Opinion
A24A1494
06-04-2024
JAMES LEON WASHINGTON v. THE STATE.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
On December 14, 2023, this Court granted James Leon Washington's discretionary application from the trial court's dismissal of his "motion to appoint counsel, withdraw guilty plea, and change sentence." See Case No. A24D0181.This Court's order granting the application notified Washington that he would have ten days to file a notice of appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (g). Despite this directive, Washington did not file a notice of appeal. Instead, on February 28, 2024, 78 days after we granted his application, Washington filed in the trial court a letter in which he asked the court to confirm receipt of the notice of appeal filed with his application or "to obtain same, put correct filing date on it, and process appeal."
"The proper and timely filing of the notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer appellate jurisdiction upon this court." Ebeling v. State, 355 Ga.App. 469, 469 (844 S.E.2d 518) (2020). Although "there is no magic in nomenclature," Doe v. State, 347 Ga.App. 246, 250 (1) (819 S.E.2d 58) (2018) (punctuation omitted), we cannot construe the application for appellate review that Washington filed in this Court as a notice of appeal, which must be filed in the trial court. See OCGA §§ 5-6-35 (g); 5-6-37. Because Washington failed to file a notice of appeal in the trial court within ten days of this Court's order granting his application, his appeal is untimely. See Barnes v. Justis, 223 Ga.App. 671, 671-672 (478 S.E.2d 402) (1996). Accordingly, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.