Gilcrease v. State Of Ark.
| Decision Date | 21 May 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. CR 08-1058.,CR 08-1058. |
| Citation | 318 S.W.3d 70,2009 Ark. 298 |
| Parties | Nathan GILCREASE, Appellant,v.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
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Bill Luppen, Little Rock, for appellant.
Dustin McDaniel, Att'y Gen., by: Eileen W. Harrison, Deputy Att'y Gen., for appellee.
A Pulaski County jury convicted Appellant Nathan Gilcrease of two counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping for the assault, abduction and murder of two young men, Sean Johnson and Monte Johnson. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Thus, we have jurisdiction over the instant case pursuant to Ark. Sup.Ct. R. 1-2(a)(2) (2008). Appellant raises eight arguments for reversal. Because of double-jeopardy concerns, his fifth point, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, will be addressed first. Grillot v. State, 353 Ark. 294, 107 S.W.3d 136 (2003).
At the close of the State's evidence, Appellant moved for a directed verdict on grounds that the State failed to present sufficient evidence to support convictions on the capital murder and kidnapping charges. Specifically, he argued that Albert Reed and Mariah Powell, the two witnesses who testified against Appellant, were accomplices as a matter of law. The trial court ruled that Albert Reed was an accomplice as a matter of law but submitted the question of whether Mariah Powell was an accomplice to the jury. Appellant argued that the testimony of the accomplices had not been corroborated by independent evidence linking Appellant to the crimes. The circuit court denied Appellant's directed-verdict motion. Following deliberations, the jury found Appellant guilty of two counts of kidnapping and two counts of capital murder.
On appeal, Appellant renews his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Specifically, he asserts that the circuit court erred in denying his motion for directed verdict because his conviction was based upon uncorroborated accomplice testimony. We treat a motion for directed verdict as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Boldin v. State, 373 Ark. 295, 283 S.W.3d 565 (2008). In reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, this court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and considers only the evidence that supports the verdict. Id. Substantial evidence is that evidence which is of sufficient force and character that it will, with reasonable certainty, compel a conclusion one way or the other, without resorting to speculation or conjecture. Id.
As stated earlier, Appellant was convicted of two counts of kidnapping and two counts of capital murder. Under Arkansas law, a person commits kidnapping if, Ark.Code Ann. § 5-11-102(a) (Repl.2006). A person commits capital murder if “(4) [w]ith the premeditated and deliberated purpose of causing the death of another person, the person causes the death of any person.” Ark.Code Ann. § 5-10-101(a)(4) (Repl.2006).
When accomplice testimony is considered in reaching a verdict, Arkansas law provides that a person cannot be convicted based upon the testimony of an accomplice “unless corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant ... with the commission of the offense.” Ark.Code Ann. § 16-89-111(e)(1)(A) (Repl.2005). Furthermore, “corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows that the offense was committed and the circumstances thereof.” Ark.Code Ann. § 16-89-111(e)(1)(B) (Repl.2005). It must be evidence of a substantive nature since it must be directed toward proving the connection of the accused with a crime and not toward corroborating the accomplice testimony. Stephenson v. State, 373 Ark. 134, 282 S.W.3d 772 (2008). The corroborating evidence need not be sufficient standing alone to sustain the conviction, but it must, independent from that of the accomplice, tend to connect to a substantial degree the accused with the commission of the crime. Id. The test is whether, if the testimony of the accomplice were completely eliminated from the case, the other evidence independently establishes the crime and tends to connect the accused with its commission. Id. The corroborating evidence may be circumstantial so long as it is substantial; evidence that merely raises a suspicion of guilt is insufficient to corroborate an accomplice's testimony. Id.
The trial court concluded that Albert Reed was an accomplice as a matter of law. Albert Reed testified that he wanted to “beat up” Monte Johnson because Monte happened to be an ex-boyfriend of Reed's girlfriend Mariah Powell and he suspected them of seeing each other again. Reed further testified that he knew Mariah was taking Monte Johnson and his cousin Sean Johnson to a house on Reck Road where Reed was waiting in the backyard. When he saw Mariah, Sean and Monte drive up to the house in Monte's white Chevrolet and enter the house, Reed went inside the house and walked into the bedroom where Mariah stayed periodically. At that point, he saw Appellant emerge from a bathroom and another man, Cameron Williams, jump out of a closet. Both Appellant and Williams were wearing masks. Appellant was armed with a .22-caliber rifle and Williams had a .38-caliber revolver. As soon as both men appeared, Mariah ran out of the house. According to Reed, he complied when Appellant directed him to call Mariah and tell her not to call the police. Appellant then started questioning Monte about some rims that Monte allegedly possessed. When Reed called out Appellant's name, Appellant became enraged and decided to kill Monte and Sean Johnson. Appellant and Williams ordered both men to strip down. After being duct taped, the victims were placed inside the trunk of Monte's car. Reed then drove Monte's car to Hindman Park while Appellant and Williams followed in Appellant's maroon SUV, which had been parked near the Reck Road house. When they arrived at the park, Reed untaped the victims. As Monte and Sean tried to escape, Appellant and Williams fired several shots at them, killing both men. After the shooting, Reed called Tim Mathis and asked to meet him at a nearby carwash. Reed wanted Mathis to help him wash Monte's car and then hide it. When Reed and Mathis were at the carwash, both men saw Appellant's maroon SUV leaving the same carwash.
Mariah Powell's testimony largely corroborated Reed's testimony except that she testified it was Reed who told her to take Monte and Sean Johnson to the Reck Road house. Appellant argued below that Mariah Powell was also an accomplice as a matter of law. The trial court did not declare her an accomplice as a matter of law, but submitted the question to the jury. For an individual to be an accomplice, he or she must engage in one of the activities articulated in Ark.Code Ann. § 5-2-403 (Repl.2006). It is Appellant's burden to prove that a witness is an accomplice whose testimony must be corroborated. Bush v. State, 374 Ark. 506, 288 S.W.3d 658 (2008). In this case, the instruction given to the jury allowed it to determine whether Mariah was an accomplice, but we have no knowledge of whether the jury did in fact make such a determination.
When the evidence is viewed in a light most favorable to the State, Mariah's testimony alone was enough to corroborate Reed's testimony. She testified that, upon her arrival at the Reck Road house with Monte and Sean Johnson, she saw Reed, Appellant, and Williams waiting in the bedroom. According to Mariah, Appellant and Williams were both armed with guns.
Other evidence presented by the State showed that the victims' bodies were discovered in Hindman Park and that the bullets found near the bodies were fired from a .22-caliber rifle and a .38-caliber revolver. Latifah Johnson, who also rode to the Reck Road house with Mariah, Sean and Monte, testified that, after the homicides, she overheard a conversation between Appellant and Williams. According to Latifah, Williams wanted to buy a .38-caliber revolver from Appellant. She further testified about seeing Appellant's maroon SUV parked near the Reck Road house on the night she went to the house with Mariah, Sean and Monte. Likewise, around midnight that same night, Tim Mathis received a call from Reed to meet him at a carwash located close to Hindman Park. When Mathis drove to the carwash, he saw a maroon SUV pull out of the carwash. The State also elicited testimony from two police officers who had seen Appellant driving a maroon SUV on numerous occasions after the homicides in June 2006. In sum, when all of this evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the State, it tends to connect Appellant to the commission of the crimes. Based upon the foregoing, we conclude that the circuit court did not err in denying Appellant's directed-verdict motion.
For his second point on appeal, Appellant argues that the circuit court erred in not allowing him to cross-examine Albert Reed about the history of a plea offer made by the State in exchange for Reed's testimony. Pursuant to a plea offer by the State, Reed had pled guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with a recommended sentence of sixty years in exchange for his testimony against Appellant and Cameron Williams. The case against Williams went to trial first, and Reed testified against him. Reed, however, refused to testify against Appellant at his trial and sought to withdraw his guilty plea. The circuit court denied the request and sentenced him to two life sentences. Shortly thereafter, Reed changed his mind and offered to cooperate with the State and testify against Appellant. At that point,...
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