Full Opinion

In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo No. 07-26-00151-CR JOSE GONZALEZ, APPELLANT V. THE STATE OF TEXAS, APPELLEE On Appeal from the 140th District Court Lubbock County, Texas Trial Court No. DC-2025-CR-0589, Honorable Douglas H. Freitag, Presiding August 28, 2026 ORDER OF ABATEMENT AND REMAND Before DOSS and YARBROUGH and PRATT, JJ. Appellant, Jose Gonzalez, appeals his conviction for continuous sexual abuse of a child1 and sentence to life in prison. Appellant’s brief was originally due July 31, 2026, but was not filed. By letter of August 10, 2026, we admonished Appellant’s appointed counsel that failure to file a brief by August 20, 2026, would result in the appeal being abated and the cause remanded to the trial court for further proceedings without further 1 See TEX. PENAL CODE § 21.02(b). notice. Instead of filing a brief by that date, on August 27, Appellant’s counsel filed a motion for extension of time to file a brief. Mindful of counsel’s caseload and the attendant history of delayed briefing, the Court declines this untimely request, observing that further extension of the briefing deadline at this point would likely cause further unnecessary delay in the submission of this cause. See Zuniga v. State, No. 07-26-00147-CR, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 7475, at *2 (Tex. App.—Amarillo Aug. 6, 2026, order). Accordingly, we abate the appeal and remand the cause to the trial court for further proceedings. See TEX. R. APP. P. 38.8(b)(2), (3). Upon remand, the trial court shall determine the following: 1. whether Appellant still desires to prosecute the appeal; 2. whether Appellant is indigent; 3. if Appellant is not indigent, whether Appellant has made the necessary arrangements for filing a brief; 4. why a timely appellate brief has not been filed on behalf of Appellant; 5. whether Appellant’s counsel has abandoned the appeal; 6. whether Appellant has been denied the effective assistance of counsel; 7. whether new counsel should be appointed; and 8. if Appellant desires to continue the appeal, the date the Court may expect Appellant’s brief to be filed. The trial court is also directed to enter such orders necessary to address the aforementioned questions. So too shall it include its findings on those matters in a supplemental record and cause that record to be filed with this Court by September 28, 2026. If it is determined that Appellant desires to proceed with the appeal, is indigent, 2 and has been denied the effective assistance of counsel, the trial court may appoint new counsel; the name, address, email address, phone number, and state bar number of any newly appointed counsel shall be included in the aforementioned findings. Should Appellant’s counsel file a brief on or before the date the trial court acts per our directive, he shall immediately notify the trial court of the filing, in writing, whereupon the trial court shall not be required to take any further action. It is so ordered. Per Curiam Do not publish. 3