Christopher Ernest Braughton v. State of Texas ( 2015 )

Opinion issued July 14, 2015
In The
Court of Appeals
For The
First District of Texas
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NO. 01-15-00499-CR
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CHRISTOPHER ERNEST BRAUGHTON, Appellant
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 228th District Court
Harris County, Texas
Trial Court Cause No. 1389139
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant, Christopher Ernest Braughton, appeals from an order denying his
motion for bond pending appeal of his underlying conviction. We affirm.
On February 11, 2015, after a jury found appellant guilty of a first-degree
felony murder offense, the trial court assessed punishment at twenty years’
confinement. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 19.02(b)(1), (c) (West Supp. 2014).
Appellant filed a motion for new trial which the trial court denied after a hearing
on April 13, 2015. On April 16, 2015, appellant filed a notice of appeal of the
judgment of conviction and denial of his motion for new trial.1
On April 16, 2015, appellant also filed a motion for bond pending appeal,
seeking to have the trial court restore his $50,000 pretrial bond. On April 20,
2015, the trial court denied appellant’s motion for bond pending appeal by
handwriting the denial on the cover of the motion, without issuing a separate order
or holding a hearing. On May 20, 2015, appellant timely filed a notice of appeal
from the denial of his motion for bond pending appeal. See TEX. CODE CRIM.
PROC. ANN. art. 44.04(g) (West Supp. 2014);2 TEX. R. APP. P. 31.1.
However, the applicable statute does not permit the trial court any discretion
in releasing a defendant on bail pending appeal of certain felony convictions when
the sentence exceeds ten years in prison. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art.
44.04(b) (stating that “[t]he defendant may not be released on bail pending the
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Appellant’s appeal from the judgment of conviction and denial of his motion for
new trial remains pending under appellate cause number 01-15-00393-CR.
2
Because this statute requires that appeals of bond denials pending appeal are to be
given preference by the appellate court, the Clerk of this Court assigned it a new
appellate cause number from his pending appeal of his conviction. According to
the court reporter’s information sheet filed on July 6, 2015, in this Court, there
was no hearing held on the trial court’s April 20, 2015 order denying the motion
for bond pending appeal.
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appeal from any felony conviction where the punishment equals or exceeds 10
years confinement or where the defendant has been convicted of an offense listed
under Section 3g(a)(1), Article 42.12, but shall immediately be placed in custody
and the bail discharged.”); see also TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 42.12,
§3g(a)(1)(A) (West Supp. 2014) (listing murder, under section 19.02 of the Penal
Code, as one of several offenses where judge is not allowed to place defendant on
community supervision); Lebo v. State, 90 S.W.3d 324, 330 (Tex. Crim. App.
2002) (concluding that article 44.04(b) states “that those who are sentenced to ten
years’ actual imprisonment are not entitled to bail pending appeal, while those
placed on ten years’ community supervision may seek release on bail pending
appeal.”). Here, because appellant was convicted of murder and his sentence
exceeded ten years in prison, the trial court properly denied his motion because it
could not release him on bail pending the appeal of his felony conviction.
CONCLUSION
Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s order denying the appellant bond
pending appeal.
PER CURIAM
Panel consists of Justices Keyes, Huddle, and Lloyd.
Do not publish. TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
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