Opinion
No. 05-14-00001-CR
03-11-2014
DURAY ALGHAYLANY, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 283rd Judicial District Court
Dallas County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. F12-61854-T
ORDER
The Court REINSTATES the appeal.
On February 10, 2014, in response to the State's motion to dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction, the Court ordered the trial court to make findings regarding appellant's notice of appeal. We ADOPT the trial court's findings that: (1) appellant was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment on November 6, 2013; (2) appellant's trial attorney did not file a notice of appeal on appellant's behalf; (3) the Frank Crowley Courts Building was closed on Friday, December 6, 2013 due to inclement weather but was open on Monday, December 9, 2013; (4) the records of the trial court originally showed only an unsigned notice of appeal file-stamped December 19, 2013; (5) subsequent research uncovered a handwritten notice of appeal prepared by appellant on December 2, 2013 and mailed from the Dallas County Jail in an envelope post-marked December 5, 2013; (6) additional research also uncovered a form notice of appeal signed by appellant on December 8, 2013 and mailed to the trial court in an envelope post-marked December 12, 2013; (7) the envelopes for both the December 2, 2013 and December 8, 2013 notices of appeal were addressed to the 283rd District Court, Attn: Court Clerk, 133 N. Riverfront Blvd., Dallas, Texas 75207; (8) the December 2, 2013 and December 8, 2013 notices of appeal were both file-stamped December 19, 2013; (9) the unsigned December 19, 2013 notice of appeal was prepared by a clerk of the trial court based on either the December 2, 2013 or December 8, 2013 notice of appeal; and (10) the December 2, 2013 notice of appeal was placed into the hands of a jailer for mailing on or before the December 5, 2013 post-mark date.
Based on the trial court's findings, we conclude the December 2, 2013 handwritten notice of appeal mailed in the envelope post-marked December 5, 2013 is timely for jurisdictional purposes. See Campbell v. State, 320 S.W.3d 338, 344 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010). We DENY the State's January 30, 2014 motion to dismiss the appeal.
Both the clerk's and reporter's records have been filed. Accordingly, appellant's brief is due within thirty days of the date of this order.
LANA MYERS
JUSTICE