Gregory Allen DeRutte v. The State of Texas Appeal from County Court at Law No 3 of Jefferson County (memorandum opinion by chief justice mckeithen)
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In The Court of Appeals Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont ________________ NO. 09-14-00228-CR ________________ GREGORY ALLEN DERUTTE, Appellant V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee __________________________________________________________________ On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 3 Jefferson County, Texas Trial Cause No. 287595 __________________________________________________________________ MEMORANDUM OPINION A jury found Gregory Allen DeRutte guilty of driving while intoxicated, and the trial court sentenced him to one year of confinement and assessed a $2000 fine, then suspended imposition of DeRutte’s sentence and placed DeRutte on community supervision for two years. DeRutte filed a pro se notice of appeal. The court reporter filed a notice stating that the reporter’s record was not filed because the reporter’s fee has not been paid. After DeRutte failed to respond to this Court’s notices indicating that his brief 1 was overdue, we abated the appeal and remanded the cause to the trial court for a hearing. See Tex. R. App. P. 38.8(b)(2), (3). The trial court held the hearing, and DeRutte failed to appear. Attached as exhibits to the record of the hearing were the notice the clerk had sent to DeRutte and a copy of the envelope in which it was mailed to DeRutte at his last known address. The trial court found that DeRutte no longer wishes to move forward with his appeal. DeRutte’s failure to file a brief constitutes abandonment of the appeal. See Parker v. State, 69 S.W.3d 667, 678 (Tex. App.—Waco 2002, no pet.). DeRutte has not claimed indigence and has failed to make arrangements for filing a brief. Accordingly, we exercise our authority to consider this appeal without briefs. See Tex. R. App. P. 38.8(b)(4). We review the clerk’s record in the interest of justice. See Lott v. State, 874 S.W.2d 687, 688 (Tex. Crim. App. 1994); see Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(c). Our review of the limited record presented does not justify reversal on unassigned error. We affirm the trial court’s judgment. AFFIRMED. ________________________________ STEVE McKEITHEN Chief Justice Submitted on March 31, 2015 Opinion Delivered April 1, 2015 Do Not Publish Before McKeithen, C.J., Horton and Johnson, JJ. 2
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