Gillean v. State
| Decision Date | 09 December 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. CR–14–936,CR–14–936 |
| Citation | 478 S.W.3d 255 |
| Parties | Jack W. Gillean, Appellant, v. State of Arkansas, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Court of Appeals |
Nicki Nicolo, Timothy O. Dudley, and Samuel A. Perroni, Little Rock, for appellant.
Leslie Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Valerie Glover Fortner, Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.
Jack Gillean was convicted in the Faulkner County Circuit Court of six counts of commercial burglary after a trial by jury. He was sentenced to three years in the Arkansas Department of Correction (ADC) and was ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 on count I; on counts II–VI he was sentenced to ten years of probation on each count, and he was ordered to pay fines totaling $25,000.
In the summer of 2010, Jack Gillean, former Chief of Staff of the University of Central Arkansas (UCA), and Cameron Stark, a student at UCA, formed a friendship. From February 2011 to June 2012, Stark used Gillean's keys and entry card to enter UCA buildings and several of his professors' offices for the purpose of obtaining exams. In June 2012, Stark was arrested by the UCA police for stealing the prescription drug Adderall from Professor Andrew Linn's office. When confronted by UCA police, Stark told the police officer that in the spring of 2011 Gillean had willingly given him the keys on several occasions, and that Gillean knew Stark's intent was to obtain exams in advance of his upcoming tests. In exchange for immunity from prosecution, Stark agreed to testify against Gillean. As a part of the immunity agreement, Stark gave the UCA police the keys and two phones he had used to text Gillean and others during the spring of 2011.
The original criminal information was filed on October 5, 2012. In response to defense counsel's motion, the circuit court directed the State to provide in its pleading the name of the buildings on the UCA campus Stark entered, the dates the instances occurred, and the items that were taken or attempted to be taken at the time of the incident. A third and final amended information against Gillean was filed on February 20, 2014. It set forth six counts of commercial burglary as occurring in buildings on the UCA campus on specific dates. On each count, the underlying crime was listed as theft of property, and the property alleged stolen was stated as "exam."
The day before the trial a motion hearing was held. At this hearing defense counsel requested that the circuit court exclude certain evidence, namely, testimony that Gillean had a sexual relationship with Ryan Scott, testimony that Gillean and Stark had consumed alcohol together, and testimony concerning Gillean's response to questions posed to him by UCA President Tom Courtway. The motion was denied.
The trial took place March 7–11, 2014, before a Van Buren County jury.1 Counsel for both parties conducted voir dire and questioned the potential jurors extensively. When defense counsel asked the jury panel if any of them had read or heard anything about the case in the media, one potential juror responded that she was familiar with the case from reading newspaper articles and had already begun to form an opinion on the merits. She also indicated that she was not sure she could be unbiased because of her strongly held religious beliefs concerning homosexuality. The potential juror was eventually excused for cause. Other jurors stated in response to questioning that though they had some negative feelings about homosexuality in general, they could be fair and unbiased.
At the trial, Stark testified against Gillean. He testified that he and Gillean became friends during the summer of 2010 and that in the fall Gillean helped Stark get a job in the office of the president of UCA. On February 11, 2011, UCA was closed due to snow. Stark testified that he and Gillean were together driving around the campus when he asked Gillean if they could get into his cell-biology professor's office in the Lewis Science Center to obtain the upcoming exam for which Stark confessed he was not prepared. Stark testified that Gillean let him into the building and then into Dr. Bhupinder Vohra's office, and that he waited outside the professor's office while Stark searched for the exam on Dr. Vohra's computer. Stark testified that he found the files for both the upcoming exam and some older exams, and he printed off copies of all of them.
After Stark acquired the exams, he enlisted two other classmates to answer the questions on the exams. Stark testified that over the next three months there were five subsequent instances when Gillean gave Stark his keys and sometimes his entry card, or "slide card", so that Stark could enter the Lewis Science Center and Laney Hall, which housed two other professors' offices, in order to obtain copies of exams. In his testimony Stark described the manner in which he obtained each test and details about where in each of the professors' offices the tests were located. All three professors testified at the trial as to the manner in which they stored their tests in their offices. Stark's description of the location of the tests mirrored the testimony given by each professor. Stark also testified about a particular incident prior to a March 7, 2011 exam in Dr. Menon's physics II class. When Stark tried to enter Dr. Menon's office, the key would not work. Stark testified that Gillean had a new key made at his request, and that Stark used the new key on March 31, 2011, to enter Dr. Menon's office to obtain an exam.
Jared Santiago, one of Stark's classmates who participated in answering the exam questions with Stark, testified at the trial in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Santiago recounted for the jury the events of February 11, 2011, when Stark came to his dorm room and showed him the exams he had just taken from Dr. Vohra's office. He testified that Stark told him that he had been riding around the campus with Gillean that day; that Gillean told Stark that he had a key that would open any door on campus; and that they could get the key from Gillean when they wanted it. Santiago testified that Stark told him that he and Gillean had gone to Dr. Vohra's office, and Stark printed off copies of the upcoming test. Santiago testified that the two agreed to solve the test questions together. Santiago explained to the jury that Stark had told him that he and Gillean were friends and that he could get Gillean's key and entry card to obtain tests in the future. Santiago described breaking into Dr. Tarka's
office with Stark and that the tests in that instance were on Dr. Tarka's desk in a stack. On that occasion, Santiago described how they had copied the exam and then restapled the exam and placed it back into the center of the stack. Santiago identified State's exhibit 8 as the exam they had taken from
office that night. Santiago also recounted the incident when the key did not work for Dr. Menon's office and recalled that Stark had told him that Gillean had obtained a new key from the maintenance office. Santiago testified that Stark did not always have the key during that semester but that he asked for it as he needed it.
Santiago also recounted an occasion when they were not able to get Gillean's key because Stark had angered Gillean by wrecking his motorcycle. Santiago testified that after they could not find Gillean's key in his truck, which was parked at the airport while Gillean was out of town, Santiago encouraged Stark to do whatever was necessary to patch things up with Gillean. Santiago testified that, after the 2011 spring semester, Stark took the key from Gillean and did not give it back to him.
Two employees of UCA's physical plant also testified for the State: George McKee identified the keys Stark had given to UCA police as Gillean's, and he also identified to which buildings the keys corresponded. William K. Manning testified about the automatic reports created anytime an entry card is used to enter UCA buildings and that these reports showed that Gillean's card had been used on the dates and at the times Stark testified he had entered Laney Hall to obtain exams. Manning also testified that Gillean reported that he had lost his "grandmaster" key that opened all the buildings on the UCA campus, and that Gillean had requested a new grandmaster key. Manning identified a document dated March 7, 2011, as the record of that request and that the document had been signed by Gillean.
Jeff Scarborough, a former mentor to Stark and an acquaintance of Gillean, testified for the State. Scarborough explained that when he noticed that Stark was partying more than he had been previously and that Stark's grades were dropping, he confronted Stark. Scarborough explained that Stark responded by saying that he did not have to worry about studying anymore, and he confessed that he had been using Gillean's keys with Gillean's knowledge to enter faculty offices and to obtain upcoming exams. Scarborough testified that he confronted Gillean about his involvement and warned Gillean that his participation in Stark's activity could hurt his career. Scarborough testified that he and Gillean "
Tom Courtway, the president of UCA, testified for the State. Courtway stated that in either November or December 2011, he had a meeting with Gillean to discuss what course of action the university should take concerning Gillean's missing master key.
Courtway also testified about the events leading to Gillean's arrest. He testified that on June 12, 2012, he became aware of Stark's arrest and the allegations that Gillean had assisted him with the burglaries. Courtway put Gillean on administrative leave the next day. After listening to an audio-taped phone call from Jeff Scarborough corroborating the allegation that Gillean had willingly given Stark the master key, Courtway testified that he and Graham Gillis, the associate vice president of administrative...
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