Terrell Paul Dunham v. the State of Texas
CourtTexas Court of Appeals, 1st District (Houston)
Date FiledJuly 28, 2026
Docket01-25-00015-CR
StatusPublished
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Full Opinion
Opinion issued July 28, 2026
In The
Court of Appeals
For The
First District of Texas
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NO. 01-25-00015-CR
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TERRELL PAUL DUNHAM, Appellant
V.
THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee
On Appeal from the 240th District Court
Fort Bend County, Texas
Trial Court Case No. 21-DCR-096792
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Appellant Terrell Paul Dunham pleaded guilty to the offense of possession of
between one and four grams of a controlled substance. The trial court deferred
adjudication of guilt and placed Dunham on community supervision for five years.
The State moved to adjudicate guilt and revoke Dunham’s community supervision,
alleging multiple violations of the supervision conditions. At a hearing on the
motion, Dunham pleaded true to all allegations raised in the motion to adjudicate
except an allegation that he had committed a new offense. The State then presented
evidence supporting that allegation.
Following argument by the parties, the trial court found all allegations alleged
in the motion to revoke to be true. The court also determined that the “best option”
was to require Dunham to participate in treatment at a Substance Abuse Felony
Punishment Facility. The court signed a modified order of deferred adjudication.
The order stated that the court found that Dunham had committed eighteen violations
of the community supervision conditions, but the order also stated: “Adjudication of
guilt deferred, defendant returned to deferred adjudication community supervision.”1
The court, therefore, did not adjudicate Dunham’s guilt of the charged offense, nor
did it revoke his community supervision. Instead, the court modified the community
supervision conditions to add multiple new conditions, including a condition that he
remain in a Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility for at least 90 days.
Dunham filed a notice of appeal from the modified deferred adjudication order.
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Under “Punishment and Place of Confinement,” the order stated: “The defendant’s
conditions of probation are modified to include attendance at and completion of the
SAFP program.”
2
The right to appeal “is not of constitutional magnitude, but is derived entirely
from statute.” Rushing v. State, 85 S.W.3d 283, 285 (Tex. Crim. App. 2002). It is
well-settled that an order modifying the terms or conditions of deferred adjudication
community supervision is not appealable. See Davis v. State, 195 S.W.3d 708, 711
(Tex. Crim. App. 2006) (noting that Legislature has authorized appeal of only two
types of orders relevant to deferred adjudication: orders granting deferred
adjudication and orders imposing punishment following adjudication of guilt);
Basaldua v. State, 558 S.W.2d 2, 5 (Tex. Crim. App. 1977) (concluding no
constitutional or statutory authority conferred jurisdiction to hear appeal from order
altering or modifying, or refusing to alter or modify, probation conditions);
Christopher v. State, 7 S.W.3d 224, 225 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1999, pet.
ref’d) (“The Legislature has not conferred the right to have an order modifying
community supervision conditions reviewed by appeal, and case law directs that no
such right exists.”).
Here, the trial court modified the conditions of Dunham’s deferred
adjudication community supervision. It did not adjudicate Dunham’s guilt, revoke
his community supervision, or impose punishment for the charged offense. Cf. TEX.
CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 42A.110(a) (“After an adjudication of guilt, all proceedings,
including assessment of punishment, pronouncement of sentence, granting of
community supervision, and defendant’s appeal, continue as if the adjudication of
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guilt had not been deferred.”) (emphasis added). Because the order that Dunham
attempts to appeal is not appealable, we conclude that we lack appellate jurisdiction
over this appeal. See Christopher, 7 S.W.3d at 225.
We therefore dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.
David Gunn
Justice
Panel consists of Justices Gunn, Caughey, and Morgan.
Do not publish. TEX. R. APP. P. 47.2(b).
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