Carlos Daniel Fernandez v. State

Abatement Order filed August 26, 2014. In The Fourteenth Court of Appeals ____________ NO. 14-13-00376-CR ____________ CARLOS DANIEL FERNANDEZ, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee On Appeal from the 183rd District Court Harris County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 1344140 ABATEMENT ORDER The record in this case does not demonstrate that the trial court signed an order containing its findings of fact and conclusions of law on the voluntariness of appellant’s statement. Under article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, “[i]n all cases where a question is raised as to the voluntariness of a statement of an accused, the [trial] court . . . must enter an order stating its conclusion as to whether or not the statement was voluntarily made, along with the specific finding of facts upon which the conclusion was based, which order shall be filed among the papers of the cause.” Tex. Code Crim. P. art 38.22, § 6. The trial court is to make written fact findings and conclusions of law as to whether a challenged statement was made voluntarily, even if appellant did not request them or object to their absence. Id; Urias v. State, 155 S.W.3d 141, 142 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004). The statute is mandatory and the proper procedure to correct the error is to abate the appeal and direct the trial court to make the required findings and conclusions. See Tex. R. App. P. 44.4; Wicker v. State, 740 S.W.2d 779, 784 (Tex. Crim. App. 1987). Accordingly, the appeal is abated and the trial court is directed to reduce to writing its findings of fact and conclusions of law on the voluntariness of appellant’s statement and have a supplemental clerk’s record containing those findings filed with the clerk of this court on or before September 26, 2014. The appeal is abated, treated as a closed case, and removed from this court’s active docket. The appeal will be reinstated on this court’s active docket when the supplemental record containing the trial court’s findings is filed in this court. The court will also consider an appropriate motion to reinstate the appeal filed by either party. PER CURIAM Panel consists of Chief Justice Frost and Justices Christopher and Busby.