Opinion
No. 01-04-00477-CR
Opinion issued June 17, 2004. DO NOT PUBLISH. Tex.R.App.P. 47.2(b).
On Appeal from the 263rd District Court, Harris County, Texas, Trial Court Cause No. 877918.
Panel consists of Chief Justice RADACK, and Justices KEYES and BLAND.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant pleaded no contest to causing serious bodily injury to a child with an agreement from the State that his punishment would not exceed confinement for 45 years with an affirmative finding of the use of a deadly weapon. The trial court sentenced appellant to confinement for 45 years and, pursuant to the plea, made an affirmative finding of the use of a deadly weapon. A timely pro se notice of appeal was filed. We dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. In a plea-bargained case in which the punishment assessed does not exceed the plea agreement, a defendant may appeal only those matters that were raised by written motion filed and ruled on before trial, or after obtaining the trial court's permission to appeal. Tex.R.App.P. 25.2(a)(2). We held in Threadgill v. State, 120 S.W.3d 871, 872 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2003, no pet.), that an agreement to a punishment cap is a plea agreement within the meaning of Rule 25.2(a)(2). The Fourteenth Court of Appeals held likewise in Waters v. State, 124 S.W.3d 825, 826 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2003, no pet.). The trial court's certification of appellant's right to appeal states that this is a plea-bargained case and appellant has no right to appeal. The clerk's record and the reporter's record support the certification. We must dismiss an appeal if the trial court's certification shows there is no right to appeal. See Tex.R.App.P. 25.2(d). Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.