Dismissed and Memorandum Opinion filed January 29, 2009.

In The

Fourteenth Court of Appeals

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NO. 14-08-01177-CR

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ERIC DEMOND DOUGLAS, Appellant

V.

THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee

On Appeal from the 174th District Court

Harris County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. 1122749

M E M O R A N D U M   O P I N I O N

Appellant entered a guilty plea, without an agreed recommendation on punishment, to possession of between one and four grams of cocaine.  On September 3, 2008, the trial court sentenced appellant to confinement for twenty-five years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.  A timely motion for new trial was filed.  Appellant=s notice of appeal was not filed until December 23, 2008.

A defendant=s notice of appeal must be filed within ninety days after sentence is imposed when the defendant has filed a motion for new trial.  See Tex. R. App. P. 26.2(a)(2).  A notice of appeal that complies with the requirements of Rule 26 is essential to vest the court of appeals with jurisdiction.  Slaton v. State, 981 S.W.2d 208, 210 (Tex. Crim. App. 1998).  If an appeal is not timely perfected, a court of appeals does not obtain jurisdiction to address the merits of the appeal.  Id.  Under those circumstances it can take no action other than to dismiss the appeal.  Id.

Accordingly, the appeal is ordered dismissed.

PER CURIAM

Panel consists of Chief Justice Hedges and Justices Anderson and Seymore.

Do Not Publish C Tex. R. App. P. 47.2(b).