Lawrence Few v. State

COURT OF APPEALS COURT OF APPEALS EIGHTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS EL PASO, TEXAS LAWRENCE W. FEW,                                        ) ) No. 08-06-00005-CR Appellant, ) ) Appeal from the v. ) ) 168th District Court THE STATE OF TEXAS,                                     ) ) of El Paso County, Texas Appellee. ) ) (TC# 20030D05342) ) O P I N I O N Appellant Lawrence W. Few was charged by indictment with the offense of criminal solicitation to commit capital murder under cause number 2003D05342. Appellant was subsequently re-indicted for the same offense under cause number 20050D04727, which was tried to a jury. The jury found Appellant guilty of the offense and assessed punishment at 50 years imprisonment in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Appellant filed his notice of appeal under cause number 20030D05342. No notice of appeal was filed in cause number 20050D04727, under which Appellant was convicted and sentenced. In addition, there is no trial court certification of a right to appeal under cause number 20050D04727. See Tex.R.App.P. 25.2(a)(2), (d). Because Appellant filed his notice of appeal in the wrong cause number, 2003D05342, and there is no final judgment or appealable order or a trial court certification in that cause number, we dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction. As a general rule, this Court only has jurisdiction to consider an appeal by a criminal defendant where there has been a judgment of conviction, absent an express grant of jurisdiction to review interlocutory orders--none of which apply in this case. See McKown v. State, 915 S.W.2d 160, 161 (Tex.App.--Fort Worth 1996, no pet.); see also Apolinar v. State, 820 S.W.2d 792, 794 (Tex.Crim.App. 1991). Because there is no final judgment or appealable order in cause number 20030D05342, we conclude that our jurisdiction has not been invoked by filing a notice of appeal under that cause number. Further, with regard to cause number 20050D04727, we conclude that Appellant=s filing in cause number 20030D05342 did not invoke this Court=s jurisdiction in order to appeal his conviction under cause number 20050D04727. See Steinecke v. State, 81 S.W.3d 467, 467 (Tex.App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 2002, no pet.)(pursuant to Court of Criminal Appeals= strict application of the rules of appellate procedure, filing notice of appeal under cause number in original indictment did not confer appellate jurisdiction of the Court in subsequent cause number, under which appellate was re-indicted for the same offenses, tried, and convicted). Since Appellant did not file a notice of appeal in cause number 20050D04727, we have no jurisdiction to address the merits of an appeal in that case. See Olivo v. State, 918 S.W.2d 519, 523 (Tex.Crim.App. 1996)(If an appeal is not timely perfected, a court of appeals does not obtain jurisdiction to address the merits of the appeal and can take no other action than to dismiss the appeal). For the reasons stated above, we grant the State=s motion and dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. All other pending motions are denied as moot. April 13, 2006 DAVID WELLINGTON CHEW, Justice Before Barajas, C.J., McClure, and Chew, JJ. McClure, J., Not Participating (Do Not Publish)