We have a defendant charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon here in Brazos County. He was a Texas A&M professor who has now moved to Utah and taken a position with the University of Utah in Salt Lake. He was recently arrested on our warrant in Utah and released to bond there. His defense attorney has informed me that he will be voluntarily appearing next week in district court for a setting. I'm uneasy simply relying on the defendant to keep coming down to Texas for the court settings and trial and want to make sure that I can file on him for bond jumping if he doesn't show. However, I'm not sure I can file bond jumping based on the Utah bond. I'd like to get the defendant under bond in our state. Any one face a similar situation in the past? If so, how did you handle it? I'd appreciate any help.

If you are that worried that your guy won't show up, you need to initiate the extradition process (CCP 51.13). Technically speaking, your guy has not been arraigned on the Texas charge. He is likely being held on an FFJ (fugitive from justice) warrant. In which case, you have only 90 days from the date of arrest to get a Governor's warrant for his extradition. After that you'll be out of luck.

Other than extradition, there's no way you can force his appearance in Texas. I suppose some Utah judge could make his appearance in Texas a condition of his Utah bond, but after the 90 days are up Utah couldn't enforce that condition because they'd no longer have the authority to continuing holding him.

If you extradite him, once they arrest him on the Governor's warrant he's not entitled to bond and you know for sure that you'll get your hands on him. However, extradition might take more time than you have. I'm not sure how soon your first setting is, but there's a reason Utah's allowed to hold him for up to 90 days.

Good luck.

You might give him notice to appear and if he does make him post a new bond here.

As Lisa points out, the guy was not arrested on the Texas warrant in Utah. More likely he was intially arrested without a warrant. See art. 51.13 sec. 14. Thus, the Texas warrant remains outstanding and he should be placed in custody once he arrives in Texas and held subject to posting bail here. The bail he posted in Utah is conditioned only on his appearance in Utah in connection with extradition proceedings and expires after 90 days. You will have no right to forfeit the existing bail for a failure to appear in Texas. If he does not voluntarily show up in Texas your only real remedy is to seek a Utah Governor's Warrant.

Has there been an article on this topic that outlines the procedures for a governor's warrant and what to do with those out of state arrests? I allowed the ninety day period to lapse on an MTR warrant for an arrest in Arizona because I was not aware of the time constraints. Needless to say, my sheriff was not too happy about it.

I wrote an article on extraditions that's in the TDCAA website database, but it only deals with extraditing fugitives found in Texas back to the demanding state. So it doesn't really get into the logistics of applying for a Texas Governor's warrant.

I do however have an old handbook on extraditions that was written by Gilbert Pena (former extradition counsel for the Texas Governor). I'd be happy to forward a copy to you. Give me a call. (214) 653-3638.

Also, you can contact Sylvia Galindo at the Governor's office. She's the extradition coordinator. She's an invaluable source of information and very nice. If the Governor's office has published a more recent handbook she'd have a copy of it. Her number is (512) 463-1948.

After talking with Sylvia Galindo and my Sheriff's Department, I determined that the best thing to do was have my judge issue a new capias on the charge. Our Sheriff's Department Warrants people are going to sit on the warrant (not put it up on TCIC/NCIC) until the defendant appears in court next week (if he does). When he does show, we have agreed (the defense attorney and I) that the defendant will surrender himself to be booked on the new capias and will bond out under an agreed P.R. bond. This way, we'll have a local bond to forfeit and file new charges on. If he doesn't show pursuant to the new bond, we'll have to go the Governor's Warrant and Extradition route. That's how we're handling it here. Thanks for all of the good advice and comments.

Shane, that's exactly what we did with a guy who came to Texas through the same procedure. The only difference was that we did not agree to a personal bond. The defendant did sit in jail for awhile and then made what we call a real bond, through a local surety.

My primary concern was to get this guy to appear and to get him under a local bond so that I could file on him if he didn't show. I was having to rely on his willingness to appear and wanted to make it as non-threatening as possible. The alternative would likely have been the extradition process which I wanted to avoid at this stage. My guess is that the guy is not going to like my offer. So, the PR bond, which is not my usual M.O. either, was "bait." You get more flies with honey...

If Shane's professor made a bond on the fugitive case in Utah, and not on the assault case in Texas, how does that action constitute an execution of the original capias? I would be interested to learn what the return on that capias says.

When my sheriff's office learned of the defendant's arrest on the TCIC/NCIC hit in Utah, they returned the warrant to the JP's office as served. That's why we needed to issue a new capias. At least that's what they told me. The governor's office told me that what he was arrested on in Utah was a fugitive warrant based on a Utah complaint. They know a lot more about this than I do, so I defer to them.

I believe it would be proper, probably required, that the warrant be removed from the NCIC database once the arrest in Utah took place. Returning the Texas warrant to the issuing magistrate with the indication that it had been executed (by someone other than the person signing the return in another State) is highly problematic. But that fact may indeed constitute a good ground for issuance of yet another warrant. Depending on the charge, and particularly if a PR bond would not have been granted if the Defendant had initially been found in Texas, I do not think it is a particularly good idea not to require at least a personal bond (one with penal amount but no surety and thus no expense to the defendant)upon his arrest in Texas.