In The
Court of Appeals
Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana
No. 06-15-00115-CR
DUSTIN LYNN VANHALST, Appellant
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 4th District Court
Rusk County, Texas
Trial Court No. CR15-038
Before Morriss, C.J., Moseley and Burgess, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Morriss
MEMORANDUM OPINION
On February 2, 2015, Dustin Lynn Vanhalst was indicted for the offense of murder. About
a month and a half later, Vanhalst filed a “Motion to Set PR Bond.” Now, Vanhalst has filed a
notice of appeal in an attempt to appeal the trial court’s denial of his motion. The clerk’s record
does not, however, include any such order.
Generally speaking, the Texas Legislature has authorized appeals by criminal defendants
only from written judgments of conviction. See Gutierrez v. State, 307 S.W.3d 318, 321 (Tex.
Crim. App. 2010); Ex parte Shumake, 953 S.W.2d 842, 844 (Tex. App.—Austin 1997, no pet.).
There are a few limited exceptions to this general rule, see Wright v. State, 969 S.W.2d 588, 589
(Tex. App.—Dallas 1998, no pet.), but, without any appealable judgment or order in the record,
this Court does not have jurisdiction to hear Vanhalst’s attempted appeal.
Also, even if the clerk’s record included an order denying Vanhalst’s motion for a personal
recognizance bond, this Court would not have jurisdiction over this appeal. This Court does not
have jurisdiction to consider an interlocutory appeal of a pretrial motion for a personal
recognizance bond. See Ragston v. State, 424 S.W.3d 49, 50 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014). Rule 31 of
the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, captioned “Appeals in Habeas Corpus, Bail, and
Extradition Proceedings in Criminal Cases,” has been used by appellate courts in the past to find
jurisdiction over interlocutory orders for the denial of a motion to reduce bail. See TEX. R. APP.
P. 31. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has determined that “[a] rule of appellate
procedure cannot, by itself, grant the courts of appeals jurisdiction to hear interlocutory appeals
regarding excessive bail or the denial of bail, because this Court’s rules cannot enlarge the rights
2
of litigants beyond those provided in the constitutions or a statute.” Ragston, 424 S.W.3d at 52.
Because there is no constitutional or statutory authority granting appellate courts jurisdiction to
hear interlocutory appeals regarding excessive bail or the denial of bail, this Court would not have
jurisdiction over Vanhalst’s attempted appeal in any event.
By letter dated July 21, 2015, we notified Vanhalst of the potential defects in our
jurisdiction over his appeal and afforded him twenty days to show this Court how we had
jurisdiction. We received no response from Vanhalst.
In light of the foregoing, we dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.
Josh R. Morriss, III
Chief Justice
Date Submitted: August 25, 2015
Date Decided: August 26, 2015
Do Not Publish
3