Opinion
04-24-00712-CR
11-14-2024
Alan Angelo NAVARRO, Appellant v. The STATE of Texas, Appellee
From the 83rd Judicial District Court, Val Verde County, Texas Trial Court No. 2024-0169-CR Honorable Robert E. Cadena, Judge Presiding
ORDER
Beth Watkins, Justice
On October 25, 2024, we issued an order noting that appellant's motion for new trial and notice of appeal were filed more than 30 days after the trial court pronounced sentence in open court and therefore appeared to be untimely filed. See Tex. R. App. 21.4(a), 26.2(a); Rodarte v. State, 860 S.W.2d 108, 109 (Tex. Crim. App. 1993) (construing predecessor to Rule 26.2). We ordered appellant to show cause why this appeal should not be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
On November 4, 2024, appellant filed a response to our order. In his response, appellant noted that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has held, "The Rules of Appellate Procedure should be construed reasonably, yet liberally, so that the right to appeal is not lost by imposing requirements not absolutely necessary to effect the purpose of a rule." Harkcom v. State, 484 S.W.3d 432, 434 (Tex. Crim. App. 2016). Relying on Harkcom and other cases, appellant represented that his appellate counsel sent two e-mails to the trial court clerk within the 30-day deadline to file a notice of appeal and argued that those e-mails should be construed as timely invocations of this court's jurisdiction. See Harkcom, 484 S.W.3d at 433-34; see also Few v. State, 230 S.W.3d 184, 189 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007) ("[A] court of appeals has jurisdiction over any appeal in which the appellant files an instrument in a bona fide attempt to invoke the appellate court's jurisdiction."); Jefferson v. State, 582 S.W.3d 588, 589 (Tex. App.-Waco 2019, order) (reinstating appeal after concluding appellant's "letter which was filed by the district clerk's office" timely invoked appellate jurisdiction). He also argued that the trial court's August 26, 2024 "Order Appointing Appellate Counsel for Direct Appeal" established that the trial court recognized and understood appellant's intention to appeal. See Harkcom, 484 S.W.3d at 434.
The jurisdictional issue raised in our October 25, 2024 order is CARRIED WITH THE APPEAL and will be decided by the submission panel at a later date. We instruct appellant and the State to more fully address the jurisdictional issue in their briefing.