Timmins v. Texas (original by judge keasler)
Annotate this CaseTroy Timmins was on bond for two felony offenses. At a pretrial hearing at which Timmins was personally present, the trial judge revoked Timmins’s bond for testing positive for methamphetamine. Ordinarily, when a trial judge revokes a defendant’s bond in open court for violating a bond condition, the defendant is “immediately returned to custody.” But in this case, Timmins pleaded with the trial judge to let him escort his elderly mother home before taking him into custody. The judge graciously obliged. He revoked Timmins’s bond, but allowed Timmins to turn himself in at jail by three o’clock that afternoon. The judge warned Timmins that if he did not report to the Bandera County Jail as ordered, he would “pick[] up a new felony in each of these cases.” The warning did not work; Timmins never reported to jail. The issue this case presented for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' consideration was whether, when a trial judge informs a defendant that his bond is revoked, but allows him to report to the county jail later that day, can the defendant really be said to have been “released from custody” in contemplation of the Texas bail-jumping statute? And if the defendant does not report to the jail as ordered, has he “fail[ed] to appear in accordance with the terms of his release”? The Court answered both questions “yes,” therefore affirming the court of appeals’ judgment that held accordingly.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.