Opinion
NUMBER 13-14-00157-CR
03-31-2016
RANDALL BOLIVAR, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.
On appeal from the 107th District Court of Cameron County, Texas.
ORDER ABATING APPEAL
Before Justices Benavides, Perkes and Longoria
OrderPer Curiam
Prior to trial, appellant Randall Bolivar moved to suppress his statement made to police officers following his arrest. A hearing on the motion to suppress was held on December 2, 2010, and the trial court denied to suppress Bolivar's statement. No findings of fact or conclusions of law regarding the voluntariness of Bolivar's statement were entered by the trial court.
Under article 38.22 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, in all cases where a question is raised as to the voluntariness of a statement of an accused, the trial court must enter an order stating whether or not the statement was voluntarily made, along with specific findings of fact upon which the trial court's conclusion was based. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6 (West, Westlaw through 2015 R.S.); Vasquez v. State, 411 S.W.3d 918, 920 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (determining that there are no exceptions to article 38.22's requirement that written findings are required in all cases concerning voluntariness.) The trial court's failure to make specific factual findings regarding the voluntariness of Bolivar's statement require this Court to abate the appeal and remand for an evidentiary hearing on the voluntariness issue.See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 38.22, § 6; Vasquez, 411 S.W.3d at 920; Douglas v. State, 900 S.W.2d 760, 762 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 1995, pet. ref'd).
In the State's brief, the State agrees that no findings of fact or conclusions of law were issued by the trial court. Furthermore, the State agrees that the proper procedure is to direct the trial court judge to make the required findings. --------
We ABATE the appeal, REMAND the case to the trial court, and order the trial court to comply with the provisions of Texas Code of Criminal Procedure article 38.22, section 6. Specifically, the trial court should make an order stating its conclusion that the challenged statement was voluntarily made, along with specific findings of fact upon which the conclusion is based.
The trial court shall cause its written order, together with its findings and conclusions to be included in a supplemental clerk's record. The supplemental clerk's record shall be filed with the Clerk of this Court on or before the expiration of thirty days from the date of this order.
Upon receipt of the supplemental record, this cause will be resubmitted for further consideration by the Court upon the original briefs filed by the parties, unless prior permission for supplementation of the same is requested and granted.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
PER CURIAM Do not publish.
TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2 (b). Delivered and filed the 31st day of March, 2016.