State of Utah v. Preece

----ooOoo----

State of Utah,
Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.

Patti Price aka Patti Preece,
Defendant and Appellant.

MEMORANDUM DECISION
(Not For Official Publication)

Case No. 20010796-CA

F I L E D
October 10, 2002 2002 UT App 338 -----

Second District, Morgan Department
The Honorable Pamela G. Heffernan

Attorneys:
Randall T. Gaither, Salt Lake City, for Appellant
Mark L. Shurtleff and Karen A. Klucznik, Salt Lake City, for Appellee -----

Before Judges Jackson, Billings, and Bench.

PER CURIAM:

Patti Price appeals her conviction of Operation of a Clandestine Laboratory, a first degree felony.

Price filed a motion for new trial on December 6, 2000, one day prior to entry of the signed judgment. The trial court thereafter entered an Amended Sentence, Judgment, and Commitment on January 4, 2001. Later, on August 27, 2001, the trial court denied the prematurely filed motion for new trial. Price filed a notice of appeal on September 12, 2001.

A timely motion for new trial filed under rule 24 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure tolls the time for appeal. See Utah R. App. P. 4(b). Rule 24 requires a motion for new trial to be "made within 10 days after imposition of sentence, or within such further time as the court may fix during the ten-day period." Utah R. Crim. P. 24(c). A motion for new trial filed prior to the entry of the signed judgment and sentence is premature and does not toll the time for appeal. See State v. Vessey, 957 P.2d 1239, 1240 (Utah Ct. App. 1998) (per curiam). Because the notice of appeal was filed over eight months after entry of the final judgment, this court lacks jurisdiction to consider the merits of the appeal. See Varian-Eimac v. Lamoreaux, 767 P.2d 569, 570 (Utah Ct. App. 1989) ("When a matter is outside the court's jurisdiction, it retains only the authority to dismiss the action.").

Accordingly, we dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
 
 

______________________________
Norman H. Jackson,
Presiding Judge
 
 

______________________________
Judith M. Billings,
Associate Presiding Judge
 
 

______________________________
Russell W. Bench, Judge