Hugo Mejia v. The State of Texas--Appeal from 144th Judicial District Court of Bexar County

MEMORANDUM OPINION

No. 04-05-00815-CR

Hugo MEJIA,

Appellant

v.

The STATE of Texas,

Appellee

From the 144th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas

Trial Court No. 2005-CR-4636W

Honorable Mark R. Luitjen, Judge Presiding

PER CURIAM

Sitting: Sarah B. Duncan, Justice

Karen Angelini, Justice

Sandee Bryan Marion, Justice

Delivered and Filed: December 14, 2005

DISMISSED FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION

After the trial court imposed sentence on July 26, 2005, Hugo Mejia did not move for a new trial. Therefore, his notice of appeal was due August 25, 2005; or the notice and a motion for extension of time to file were due fifteen days later on September 9, 2005. Tex. R. App. P. 26.2(a)(1), 26.3. Mejia did not file his notice of appeal until November 4, 2005.

It is well-settled that to invoke our jurisdiction, an appellant must file a timely notice of appeal. State v. Riewe, 13 S.W.3d 408, 410 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000). We therefore notified Mejia that his appeal appeared to be subject to dismissal for want of jurisdiction and gave him the opportunity to show cause why his appeal should not be dismissed. Mejia responded that we should not dismiss his appeal because he is a layperson unfamiliar with the law, his attorney failed to inform him he had a right to appeal, and he did not learn of his right to appeal until he was in prison. However, none of these contentions states a valid, legal basis for this Court to exercise jurisdiction. Accordingly, because the notice of appeal in this case was not timely filed, we lack jurisdiction to entertain the appeal and dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction. See Olivo v. State, 918 S.W.2d 519, 522 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996); see also Ater v. Eighth Court of Appeals, 802 S.W.2d 241 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991) (explaining that writ of habeas corpus pursuant to article 11.07 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure governs out-of-time appeals from felony convictions).

PER CURIAM

Do not publish