Omar Ibrahim v. State ( 2015 )

ACCEPTED
01-14-00785-CR
FIRST COURT OF APPEALS
HOUSTON, TEXAS
7/6/2015 9:03:51 AM
CHRISTOPHER PRINE
CLERK
No. 01-14-00785-CR
In the FILED IN
1st COURT OF APPEALS
Court of Appeals HOUSTON, TEXAS
For the 7/6/2015 9:03:51 AM
First District of Texas CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE
Clerk
At Houston

No. 1362139
In the 178th District Court
Of Harris County, Texas

OMAR IBRAHIM
Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS
Appellee

STATE’S MOTION FOR EXTENSION
OF TIME TO FILE BRIEF

To the Honorable Court of Appeals:
The State of Texas, pursuant to Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure 2 and
10.5, moves for an extension of time in which to file its appellate brief. The
following facts are relevant:
1. The appellant was indicted for murder. Appellant pled not guilty, but a
jury found him guilty of the charged offense. The jury assessed
sentence at 99 years confinement in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice. Appellant filed timely notice of appeal.
2. Appellant filed an appellate brief on April 17, 2015.
3. The State’s appellate brief is due on July 6, 2015.
4. This is the State’s second request for an extension in this case.
5. The State requests this extension of time in which to file its brief, and
the undersigned attorney believes that a brief can be filed by August
28, 2015. The undersigned requests a lengthier than usual extension
for the reasons addressed below and in an attempt to realistically
estimate a date by which she anticipates having the brief filed.
6. The following facts are relied upon to show good cause for an
extension of time to allow the State to file its brief:
a. At present, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office
employees 15 appellate prosecutors, but one is presently
deployed on active military service and unable to carry a
caseload, and the chief is often required to perform so many
administrative tasks that he cannot carry a caseload.
Accordingly, the remaining members of the appellate division
are currently assigned a caseload of approximately 60 active
cases showing an average of 4.6 briefs per prosecutor.
b. The attorney to whom this case is assigned has four
outstanding briefs assigned to her including this one. And she
had to cease work on briefing for one week to prepare for oral
argument on Earvin v. State, No. 14-14-00702-2-CR and 14-14-
00703-CR.
c. The undersigned was not assigned this brief until June 12,
2015, after the original deadline had passed. Moreover, the
State was unaware that appellant had filed his brief on April 17,
2015, because as referenced in his first motion for extension, it
did not receive a copy of appellant’s brief when filed. Having
received the briefing assignment so late, and having already two
cases that are more senior and for which briefs must be
completed first, the State is requesting the longer than usual
extension.
d. Between the time that the appellant filed his brief in this case
and this State’s motion for extension, the undersigned filed the
following: a brief in Darby v. State, No. 14-14-00687-CR; a
lengthy brief in Uvukansi v. State, No. 01-14-00527-CR; original
and amended “State’s Proposed Findings of Fact and
Conclusions of Law” in Penton v. State, No. 14-14-00406-CR; a
brief in Penton, No. 14-14-00406-CR; a brief in Dorsey v. State,
No. 14-14-00718-CR; a brief in Lopez v. State, No. 14-14-00312-
CR, and she prepared a bench brief on a pending trial matter in
State v. Alas, No. 1437254, which further slowed progress on
the assigned cases.
e. The undersigned was also been out of the county and unable to
respond to briefs from June 5 through 11, 2015. Moreover, she
will be out of the office on a scheduled absences from July 20-
24, 2015, and August 3-5, 2015.
f. The workload of this prosecutor is not out of the ordinary in
the appellate division of the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office.
g. In addition to its assignments in responding to appellate briefs,
the appellate division of the Harris County District Attorney’s
Office also answers questions from trial prosecutors. These
questions frequently occur in the middle of or immediately
before trial, and therefore other work must be put aside to
answer these pressing questions. Harris County has 25
Criminal District Courts and 15 County Criminal Courts at Law,
and this particular prosecutor is tasked with answering
questions related to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article
39.14 regarding discovery changes, is currently on the HCDA
committee offering comments on the new e-file rules changes
for criminal cases, is one of two prosecutors tasked with
answering any juvenile law related questions, and answers
questions from five felony courts in addition to the three
juvenile courts.
h. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office Appellate Division
is experiencing a significant workload at present. Appellate
prosecutors, including the undersigned attorney, are working as
quickly as possible to complete as many briefs as possible as
quickly as possible while still addressing all the issues raised by
appellant’s as thoroughly as necessary to see that justice is
done on each appeal. Accounting for varying staffing levels, the
output of the division is not significantly different than it was
this time last year. However, because of the high workload per
prosecutor, as well as the greater length and complexity of
appeals being brought in this county, it often takes longer to
process all of the assigned cases, and more cases thereby
require multiple extension or more lengthy extensions before
the completion of each brief.
WHEREFORE, the State prays that this Court will grant the requested
extension until August 28, 2015.
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Jessica A. Caird
JESSICA A. CAIRD
Assistant District Attorney
Harris County, Texas
1201 Franklin, Suite 600
Houston, Texas 77002-1923
(713) 755-5826
caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net
TBC No. 24000608
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I certify that I have requested that efile.txcourts.gov electronically serve a
copy of this motion to:
Marcus J. Fleming
Attorney at Law
9219 Katy Freeway, Ste. 220
Houston, TX 77024
mjfleminglawyer@sbcglobal.net
/s/ Jessica A. Caird
Jessica A. Caird
Assistant District Attorney
Harris County, Texas
1201 Franklin, Suite 600
Houston, Texas 77002-1923
(713) 755-5826
caird_jessica@dao.hctx.net
TBC No. 24000608
Date: July 6, 2015