Gladys Maria Graham-O'Dell v. the State of Texas

In the Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth ___________________________

No. 02-23-00264-CR ___________________________

GLADYS MARIA GRAHAM-O’DELL, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS

On Appeal from County Criminal Court No. 1 Tarrant County, Texas Trial Court No. 1778480

Before Womack, Wallach, and Walker, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Justice Womack

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appellant Gladys Maria Graham-O’Dell (Graham) attempts to appeal an order granting her plea in bar under Texas Penal Code Section 12.45.1 See Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.45 (authorizing a person—with the consent of the attorney for the State— to admit during the sentencing hearing her guilt of one or more adjudicated offenses and request the court to take each offense into account in determining sentence of the offense or offenses of which she stands adjudged guilty, which in turn, bars the prosecution of the admitted offenses if the court lawfully takes them into account). Generally, with exceptions inapplicable here, this court has jurisdiction to consider appeals by criminal defendants only after a final judgment of conviction. See McKown v. State, 915 S.W.2d 160, 161 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1996, no pet.) (per curiam). An order granting a plea in bar is not a final judgment of conviction. Courtney v. State, No. 02-22-00161-CR, 2022 WL 17494604, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Dec. 8, 2022, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op., not designated for publication); Hillburn v. State, 946 S.W.2d 885, 886 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 1997, no pet.).

1 In her notice of appeal, Appellant refers to herself as “Gladys Maria Graham- O’Dell.” The defendant listed in the underlying order granting her plea in bar, however, is listed as “Glady Maria Graham.” We will simply refer to Appellant as “Graham.” Further, Graham’s notice of appeal references trial court cause number 1778480, a case involving Graham occurring in County Criminal Court No. 1 of Tarrant County. We note, however, that the order granting her plea in bar appears to have been signed by the presiding judge of the 396th District Court of Tarrant County to bar further prosecution of Graham in trial court cause number 1778480. For the reasons explained in this opinion, we lack jurisdiction over this appeal regardless of whether it flows from County Criminal Court No. 1 or the 396th District Court.

On October 6, 2023, we notified Graham of our concern that we lack jurisdiction over this appeal, and we warned her that we would dismiss the appeal unless we received a response by October 16, 2023, showing grounds for continuing the appeal. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.3. Graham did not file a response. Thus, we dismiss Graham’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. See Tex. R. App. P. 43.2(f); Courtney, 2022 WL 17494604, at *1 (dismissing appeal from an order granting a plea in bar for lack of jurisdiction); Ramos v. State, No. 02-17-00179-CR, 2017 WL 3428861, at *1 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth Aug. 10, 2017, no pet.) (per curiam) (mem. op., not designated for publication) (same).

/s/ Dana Womack

Dana Womack Justice

Do Not Publish Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b)

Delivered: November 2, 2023