Lance Taylor v. the State of Texas
Lance Taylor v. the State of Texas
Opinion
NUMBER 13-18-00384-CR COURT OF APPEALS THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI – EDINBURG
LANCE TAYLOR, Appellant, v. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee.
On appeal from the 28th District Court of Nueces County, Texas.
ORDER RESETTING SHOW CAUSE HEARING Before Chief Contreras and Justices Benavides and Tijerina Order Per Curiam This cause is before the Court on appellant's motion to abate. On August 7, 2019, December 19, 2019, December 3, 2020, and May 24, 2021, the Court abated the cause and remanded to the trial court, each time due to appellant’s two previous court appointed counselors’ failure to timely file a brief.
On December 21, 2021, we ordered several specific actions to take place: 1. Appellant’s counsel was ordered to review the entire clerk’s and reporter’s record and inform the trial court of any missing portions of the record at the ordered hearing; 2. The trial court was ordered to identify any missing portions of the record and cause them to be filed; and, 3. The trial court was ordered to file specific findings related to any missing, lost, or destroyed record.
After an abatement hearing, the trial court found portions of the record between February 20, 2016, and February 16, 2018, were missing from the reporter’s record filed on March 18, 2019. The trial court found no other portion of the record missing and ordered the court reporter to prepare supplemental reporter’s records containing the identified missing portions of the record. On March 14, 2022, the court reporter filed ten additional volumes of records containing the pretrial hearings identified.
On April 5, 2022, we granted appellant’s ninth motion for extension of time to file a brief and ordered the Honorable Diamond De Leon to again identify any final missing portions of the record. The motion before us now identifies eight hearing settings missing a reporter’s record. However, the motion fails to identify how counsel has specifically requested these items from the court reporter, other than to indicate the trial court will not schedule a hearing without additional orders from this Court. Again, the Court looks with disfavor upon the delay caused by counsel’s failure to address the missing portions of the record as directed in previous orders as well as counsel’s failure to provide proof of requesting the supplemental record in accordance with the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 34.6 or otherwise attempting to obtain the missing portions of the record.
Accordingly, appellant's motion to abate is DENIED. IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the Honorable Diamond De Leon, counsel for appellant, request final missing portions of the record, if any, directly from the court reporter on or before 12noon on Friday, May 27, 2022; the Honorable Diamond De Leon, counsel for appellant, is further ORDERED to file proof of such request with the Clerk of this Court and the trial court on or before 12noon on Friday, May 27, 2022; finally, the Honorable Diamond De Leon is hereby ordered to file appellant’s brief with this Court on or before 5:00 p.m. on June 6, 2022.
Accordingly, the show-cause hearing currently set for May 26, 2022, is now reset, as follows: If the Honorable Diamond De Leon fails to file the appellate brief with this Court on or before 5:00 p.m. on June 6, 2022, then the Honorable Diamond De Leon is ORDERED to appear in person on June 7, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. in the courtroom of the Thirteenth Court of Appeals, located at 901 Leopard Street, 10th Floor in Corpus Christi, Texas, to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court.
PER CURIAM Do not publish.
TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
Delivered and filed on the 24th day of May, 2022.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.