Lorenza Dondra Andrews v. the State of Texas ( 2022 )

In The
Court of Appeals
Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana
No. 06-22-00033-CR
LORENZA DONDRA ANDREWS, Appellant
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 5th District Court
Cass County, Texas
Trial Court No. 2020F00251
Before Morriss, C.J., Stevens and van Cleef, JJ.
Memorandum Opinion by Justice Stevens
MEMORANDUM OPINION
A Cass County jury convicted Lorenza Deondra Andrews of murder and recommended a
sentence of sixty years’ imprisonment. The trial court sentenced Andrews in accordance with
the jury’s recommendation, and Andrews timely filed a notice of appeal on March 11, 2022.
After filing that notice of appeal, Andrews died.
The Court of Criminal Appeals has stated, “We have long held that the death of the
appellant during the pendency of his appeal deprives the court of jurisdiction[,] and the proper
disposition is [permanment] abatement.”1 State v. McCaffrey, 76 S.W.3d 392, 392 (Tex. Crim.
App. 2002); see TEX. R. APP. P. 7.1(a)(2); Whitmire v. State, 943 S.W.2d 894, 895 (Tex. Crim.
App. 1997) (en banc) (per curiam).
Accordingly, we permanently abate this appeal.
Scott E. Stevens
Justice
Date Submitted: October 18, 2022
Date Decided: October 19, 2022
Do Not Publish
1
Appellant’s counsel filed a motion to dismiss this appeal due to Andrews’s death. We hereby deny that motion as
dismissal and permanent abatement are separate and distinct dispositions. See Vargas v. State, 659 S.W.2d 422, 423
(Tex. Crim. App. 1983) (en banc) (per curiam) (detailing why permanent abatement, rather than dismissal, is proper
disposition when appellant dies while appeal is pending).
2