Alfonso Barnes v. State, A17A1068

Alfonso Barnes was convicted by a jury (Feb 2010) of criminal attempt to commit robbery and battery.
Barnes filed a timely motion for new trial; the trial court denied it on October 28, 2016.
Barnes’s counsel mailed a notice of appeal (with SASE to the clerk) and a notice to the judge; the attorney contends the judge received it but the clerk did not.
A second notice of appeal was filed on November 29, 2016 (32 days after the order), and the case was transmitted based on that second notice.
The Court of Appeals concluded the November 29 filing was untimely and determined it lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

Issue	Barnes' Argument	State's Argument	Held
Timeliness of notice of appeal	Counsel mailed a timely notice (claims judge received it; clerk did not)	Notice was filed after the 30-day statutory deadline	Notice was untimely (filed 32 days after order); appeal dismissed for lack of jurisdiction
Jurisdiction of Court of Appeals	Counsel’s attempted filing should vest jurisdiction	Timeliness is jurisdictional and was not met	Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the appeal
Remedies after dismissal	(implied) request to proceed on appeal	(implied) follow statutory procedures	Court informed Barnes of ability to seek an out-of-time appeal from trial court
Systemic delay concerns	(not argued by parties)	(not argued by parties)	Court admonished parties to avoid unnecessary delays in resolving post-conviction motions

Rowland v. State, 264 Ga. 872 (1995) (timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute jurisdictional requirement)
Ingram v. State, 297 Ga. 854 (2015) (court admonition regarding risks created by delays in resolving motions for new trial)