Opinion
14-20-00209-CR
05-17-2022
TAYLOR GUILLORY, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 174th District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 1596766
Panel Consists of Justices Wise, Bourliot, and Zimmerer.
ORDER
PER CURIAM
Before the court are the State's motion to strike a supplemental clerk's record and appellant's motion for panel rehearing. Both of those filings center on the issue of whether appellant's motion for new trial, filed March 23, 2020, was presented to the trial court in compliance with Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 21.6. Such compliance was necessary to preserve error as to whether the trial court abused its discretion in failing to hold a hearing on the motion for new trial. See Obella v. State, 532 S.W.3d 405, 407 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017) (per curiam).
Trial courts have a duty to determine the accuracy of items missing from the appellate record. See Tex. R. App. P. 34.5(e). It necessarily follows that trial courts have a duty to determine whether documents that should have been included in the record and thereby been included in the appellate record, such as a signed certificate of presentment that would demonstrate a motion had been presented to the trial court, exist but are missing from the record. Cf. Colone v. State, 573 S.W.3d 249, 259-60 (Tex. Crim. App. 2019) (discussing how a signed certificate of presentment accompanying a motion for new trial can demonstrate the motion was properly presented to a trial court). Accordingly, this court directs the trial court to reduce to writing its findings of fact and conclusions of law solely on the issue of whether and how appellant's motion for new trial was presented to it and have a supplemental clerk's record containing those findings filed with the clerk of this Court on or before June 16, 2022. Further, to the extent a certificate of presentment was signed in association with appellant's motion for new trial, the trial court clerk is directed to file a supplemental clerk's record containing that certificate filed with the clerk of this court on or before June 16, 2022.