Roberto Cardenas v. State

NUMBER 13-14-00530-CR
COURT OF APPEALS
THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS
CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG
ROBERTO CARDENAS, Appellant,
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS , Appellee.
On Appellant’s Motion to Abate Appeal and
Remand to Trial Court to Enter Findings of Fact and
Conclusions of Law on its Denial of Motion to Suppress.
ORDER OF ABATEMENT
Before Justices Garza, Benavides and Perkes
Order Per Curiam
Appellant, Roberto Cardenas, has perfected an appeal of his capital murder
conviction. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 19.03(a)(2) (West, Westlaw through 2013 3d
C.S.). He has filed a motion to abate the appeal and to remand to the trial court to enter
findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the denial of a motion to suppress.
Article 38.22, section 6 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states in relevant
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, Westlaw through 2013 3d C.S.). The
entry of such findings and conclusions is mandatory even when “neither party requested
written findings at any level of the proceedings, and the issue was not considered by the
lower court.” Vasquez v. State, 411 S.W.3d 918, 920 n.14 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (noting
that section 6 of article 38.22 is “‘mandatory in its language and . . . requires a trial court
to file its findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the voluntariness of a
confession whether or not the defendant objects to the absence of such omitted filing).
The record in this cause reflects that Cardenas filed a motion to suppress certain
statements he made to police on grounds that the statements were made involuntarily,
and that the trial court denied the motion but failed to file findings of fact and conclusions
of law in connection therewith. See id.
Therefore, we hereby ABATE the appeal and REMAND the cause to the trial court
for entry of findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to article 38.22, section 6 of
the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6.
The trial court shall make its findings and conclusions within THIRTY days from the date
of this order, and the trial court shall cause a supplemental clerk’s record containing the
2
findings and conclusions to be filed with the Clerk of this Court within SIXTY days from
the date of this order. The appeal will be reinstated upon receipt of the supplemental
clerk’s record and upon further order of this Court.
PER CURIAM
Do not publish.
TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
Order delivered and filed the
17th day of March, 2015.
3