Opinion
A22A0577
12-14-2021
PATRICK TIMOTHY WYATT v. THE STATE.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
Patrick Wyatt was found guilty of a sex offense in 1994. In 2008, he pled guilty to the offense of failure to register as a sex offender. Wyatt filed a motion for out-of-time appeal, which the trial court denied on September 24, 2021. On November 1, 2021, Wyatt filed a notice of appeal from the trial court's order. We lack jurisdiction.
This is Wyatt's second appeal related to the sex offender registration requirement of his sentence. In the first appeal, he sought to challenge the trial court's order denying his motion to correct void sentence. See Case No. A14A1417 (dismissed June 30, 2014). We dismissed that appeal because Wyatt failed to raise a colorable claim that the sentence was, in fact, void.
A notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of entry of the trial court order sought to be appealed. OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). The proper and timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer jurisdiction on this Court. Rowland v. State, 264 Ga. 872, 872 (1) (452 S.E.2d 756) (1995). Wyatt's notice of appeal was filed 38 days after entry of the trial court's order and is therefore untimely.
We note that Wyatt signed the notice of appeal on October 15, 2021 (or October 19, 2021, the date written by the notary) - well before the expiration of the 30-day appeal period - but was not stamped "filed" by the trial court clerk until November 1. We recognize that, as a pro se prisoner, Wyatt is dependent upon correctional personnel to dispatch his mail. Nevertheless, even though Wyatt may have acted promptly after receiving the trial court's order, "his filing did not get to the superior court in time. So we have no jurisdiction over his appeal." Ebeling v. State, 355 Ga.App. 469, 470 (844 S.E.2d 518) (2020).
Consequently, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.