Background
Christina Starr Settle and her adult son entered a Walmart in Canyon, Texas, where her son scanned and bagged approximately $760 in groceries at a self-checkout register. Settle produced a receipt that appeared to document a prior purchase of similar items and pushed the cart beyond the last point of sale. Store personnel stopped her and determined that the receipt was counterfeit, no payment had been made at the register the pair used, and some items on the receipt did not match those in the cart.
A jury convicted Settle of theft of property valued at less than $2,500 with two or more prior theft convictions, a state-jail felony. Settle had stipulated to the two prior convictions alleged for jurisdictional enhancement. The trial court sentenced her to eight years’ confinement, ordered payment of court costs and court-appointed attorney’s fees, and imposed no fine.
On appeal, appointed counsel filed an Anders brief asserting that the record presented no nonfrivolous ground for appeal and moved to withdraw. Settle filed a pro se response contending that she had been incompetent at trial and that her due-process rights were violated.
The Court’s Holding
After independently reviewing the entire record, the Seventh Court of Appeals agreed with counsel that the appeal was wholly frivolous. The court considered Settle’s competency argument but concluded that neither her pro se response nor the record disclosed an arguable ground for reversal.
The court nevertheless found that the bill of costs improperly included a $15 time-payment fee assessed while the appeal was pending. Because an appeal stops the clock for purposes of that fee, the court deleted it without prejudice to reassessment if Settle fails to pay amounts owed timely after the appellate mandate issues. The modification also applies to any order withdrawing funds from her inmate account.
The court noted that although the trial court orally ordered Settle to pay appointed-counsel fees, neither the written judgment nor the certified bill of costs presently assessed such fees. It therefore had nothing to modify on that issue. The court affirmed the judgment as modified and granted appellate counsel’s motion to withdraw.
Key Takeaways
- An appellate court conducting Anders review must independently examine the entire record, including issues raised in a defendant’s pro se response.
- A time-payment fee assessed while a direct appeal remains pending must be deleted, without prejudice to possible reassessment after mandate.
- Court-appointed attorney’s fees are enforceable as court costs only when supported by a certified bill of costs and a record-based finding that the defendant has sufficient financial resources.
Why It Matters
The opinion illustrates that an Anders appeal may produce a limited correction even when no arguable basis exists for reversing the conviction or sentence. Courts must still examine the record for improperly assessed costs and correct premature time-payment fees.
It also underscores that an oral directive to pay appointed-counsel fees does not itself create an enforceable assessment when those fees are absent from the written judgment and certified bill of costs.