Timothy Hutchison v. State ( 2013 )

In The
Court of Appeals
Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana
No. 06-13-00035-CR
TIMOTHY HUTCHISON, Appellant
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 188th District Court
Gregg County, Texas
Trial Court No. 41,224-A
Before Morriss, C.J., Carter and Moseley, JJ.
ORDER
Timothy Hutchison appeals from his conviction of possession of a controlled substance
with intent to deliver. Hutchison filed a pretrial motion seeking to suppress oral statements that
he made to police. The motion was ultimately denied, but no findings of fact or conclusions of
law were entered by the trial court.
Article 38.22, Section 6 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states, in pertinent part,
In all cases where a question is raised as to the voluntariness of a statement of an
accused, the court must make an independent finding in the absence of the jury as
to whether the statement was made under voluntary conditions. If the statement
has been found to have been voluntarily made and held admissible as a matter of
law and fact by the court in a hearing in the absence of the jury, the court must
enter an order stating its conclusion as to whether or not the statement was
voluntarily made, along with the specific finding of facts upon which the
conclusion was based, which order shall be filed among the papers of the cause.
TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6 (West Supp. 2013).
Because the requirements of Article 38.22, Section 6 were not met in this case, we abate
this appeal and remand it to the trial court. See TEX. R. APP. P. 44.4. The trial court is instructed
to enter an order stating its conclusion as to whether Hutchison’s oral statements were
voluntarily made and detailing the specific findings of fact upon which that conclusion was
based. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6.
The order shall be filed with this Court in the form of a supplemental clerk’s record
within twenty-one days of the date of this order.
The abatement will terminate and this Court’s jurisdiction will resume upon the filing of
the supplemental clerk’s record.
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All appellate timetables are hereby stayed and will resume upon our receipt of the
supplemental clerk’s record.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
BY THE COURT
Date: December 16, 2013
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