Villarreal v. State

Richard Villarreal entered open pleas of nolo contendere to being a felon in possession of a firearm in Cause No. 2004-CR-7230 and to aggravated robbery in Cause No. 2004-CR-6801 and pleaded true to the States enhancement allegation in each cause. The trial court found Villarreal guilty and, on November 28, 2005, imposed a sentence of twenty years imprisonment in Cause No. 2004-CR-7230 and forty years in Cause No. 2004-CR-6801, to run concurrently. Villarreal did not file a motion for new trial in either cause; therefore, his notices of appeal were due December 28, 2005, or the notices of appeal and a motion for extension of time were due fifteen days later, on January 12, 2006. Tex. R. App. P. 26.2(a)(1), 26.3. Villarreal did not file a motion for extension of time to file his notices of appeal. However, each of the clerks records contains a pro se notice of appeal file-marked by the clerk on January 4, 2006.Each record also contains a copy of the envelope in which the notices were mailed; the envelope bears a postmark of January 3, 2006. Because a timely filed notice of appeal is required to invoke this courts appellate jurisdiction, we ordered Villarreal to show cause why the appeal should not be dismissed for want of jurisdiction.See Olivo v. State, 918 S.W.2d 519, 522 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996).