Zarco, William Anthony v. State ( 2002 )

  Opinion issued December 5, 2002

In The

Court of Appeals

For The

First District of Texas

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NO. 01-01-00638-CR

NO. 01-01-00639-CR

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WILLIAM ANTHONY ZARCO, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

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On Appeal from the County Criminal Court at Law No. 9

Harris County, Texas

Trial Court Cause Nos. 1060007 and 1060008

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O P I N I O N  

   Appellant filed two post conviction applications for habeas corpus relief that were denied by the trial court. In the application under cause number 1060007, appellant claims that a conviction for the offense of driving while intoxicated in cause number 790821 is invalid because appellant did not have counsel when he pled guilty to that offense. Additionally, appellant claims that a felony conviction for driving while intoxicated in a Washington County trial court was invalid because that conviction used the conviction in cause number 790821 to make the misdemeanor into a felony. Appellant did not brief any argument for the application for habeas corpus relief under the application in cause number 1060008. The trial court denied both applications for habeas corpus relief on May 23, 2001 and appellant filed notices of appeal in both cases on June 27, 2001. Appellant did not file motions for extension of time to file his notices of appeal. We dismiss the appeals on jurisdictional grounds.

Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 26.2 provides that in a criminal case, the notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days after the trial court entered an appealable order. Here, the appealable orders were entered on May 23, 2001, so that appellant had until June 22, 2001 to file his notices of appeal. However, appellant filed his notices of appeal five days too late, and did not file motions for extension of time to file the notices of appeal. Appellant has failed to invoke this Court's jurisdiction to consider his appeals. See Slayton v. State, 981 S.W.2d 208, 210 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998) (holding a timely filed notice of appeal is essential to vest the court of appeals with jurisdiction to address the merits of an appeal).

Accordingly, we dismiss appellant's appeals.

PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Justice Taft, Alcala, and Price. ⁽¹⁾

Do not publish. Tex. R. App. P. 47.4.

1.

The Honorable Frank C. Price, former Justice, Court of Appeals, First District of Texas participating by assignment.