Echols v. State

• Citation: 326 Ark. 917,936 S.W.2d 509
• Decision Date: 23 December 1996
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Parties: Damien Wayne ECHOLS and Charles Jason Baldwin, Appellants, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 94-928.
• Court: Supreme Court of Arkansas

Page 509

936 S.W.2d 509

326 Ark. 917

Damien Wayne ECHOLS and Charles Jason Baldwin, Appellants, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 94-928.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Dec. 23, 1996.

Val P. Price, W. Scott Davidson, Paul N. Ford, Jonesboro, for appellants.

David Raupp, Vada Berger, Asst. Attys. General, Little Rock, for appellee.

DUDLEY, Justice.

Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin were convicted of the capital murders of Michael Moore, Christopher Byers, and Steve Branch. For each of the capital murders, appellant Echols was sentenced to death, and appellant Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Both appellants appeal from their convictions. Echols separately appeals the death sentences imposed upon him. We affirm in full the judgments of conviction.

Michael, Christopher, and Steve were eight years old, in the second grade, in the same Cub Scout troop, and often played together in their West Memphis neighborhood. On the afternoon of May 5, 1993, after school, Michael and Steve were riding their bicycles while Chris was skateboarding. Deborah O'Tinger saw the three boys walking through her yard between 5:45 and 6:00 that afternoon. Her recollection was that they were pushing a bicycle. At about 6:00 p.m., Dana Moore, Michael's mother, saw the three boys together. At that time Michael was riding his bicycle. Between 6:30 and 6:45 Brian Woody saw four boys going into some woods known as the Robin Hood woods. He noticed that two of the boys were pushing bicycles, one had a skateboard, and a fourth one was just walking behind them. Neither Michael, Christopher, nor Steve returned to their homes. Their parents called the police, and a search was begun.

The next morning, members of the Crittenden County Search and Rescue Unit discovered a tennis shoe floating in a ditch just north of Ten Mile Bayou. The Robin Hood woods drain into Ten Mile Bayou, and the members of the search unit knew the boys were last seen in that area. Detective Mike Allen walked along the ditch bank to the place where the tennis shoe had been found. He noticed that one area of the ditch bank was cleared of leaves, while the rest of the bank was covered with leaves and sticks. He described the cleared area on the bank as being "slick," but having "scuffs" in the cleared-off area. He got into the water, reached down to get the shoe, and felt Michael Moore's body. The corpses of Christopher Byers and Steve Branch were subsequently found about twenty-five feet downstream. Policeman John Moore, who was also there, said there was blood in the water, but none on the bank. Detective Bryn Ridge was also present and helped recover the boys' bodies. He collected the victims' clothes, three tennis shoes, and a Cub Scout cap that was floating in the water. He found a stick stuck in the mud that had one of the boy's shirts wrapped around the end that was stuck down in the mud. He dislodged another stick as he was removing the corpse of Michael Moore.

All three corpses had their right hands tied to their right feet, and their left hands tied to their left feet. Black shoe laces and white shoe laces were used as ligatures. Michael Moore's body had wounds to the neck, chest, and abdominal regions that appeared to have been caused by a serrated knife. There were abrasions over his scalp that could have been caused by a stick. Dr. Frank Peretti, a State medical examiner, testified that there was bruising and discoloring comparable to that frequently seen in children who are forced to perform oral sex. He testified that there were defensive wounds to the hands and arms. Moore's anal orifice was dilated, and the rectal mucosa was reddened. Dr. Peretti testified this injury could have come from an object being placed in the anus. Finally, Dr. Peretti testified that there was evidence that Moore was still alive when he was in the water, as there was evidence of drowning.

Steve Branch's corpse had head injuries, chest injuries, genital-anal injuries, lower extremity injuries, upper extremity injuries, and back injuries. The body had multiple, irregular, gouging wounds, which indicated that he was moving when he was stabbed. The anus was dilated. Penile injuries indicated that oral sex had been performed on him. There was also evidence that he, too, had drowned.

Christopher Byers's corpse also had injuries indicating that he had been forced to perform oral sex. His head had scratches, abrasions, and a punched-out area on the skin, and one eyelid had a contusion. The back of the neck had a scrape. The inner thighs had diagonal cuts on them. The back of the skull had been struck with a stick-like, broomstick-size, object. The skin of the penis had been removed, and the scrotal sac and testes were missing. There were cuts around the anus, and the hemorrhaging from those cuts indicated he was still alive when they were made. Many of the cuts were made with a serrated blade knife. Byers did not drown; he bled to death.

The boys' bicycles were found nearby.

On May 10, four days after the bodies were found, the police had not solved the cases. When Detective Bryn Ridge questioned Echols, he asked him how he thought the three victims died. Ridge's description of Echols's answer is abstracted as follows:

He stated that the boys probably died of mutilation, some guy had cut the bodies up, heard that they were in the water, they may have drowned. He said at least one was cut up more than the others. Purpose of the killing may have been to scare someone. He believed that it was only one person for fear of squealing by another involved.

At the time Echols made the statement, there was no public knowledge that one of the children had been mutilated more severely than the others.

On June 3, or almost one month after the murders, Detective Mike Allen asked Jessie Lloyd Misskelley, Jr., about the murders. Misskelley was not a suspect at the time, but Echols was, and it was thought that Misskelley might give some valuable information about Echols. Detective Allen had been told that all three engaged in cult-like activities. Misskelley made two statements to the detective that implicated Echols and Baldwin, as well as himself. The statements can be found in Misskelley v. State, 323 Ark. 449, 459-61, 915 S.W.2d 702, 707-08 (1996).

Misskelley, age seventeen, Echols, age nineteen, and Baldwin, age sixteen, were jointly charged with the capital murders of Moore, Byers, and Branch. Misskelley moved for a severance from Echols and Baldwin, and the trial court granted the severance. Misskelley was tried and convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Michael Moore, and second-degree murder in the deaths of Steve Branch and Christopher Byers. The judgments of conviction were affirmed. Misskelley v. State, 323 Ark. 449, 915 S.W.2d 702 (1996). Appellants Echols and Baldwin were jointly tried in this case. In the guilt-innocence phase of the trial, the jury found both Echols and Baldwin guilty of the capital murders of all three victims. In the penalty phase of the trial, the jury imposed death as the punishment for Echols and fixed life imprisonment without parole as the punishment for Baldwin. The trial court entered judgments of conviction that imposed the sentences set by the jury.

Echols's and Baldwin's arguments together contain forty-four points of appeal, and some of those points have subpoints. Some of the points of appeal are made jointly by both appellants, but many are individual arguments. For clarity, we group the arguments into seven general categories.

Sufficiency of the Evidence Arguments

Echols questions the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him of the three capital murders. In one of his arguments, he contends that for circumstantial evidence to be sufficient, it must exclude every reasonable hypothesis, and cites as authority Traylor v. State, 304 Ark. 174, 801 S.W.2d 267 (1990). Before narrating the testimony of his guilt, we again emphasize, as we have often done, that although the jury should be instructed, as it was here, that circumstantial evidence must be consistent with the guilt of the defendant and inconsistent with any other reasonable conclusion, AMI Crim. 106, this is not the standard by which we review the evidence. Our responsibility is to determine whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence, which means whether the jury could have reached its conclusion without resorting to speculation or conjecture. Cassell v. State, 273 Ark. 59, 616 S.W.2d 485 (1981). The jury must be convinced of the accused's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but we, not having had the advantage of seeing and hearing the witnesses, are guided by the substantial evidence rule. Cassell, 273 Ark. at 62, 616 S.W.2d at 486-87.

Moreover, two witnesses testified that they overheard Echols state that he killed the three boys, and this was direct evidence. A confession is sufficient to sustain a conviction if it is accompanied by other proof that the offense was committed by someone. Ark.Code Ann. § 16-89-111 (1987); Leshe v. State, 304 Ark. 442, 803 S.W.2d 522 (1991).

The substantial evidence of Echols's guilt is as follows. Anthony and Narlene Hollingsworth were well acquainted with Echols and testified that they saw Echols and his girlfriend, Domini Teer, walking after 9:30 on the night of the murders near the Blue Beacon Truck Stop, which is near Robin Hood woods where the bodies were found. The witnesses testified that Echols had on a dark-colored shirt and that his clothes were dirty. This evidence placed Echols in dirty clothes near the scene at a time close to the murders. Although not material to this point, other evidence established that Domini Teer might be confused with Baldwin as both had long hair and were of slight build.

Twelve-year-old Christy VanVickle testified that she heard Echols say he "killed the three boys." Fifteen-year-old Jackie Medford testified that she heard Echols say, "I killed the three...