Ex Parte Andres C. MacIas ( 2015 )

Opinion issued December 10, 2015
In The
Court of Appeals
For The
First District of Texas
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NO. 01-15-00939-CR
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EX PARTE ANDRES C. MACIAS, Appellant
On Appeal from the 180th District Court
Harris County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. 1483447
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant, Andres C. Macias, was indicted in the trial court cause number
1482777 for the first-degree felony offense of possession with intent to deliver a
controlled substance, namely, cocaine, weighing at least 400 grams, specifically
4,947 grams with a street value of $497,000. See TEX. HEALTH & SAFETY CODE
ANN. §§ 481.112(a), (f) (West Supp. 2014). On September 25, 2015, the trial court
set pre-trial bond at $1,000,000. On September 30, 2015, appellant filed a pre-trial
application for a writ of habeas corpus, which was assigned underlying trial court
cause number 1483447. Appellant sought a bond reduction in trial court cause
number 1482777 to $50,000 or to a reasonable amount. See TEX. CODE CRIM.
PROC. ANN. art. 11.24 (West Supp. 2014).
After a writ hearing held on October 14, 2015, the trial court granted
appellant habeas relief by lowering the pre-trial bond to $350,000, and signed a
judgment. On October 22, 2015, appellant timely filed a notice of appeal of the
judgment, claiming that the trial court erred in reducing his bond to $350,000,
because he had requested a lower amount and requesting that the bond should be
further reduced to $100,000. See TEX. R. APP. P. 26.2(a)(1), 31.1. On October 26,
2015, the trial court certified that this was not a plea-bargain case and that
appellant had the right of appeal. See id. 25.2(a)(2), (d).
On November 18, 2015, appellant filed a motion to dismiss his appeal,
contending that, because he has since posted the $350,000 bail in trial court cause
number 1482777 after filing his notice of appeal, this appeal has now been
rendered moot. See TEX. R. APP. P. 42.2(a). The trial clerk filed a supplemental
clerk’s record in this Court on November 24, 2015, which attached appellant’s bail
bond, filed on November 4, 2015, confirming that it was paid.
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“The longstanding rule in Texas regarding habeas corpus is that where the
premise of a habeas corpus application is destroyed by subsequent developments,
the legal issues raised thereunder are moot.” Ex parte Guerrero, 99 S.W.3d 852,
853 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2003, no pet.) (internal quotation marks and
citation omitted) (mem. op.) (granting State’s motion to dismiss appeal of pre-trial
habeas application seeking a bond reduction after appellant posted bond and was
released). Also, though appellant’s motion to dismiss does not contain a certificate
of conference, the motion has been on file with the Court for more than ten days
with no response filed, no opinion has issued, and the motion is signed by both the
appellant and his counsel. See TEX. R. APP. P. 10.3(a)(2), 42.2(a).
Accordingly, we grant the motion and dismiss the appeal. See TEX. R. APP.
P. 42.2(a), 43.2(f). We dismiss any other pending motions as moot.
PER CURIAM
Panel consists of Justices Jennings, Keyes, and Bland.
Do not publish. TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
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