Bradford v. State

• Decision Date: 08 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Parties: Donnietha BRADFORD, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 96-5.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 329

927 S.W.2d 329

325 Ark. 278

Donnietha BRADFORD, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 96-5.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

July 8, 1996.

Mikke Connealy, Blytheville, for appellant.

David R. Raupp, Asst. Atty. General, Little Rock, for appellee.

BROWN, Justice.

Appellant Donnietha Bradford contests her convictions for capital murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery and her sentence of life imprisonment without parole. She argues insufficiency of the evidence, breach of her Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights as they pertain to her statements to police, and failure of the trial court to give certain instructions to the jury relating to termination of her accomplice status. Because we conclude that her Sixth Amendment rights were violated in connection with her third statement to police officers, we reverse the convictions and remand for a new trial.

On June 1, 1994, Blytheville police officers were called to the house of Lester Frazier. When they arrived at the house, they found that it had been ransacked, that there was considerable blood on the premises, and that Frazier, a 79-year-old man, was missing. Three days later, Frazier's body was discovered in the Mississippi River south of Osceola. According to the medical examiner, Frazier's death was due to a fractured skull caused by a blunt force. Defensive wounds were found on Frazier's right hand.

On Friday, July 22, 1994, Donnietha Bradford was arrested in connection with Frazier's murder. She was instructed of her Miranda rights, and she executed a waiver of rights form at 6:20 p.m. that same Friday. A recorded statement was taken more than four hours later. In that statement, she related that she had a conversation with Rodney Barnett on May 24, 1994, at an Arby's restaurant in Blytheville. She stated that Barnett asked her if she planned to rob Frazier. She informed him that if she had intended to rob Frazier, she would have done so. Barnett replied, "I'll get him." Barnett told her that he knew Frazier's family and that the family had money.

A week later, Barnett told her that he had killed the old man, but gotten no money. She stated that Barnett told her that he cut the screen on Frazier's door and that when Frazier opened the door, he knocked him down. He proceeded to hit Frazier over the head and ask where his money was. Barnett ransacked the house looking for the money, but he could not find it. At that point, he walked across the street to his father's house and got his car. He forced Frazier into the car and drove him to the river. Once they arrived at the river, Barnett took a rock and repeatedly hit Frazier over the head with it. According to her statement, about a month later, she visited with Barnett at Coleman's Combo in Blytheville. Barnett inquired if Bradford had said anything to anybody about the murder. When she answered "no," he said he wanted to keep it that way. He patted his waistband, indicating that he had a gun.

Approximately an hour and a half after the first interview, the police officers renewed their questioning of Bradford. Bradford gave a second statement in which she added that she had borrowed a pistol from an acquaintance, Frankie Milton, the night before Frazier was murdered. The pistol was inoperable because the cylinder was "broken off." ¹ She stated that she borrowed the pistol because she had been threatened by another man. She stated that the next day she talked with Barnett, and she let him borrow the gun. Barnett told her that he had been watching Frazier's house because he was going to rob him. He asked Bradford if she was going to go with him, and she answered that she did not know. Thirty minutes later, they walked to Frazier's house. She saw Barnett approach the front door and begin to cut the screen so that he could unlatch the door. At that point, Bradford left, she stated, because she did not want to rob the man. Later, she returned to Frazier's house to see what Barnett was doing. She stated that she saw the screen door wide open and the front door cracked open. A few minutes later, the door slammed and Barnett began turning the lights off in the house. She walked back down the street and returned to Frazier's house in her car. She saw Barnett put Frazier into the front seat of his car, which he had backed into the driveway. Barnett then drove away with Frazier.

The next day, she saw Barnett, and he told her that he had killed Frazier. He then gave her a detailed account of the murder which tracked the description that Bradford gave in her earlier statement to the police officers. She added that he told her that he had left the gun he had borrowed from her at the river, but that he would retrieve it. Bradford denied helping transport Frazier to the river. She also denied leaving the gun at the river, acting as a lookout for Barnett, and entering Frazier's house.

On Monday, July 25, 1994, a hearing to determine whether there was probable cause to detain Bradford was held before the Blytheville Municipal Court. Following the hearing, an affidavit for probable cause was issued, bond was set, and the public defender's office was appointed to represent her. Appointment of counsel was noted by the court on the affidavit for probable cause. Shortly after her appearance, another waiver of Miranda rights was executed by Bradford, and police officers renewed their questioning of her. At about 6:45 p.m., Bradford gave a more detailed account of the events of May 31, 1994. Her statement was similar to the previous statements, except that in this statement she added that Barnett forced her at knifepoint to search Frazier's house for money. He further pretended to threaten her with the disabled gun in order to scare Frazier. Barnett stated that he was going to take Frazier to the bank to get some money. When Barnett left to get his car, he ordered Bradford to watch Frazier, and she did so. She saw Barnett hit Frazier on the head, and she saw that his head was bloody. She left the house after Barnett drove away with Frazier in the car.

Bradford was eventually charged with the capital murder, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping of Frazier. Prior to trial, Bradford moved to suppress her three statements to police officers. At the Denno hearing conducted during the course of the trial, the trial court denied her motion and allowed all three statements to be introduced into evidence. Following a jury trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all three counts, and Bradford was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

I. Insufficient Evidence

We first address Bradford's claim that there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict. A motion for a directed verdict is a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Passley v. State, 323 Ark. 301, 915 S.W.2d 248 (1996); Williams v. State, 321 Ark. 635, 906 S.W.2d 677 (1995). Preservation of an appellant's right to freedom from double jeopardy requires a review of the sufficiency of the evidence prior to a review of trial errors. Passley v. State, supra; Davis v. State, 319 Ark. 460, 892 S.W.2d 472 (1995). Accordingly, this court must address a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence prior to considering an appellant's other assignments of trial error. Passley v. State, supra; Byrum v. State, 318 Ark. 87, 884 S.W.2d 248 (1994).

When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, this court does not weigh the evidence but simply determines whether the evidence in support of the verdict is substantial. Passley v. State, supra. Substantial evidence is that which is forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or the other and pass beyond mere suspicion and conjecture. Id. In determining whether there is substantial evidence, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, and it is permissible to consider only that evidence which supports the guilty verdict. Id. Further, circumstantial evidence may constitute substantial evidence when every other reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence is excluded. Id. Whether a reasonable hypothesis exists is for the trier of fact to resolve. Id.

At trial, Bradford made the following arguments for her motion for a directed verdict: On the capital murder charge, she argued that the State failed to prove that she acted alone or with others in causing the death of Frazier in the furtherance of a robbery. As to the aggravated robbery charge, she argued that there was no evidence that she threatened or employed force or that she was armed with a deadly weapon. With respect to the kidnapping charge, she contended there was no evidence to support the claim that she restrained the victim in any way.

The State urges that Bradford has changed her argument on appeal in that she now argues she was forced to participate in the robbery and that she never agreed to participate in the crimes. The State adds that this argument is, in reality, not an argument regarding the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction but is, rather, an argument that her participation was the result of duress, which requires an acquittal. We disagree with the State. Bradford maintains that the only evidence presented to prove her complicity is her third statement to police officers that she was forced to participate in the crimes and that that evidence is not valid evidence to show that she was an accomplice to the crimes. Accordingly, her argument continues to be that the State's evidence was inadequate to sustain the convictions.

The keystone of the State's case against Bradford was her third statement to police officers. Putting aside for the moment the legitimacy and propriety of that third statement, we hold that the State presented substantial evidence for the jury to find that she committed the crimes. Discounting her duress defense, there was evidence that she discussed the planning of the crime with Barnett, that she loaned him a pistol to use, that she entered Frazier's...