losing party on a motion to suppress requests findings of fact and conclusions of law, the trial court is required to make them. See Byram v. State, 510 S.W.3d 918, 921 n.3 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017); State v. Oages, 210 S.W.3d 643, 644 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (citing State v. Cullen, 195 S.W.3d 696, 698-99 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006)); Blocker v. State, 231 S.W.3d 595, 596 (Tex. App.—Waco 2007, order) (per curiam), disp. on merits, 264 S.W.3d 356 (Tex. App.—Waco 2008, no pet.). "[T]he trial court must make findings of fact and conclusions of law adequate to provide an appellate court with a basis upon which to review the trial court's application of the law to the facts." Cullen, 195 S.W.3d at 699; see also Delafuente v. State, 414 S.W.3d 173, 181-82 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013).
When the accused challenges the motion to suppress ruling and requests findings but the trial court does not file findings of fact and conclusions of law, the proper remedy is for the appellate court to abate the appeal and remand to the trial court to allow the trial court to make the necessary findings. See Cullen, 195 S.W.3d at 700 (remanding to the court of appeals to order the trial court to enter findings); Blocker, 231 S.W.3d at 598; see also Meekins v. State, 340 S.W.3d 454, 465 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011) ("[A]ppellate courts should have the trial judge's findings of fact before disagreeing with that judge's ruling on a motion to suppress. The court of appeals would have been well served to allow supplementation of the record with the findings of fact that appellant had requested.").
Accordingly, it is ORDERED that the appeal is ABATED and the case is REMANDED to the trial court for entry of findings of fact and conclusions of law on the trial court's essential findings on the issues raised in the hearing of Appellant's motion to suppress. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.4. A supplemental clerk's record containing the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law are due to be filed in this Court by February 6, 2020. See Tex. R. App. P. 34.5(c)(2). All appellate timetables are suspended pending filing of the supplemental clerk's record with this Court. The parties may address the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law in supplemental briefs. The Appellant's supplemental brief is due thirty days after the supplemental clerk's record is filed. The Appellee's supplemental brief is due thirty days after the Appellant files its supplemental brief. Requests for briefing extensions will be strongly disfavored.
ORDER ENTERED January 7, 2020.
PER CURIAM Before McKeithen, C.J., Kreger and Johnson, JJ.