In April 2002, appellant pled guilty to the offense of capital murder for intentionally causing the death of an individual during the course of kidnapping him. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a)(2). Pursuant to the jury's answers to the special issues set forth in Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 37.071, sections 2(b) and 2(e), the trial judge sentenced appellant to death. Art. 37.071, § 2(g). Direct appeal to this Court is automatic. Art. 37.071, § 2(h). We will affirm.
Appellant chose to represent himself at trial and on appeal. The trial court fully admonished appellant of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation prior to trial and prior to this appeal. See U.S. Const. Amend. VI and XIV; Tex. Const. Art. I, § 10; Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975); Lott v. State, 874 S.W.2d 687 (Tex. Crim. App. 1994). The trial court appointed stand-by counsel to assist appellant, an indigent, if needed, throughout all pre-trial and trial proceedings.
Appellant has not filed a brief in this appeal. We therefore submitted the case without the benefit of briefs and, in the interest of justice, reviewed the entire record. (1) Having found no unassigned fundamental error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Johnson, J.
Delivered: April 2, 2003
En banc
Do Not Publish
1. Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 38.8(b)(2) provides that in the event a brief is not timely filed on
appellant's behalf, the appellate court shall order the trial court to determine "whether the appellant desires to
prosecute his appeal, whether the appellant is indigent, or, if not indigent, whether retained counsel has abandoned
the appeal[.]" However, where the trial court "has found that the appellant no longer desires to prosecute the
appeal, . . ., the appellate court may consider the appeal without briefs, as justice may require." TEX. R. APP. P.
38.8(b)(4).