NUMBER 13-14-00747-CR
COURT OF APPEALS
THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS
CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG
RAFAEL TREVINO, Appellant,
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.
On appeal from the 379th District Court
of Bexar County, Texas.
ORDER ABATING APPEAL
Before Justices Rodriguez, Garza and Longoria
Order Per Curiam
During trial, appellant Rafael Trevino orally moved to suppress a statement
he made to police officers before his arrest. He cited articles 38.22 and 38.23
of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure as a basis for his motion to suppress
and argued that the officer’s failure to read him his statutory rights negated the
voluntariness of his statement. See T EX . C ODE C RIM . P ROC . A NN . arts. 38.22, .23
(West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.). The trial court heard Trevino’s motion to
suppress outside of the presence of the jury and subsequently denied the motion.
No findings of fact or conclusions of law regarding the voluntariness of Trevino’s
statement were entered by the trial court.
Under article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, in 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 whether or not the statement was
voluntarily made, along with the specific finding of fact upon which the trial court’s
conclusion was based. Vasquez v. State, 411 S.W.3d 918, 920 (Tex. Crim. App.
2013) (determining that there are no exceptions to article 38.22’s requirement
that written findings are required in all cases concerning voluntariness). The
trial court’s failure to make specific factual findings regarding the voluntariness
of Trevino’s statement require this Court to abate the appeal and remand for an
evidentiary hearing on the voluntariness issue. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN.
art. 38.22, § 6; Vasquez, 411 S.W.3d at 920; Douglas v. State, 900 S.W.2d 760, 762
(Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 1995, pet. ref’d).
We ABATE the appeal, and REMAND the case to the trial court, and order the
judge of the 379th District Court of Bexar County to conduct a hearing in accordance
with Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.22, section 6, to determine the
voluntariness of any statement or confession made by appellant which was introduced
into evidence at trial. The hearing shall be conducted within thirty days of the issuance
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of this order, or the trial court shall inform this Court within thirty days of the issuance of
this order of the hearing date. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6;
Douglas, 900 S.W.2d at 762. It is further ordered that the judge of the 379th District
Court thereafter: (1) prepare written findings of fact and conclusions of law in
compliance with article 38.22, section 6 of the code of criminal procedure; (2) cause
them to be included in a supplemental clerk’s record, (3) cause the hearing to be
transcribed and included in a supplemental reporter’s record; (4) and forward the
supplemental record to the Clerk of this Court within twenty days of the hearing. See
TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6.
Upon receipt of the supplemental record, this cause will be resubmitted for
further consideration by the Court upon the original briefs filed by the parties, unless
prior permission for supplementation of the same is requested and granted.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
PER CURIAM
Do not publish.
TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
Delivered and filed the 5th
day of October, 2015.
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