Goldsmith v. State
| Decision Date | 08 January 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-115,89-115 |
| Parties | Carlton Keith GOLDSMITH, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
David L. Gibbons, Russellville, for appellant.
Paul L. Cherry, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.
Carlton Keith Goldsmith, the appellant, was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for killing Dusty Fowler, the two-year-old son of Goldsmith's live-in companion, Marsha Fowler Ogle. Goldsmith's sole point of appeal is that the court erred in refusing to grant a mistrial after erroneously allowing Clarence Curston to testify as a rebuttal witness. We find no error and affirm.
Marsha Ogle testified that on May 1, 1988, she and Goldsmith and her two children were living in a house on the Logan farm where Goldsmith was employed. Someone came to the door and asked for help in freeing a vehicle which had become stuck in the mud. Goldsmith used a pickup truck owned by his employer to pull the stuck vechicle out, but in the process the employer's truck became stuck. Goldsmith returned to the house. He and Ogle and Dusty Fowler went in Goldsmith's personal pickup truck to the Logan home on the farm to borrow a tractor to use in pulling Goldsmith's employer's truck out. Goldsmith drove the tractor, and Ogle drove Goldsmith's truck. Dusty got in the tractor with Goldsmith. They drove back to the house where they were staying and left Goldsmith's pickup. Then all three rode in the tractor to the site where the employer's truck was stuck. Once the truck was freed, Ogle was to drive it back to their house and switch to Goldsmith's pickup truck and then meet him at the Logan's where he would return the tractor.
Ogle testified further that Dusty accompanied Goldsmith in the tractor. On her way back to the house she took a wrong fork in the road and wound up at a cemetery where she could not turn the truck around because the transmission was jammed in a forward gear. Someone, who turned out to be Curston, came to help her. They got the truck into reverse gear and were able to turn it around. Ogle returned that truck to the house and then drove Goldsmith's truck to the Logan home. As she approached the Logan place, Goldsmith came toward her on foot holding Dusty who was apparently unconscious. Goldsmith told her Dusty had fallen and was hurt and to drive to the hospital. On the way he told her Dusty was not breathing.
Goldsmith's testimony about the day's activities was roughly the same as Ogle's up to the point when, after using the tractor to pull his employer's truck out of the mud, they started back to the house where they were staying. Goldsmith testified that Dusty was not with him in the tractor but was with Ogle. Before he got to the area of the cemetery, Ogle, who was driving Goldsmith's truck, had caught up behind the tractor. He said he looked back and could see Ogle whipping Dusty in the pickup truck. He stopped the tractor and let Dusty ride with him to Logan's. As they drove on, he was examining Dusty for bruises when he hit a rut, the tractor jumped, and Dusty wound up on the floorboard with an injury to his head. When he and Dusty got to the Logan home, Dusty was passing out. He and Ogle took Dusty to the hospital.
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