Opinion
08-24-00139-CR
07-26-2024
JOHN REID, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.
DO NOT PUBLISH
Appeal from the 346th Judicial District Court of El Paso County, Texas (TC#20210D03074)
Before Alley, C.J., Palafox and Soto, JJ.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
JEFF ALLEY, CHIEF JUSTICE
This appeal is before the Court on its own motion to determine whether it should be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. Because there is no appealable order, we dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction.
Appellate court jurisdiction is authorized by statute. See Galitz v. State, 617 S.W.2d 949, 951 (Tex. Crim. App. 1981) (en banc). In the absence of an authorizing statute, appellate courts are without jurisdiction to consider an appeal. For criminal cases, the Texas Legislature authorizes appeals from final, written judgments and certain specific interlocutory orders. See Gutierrez v. State, 307 S.W.3d 318, 321 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010). Appellant's pro se notice of appeal, filed in this Court on May 31, 2024, does not specify the order he is attempting to appeal. It includes only a short statement that he desires to appeal from case number 20210D03074.
The clerk of this Court sent Appellant a letter notifying him that it appeared there was no appealable order at issue in this case. See Tex. R. App. P. 25.2(c)(2) (a notice of appeal is sufficient if it shows the party's desire to appeal from the judgement or other appealable order). The letter gave notice of our intent to dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction, after 20 days, unless grounds were shown for the Court to continue the appeal. The notice was returned to this Court marked "Return to Sender Refused Unable to Forward" on June 5, 2024. The Clerk of this Court made a second attempt on June 17, 2024 to send the notice to Appellant using a different address obtained from the district court. The second notice was not returned to this Court, and as of the date of this memorandum opinion, no response from Appellant has been received. We dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.
Additionally, the Court reviewed El Paso County's publicly available case management system that contains docket sheets for civil and criminal lawsuits filed in El Paso County, Texas. The Court was able to locate Appellant's cause number. However, the most recent activity does not indicate that the trial court has rendered a judgement or other appealable order.