Opinion
NUMBERS 13-13-00358-CR
05-08-2014
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellant, v. BONNIE DOWNS, Appellee.
On appeal from the County Court at Law No. 4
of Nueces County, Texas.
ORDER ABATING APPEAL
Before Justices Garza, Benavides, and Perkes
Order Per Curiam
The State perfected an appeal from an order granting a motion to suppress entered by the County Court at Law Number 4 of Nueces County, Texas, in cause number 13CR714-4. The State has requested a remand to the trial court for findings of fact and conclusions of law.
On June 13, 2013, the trial court issued an order granting a motion to suppress. On July 3, 2013, the State filed a timely request for findings of fact and conclusions of law. The trial court has not made its findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of its decision to grant the appellee's motion to suppress.
Upon the request of the losing party on a motion to suppress evidence, the trial court must make findings of fact and conclusions of law adequate to provide an appellate court with a basis to which to review the trial court's application of the law to the facts. State v. Cullen, 195 S.W.3d 696, 699 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006). If the trial court does not enter the findings of fact and conclusions of law within twenty days from its ruling on the motion to suppress, the intermediate appellate court must exercise its authority under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 44.4, and remand the case to the trial court and order the trial court to enter findings of fact and conclusions of law. TEX. R. APP. PROC. 44.4; Cullen, 195 S.W.3d at 698-700.
The Court, having considered the documents on file and the State's motion, is of the opinion that the motion should be granted. Accordingly, we GRANT counsel's motion to abate the present appeal. See TEX. R. APP. P. 44.4. Accordingly, this appeal is ABATED and the cause REMANDED to the trial court.
Upon remand, the trial court is instructed to make and file findings of fact and conclusions of law consistent with the holding in Cullen. A supplemental record containing these findings of fact and conclusions of law should be included in a supplemental clerk's record which should be submitted to the Clerk of this Court within thirty days from the date of this order.
It is so ORDERED.
PER CURIAM Do not publish.
TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).