Bell v. State

• Decision Date: 17 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Parties: Ronita Faith BELL, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 97-1004.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 806

973 S.W.2d 806

334 Ark. 285

Ronita Faith BELL, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 97-1004.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Sept. 17, 1998.

Steve Kirk, Michael Allison, Morrilton, for Appellant.

Winston Bryant, Attorney General, Kent G. Holt, Assistant Attorney General, Little Rock, for Appellee.

CORBIN, Justice.

Appellant Ronita Faith Bell appeals the judgment of the Conway County Circuit Court convicting her of three counts of capital murder and sentencing her to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Our jurisdiction of this appeal is pursuant to Ark. Sup.Ct. R. 1-2(a)(2). Appellant raises five points for reversal: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdict; (2) the Attorney General's office improperly participated in the prosecution of the case; (3) the trial court should have declared a mistrial due to the State's mention of Appellant's post-arrest silence; (4) the trial court erred in allowing the State to present rebuttal testimony of two witnesses; and (5) the trial court erred in admitting into evidence a letter written by a codefendant. We affirm the judgment of conviction.

The record reflects that on the morning of July 26, 1996, at approximately 5:30 a.m., Albert Flakes, the nephew of Larry Flakes and the grandson of Dorothy Flakes, was driving by the Flakes' residence on Highway 64 in Menifee when he saw what he thought was a body lying in the driveway. Albert recognized the body of his uncle's girlfriend Debra Yancy, which he described as having a bullet hole in her head. When Albert went inside the house, he saw that everything had been torn up and that his grandmother was not moving. Albert then went to look for his uncle Larry at 111 Alexander Street, a rented house where Larry ran a gambling establishment. When Albert arrived, there was no one there. Albert later went back to the Alexander Street house a second time, but there was still no one there. Finally, upon returning a third time, Albert found Appellant and her boyfriend Gregory Allen Cook at the house. Appellant and Cook had been living at the Alexander Street house and were employed by Larry Flakes at that time. Appellant and Cook did not let Albert into the house. Cook told Albert that he had not seen Larry. Cook showed no reaction when Albert told him what had happened at his grandmother's house.

Larry Flakes's body was subsequently found outside an abandoned house approximately one-half mile from the Flakes' residence on Highway 64. Larry Flakes died after being shot multiple times and stabbed in the neck. Both Dorothy Flakes and Debra Yancy died as the result of gunshot wounds. Yancy also had postmortem injuries on her body that were consistent with her having been run over with a car. Officers discovered Larry Flakes's 1989 Chevrolet Blazer near Maumelle, on an old logging road behind a liquor store. The vehicle was completely burned.

Officers recovered multiple 9 mm bullets and shell casings in and around the Flakes' residence on Highway 64. They also recovered the following items from the house on Alexander Street: one spent lead bullet found on the floor; one bullet lodged in the wooden floor; three bullet holes in the floor of the front room and one in the wall; two bloody footprints; and a dish towel, a pair of blue and white tennis shoes, a pair of white gloves, and a pair of boxer shorts with blood stains on them. Officers also recovered a sales receipt from the Price Cutter store in Conway; the date and time of the receipt were Friday July 26, 1996, at 3:54 a.m. The receipt showed that the following items were purchased: Pine Sol, 9-Lives cat food, 9-Lives dinner, sausage pizza, hamburger pizza, Tidy Cat 3 cat litter, and King Edward Imperial cigars.

Officers submitted the items of evidence to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for analysis. Tests performed at the crime lab revealed that six bullets and shell casings recovered from the two residences and two bullets taken from the body of Larry Flakes had been fired from the same firearm barrel, which had rifling characteristics consistent with a 9-mm Luger firearm. DNA comparisons revealed that blood samples taken from the blue and white tennis shoes found in the bedroom at the Alexander Street residence had the same types of chromosomes found in Larry Flakes's blood. The DNA analysis revealed further that the estimated chance of finding those types of chromosomes in an unrelated person at random is approximately one in two million in the black population.

Arkansas State Police Investigator W.B. Baskin performed a luminol test at the Alexander Street house, which revealed the presence of animal or human blood, not visible to the naked eye, that had apparently been cleaned from the floor of the front room. The test also revealed an apparent trail of blood, indicating to Baskin that a body had been laying in the house and had been dragged toward the back of the house and out the back door.

Appellant and Cook, along with Patrick Charles Walker and Christopher B. Johnson, were subsequently charged with three counts of capital felony murder, for having killed the victims in the course of and in furtherance of a robbery, under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life. Appellant was tried in June 1997 and was convicted of all three counts. The State had waived the death penalty against Appellant, and she was accordingly sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

Appellant's first argument for reversal is that there is insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdicts against her. Appellant contends that the proof at trial was insufficient to establish that she had acted with the requisite mental state of purposely acting to promote or facilitate the crimes. We disagree.

When a defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence convicting her, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the state. Bailey v. State, 334 Ark. 43, 972 S.W.2d 239 (1998). Evidence, whether direct or circumstantial, is sufficient to support a conviction if it is forceful enough to compel reasonable minds to reach a conclusion one way or the other. Wilson v. State, 332 Ark. 7, 962 S.W.2d 805 (1998). We do not, however, weigh the evidence presented at trial, as that is a matter for the factfinder; nor will we weigh the credibility of the witnesses. Id. Only evidence supporting the verdict will be considered. Bailey, 334 Ark. 43, 972 S.W.2d 239.

Appellant and the three codefendants were charged as accomplices to the crimes. An accomplice is defined as:

one who, with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the commission of an offense, either solicits, advises, encourages, or coerces another person to commit the offense, aids, agrees to aid, or attempts to aid the other person in planning or committing the offense, or, having a legal duty to prevent the offense, fails to make a proper effort to prevent the commission of the offense.

Williams v. State, 329 Ark. 8, 16, 946 S.W.2d 678, 682 (1997) (citing Ark.Code Ann. § 5-2-403 (Repl.1993)). A defendant's presence at the crime scene or failure to inform law enforcement officers of a crime does not make one an accomplice as a matter of law. Id. Relevant factors in determining the connection of an accomplice to a crime are: (1) the presence of the accused in proximity of a crime, (2) the opportunity to commit the crime, and (3) an association with a person involved in the crime in a manner suggestive of joint participation. Britt v. State, 334 Ark. 142, 974 S.W.2d 436 (1998). In order to sustain a conviction of capital felony murder, it is not necessary that the defendant be shown to have taken an active part in the killing as long as he or she was an accomplice and had the requisite intent to commit the underlying felony. Id.

Appellant was arrested in November 1996 and gave two interviews to police at that time. Investigator Dewayne Luter of the Arkansas State Police testified that he interviewed Appellant on November 19, and that she made the following statements. Appellant and Cook had driven to Maumelle on July 25, 1996, to pick up Chris Johnson, whom she called "Chaos," and a male known to her as "Mr. P," later identified as Patrick Walker. The four of them drove back to the house on Alexander Street in Menifee. Appellant then telephoned Larry Flakes to ask him to come over, because Flakes was going to give some money to her, so that she and Cook could go to a funeral out of state. Appellant was in the bedroom when she heard a vehicle arrive and someone come into the house; she was still in the bedroom when she heard gunshots. About five minutes later, Appellant came out of the bedroom and saw Larry Flakes lying on the floor. Appellant saw Johnson use his foot to turn Larry over onto his back; Johnson then took money and some dope from Larry's body. They then took a sheet off the couch and wrapped it over Larry and loaded the body into Larry's Blazer. Appellant and Cook stayed at the house and cleaned up the blood while Johnson and Walker left in Larry's Blazer. Johnson and Walker were gone for fifteen to twenty minutes, and when they came back, Johnson was very excited and "hyper" and told Appellant and Cook that he had shot a woman. Johnson told them that he made the girl wake up Larry's mother and then shot her. Johnson and Walker left again in Larry's Blazer and Appellant and Cook took their vehicle and met up with Johnson and Walker in Maumelle, on the side of an old country road. Johnson then proceeded to take some items from the Blazer, namely rifles, shotguns, and some clothes that Larry Flakes had been selling, and loaded them into the trunk of the car occupied by Appellant and Cook. They then poured some liquor on the Blazer, and Johnson set the vehicle on fire. Appellant and Cook took Walker and Johnson to their respective houses; Johnson took the clothes...