Griffin v. State

• Citation: 322 Ark. 206,909 S.W.2d 625
• Decision Date: 30 October 1995
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Parties: Anthony Wayne GRIFFIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 94-1105.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 625

909 S.W.2d 625

322 Ark. 206

Anthony Wayne GRIFFIN, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 94-1105.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Oct. 30, 1995.

Donald A. Forrest, West Memphis, for Appellant.

Clint Miller, Asst. Attorney General, Little Rock, for Appellee.

JESSON, Chief Justice.

The appellant, Anthony Wayne Griffin, was charged and convicted of capital felony murder in Crittenden County Circuit Court and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. On appeal, he asserts seven points of error: (1) the trial court erred in failing to suppress statements Griffin made while in custody; (2) the trial court erred in refusing to grant his request for a continuance; (3) the overlapping between the capital murder and first degree murder statutes allows the jury to make an unconstitutionally capricious choice of crime and punishment; (4) the trial court erred in refusing to give an instruction on second-degree murder; (5) the trial court erred in not granting a mistrial following a reference to crack cocaine; (6) the trial court erred in not granting a mistrial after mingling of jurors and witnesses; and (7) the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury regarding the weight to be given to expert witnesses. We affirm.

Facts

On May 31, 1993, the body of Moten Wynne was discovered in the back bedroom of his home in Lehi, Arkansas. Lying face down with his hands and feet bound together and his mouth gagged, Wynne had been struck several times in the back of the head, apparently with an axe which was found nearby.

During custodial interrogation at the Clarksville, Tennessee Police Department, appellant Anthony Griffin confessed to the murder as follows. In late May of 1993, Griffin was working as an automobile mechanic for Willie Smith in Clarksville when he pocketed $500.00 that he had collected from one of Mr. Smith's customers. He left with the money and headed west, arriving in West Memphis just before Memorial Day. While in the area, he saw the victim working on an automobile in the front yard of his home. Griffin helped Wynne repair the car, and Wynne gave Griffin two dollars and some cigarettes. Wynne flagged down a friend, and asked him to give Griffin a ride down to nearby Blue Lake. At the destination, Griffin did not have the $3.00 admission fee for Blue Lake, and hitchhiked back to Wynne's house.

After Griffin and Wynne visited for approximately thirty minutes to one hour, Wynne announced that he had to get ready to go into town to eat. Griffin then hit the victim, making him lie down on the floor so that he could tie his hands and feet together. After dragging the victim to the back bedroom, Griffin "hog-tied" him, gagged him, and placed a blue blanket over his head. Griffin then searched the house and found two pistols, a shotgun, and a box of tools, all of which he loaded into Wynne's automobile. Fearing that the victim might be able to get away, Griffin reentered the house, tore the phone off the wall, and hit Wynne in the head some five or six times with a hatchet. Griffin then left in Wynne's car, later selling it in Nashville, Tennessee. Griffin likewise sold the three guns and the box of tools, while returning to Clarksville.

Griffin was charged by felony information in Crittenden County with capital felony murder. The State waived the death penalty. Over Griffin's objection, the trial court admitted his four in-custodial statements to police, and a fifth statement given to Willie Smith by telephone. At the close of all the evidence, the jury returned a verdict finding Griffin guilty of capital felony murder. The trial court entered a judgment of conviction for capital felony murder and sentenced Griffin to life imprisonment without parole, from which he now appeals.

I. Admission of in-custodial statements

Appellant Griffin's first allegation of error is that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his four in-custodial statements to police, as well as a statement given to Willie Smith. While the record does not contain a written motion to suppress these statements, the trial court was evidently aware of Griffin's objection to the admission of the statements, as it held an evidentiary Denno hearing on this issue in accordance with Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 84 S.Ct. 1774, 12 L.Ed.2d 908 (1964), after which it declined to suppress Griffin's statements.

At the hearing, Detective Marty Watson of the Clarksville, Tennessee Police Department testified that he was investigating Griffin on forgery charges and learned on June 14, 1993, that Griffin was in jail and wanted to talk to someone about the forgery case. At approximately 11:45 a.m. that day, Detective Watson went to the jail, read Griffin his rights, and had him sign a waiver-of-rights form. According to Detective Watson, Griffin told him that he would tell him everything he wanted to know, and "stuff" that he did not know, if Detective Watson would permit him to smoke a cigarette. Detective Watson advised Griffin of the building's "no smoking" policy, but Griffin would not talk to him without the cigarette, Detective Watson, for the purposes of his own notes, then wrote "refused" on the rights form. It was Detective Watson's testimony that Griffin specifically told him that he was "not refusing it"; rather, Griffin stated he "just want[ed] a cigarette." The officer returned to his office and related the situation to his sergeant, who advised him to check Griffin out of the jail and allow him to smoke a cigarette outside on the way to the interview room.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., while proceeding under the original waiver-of-rights form, Detective Watson interviewed Griffin, who gave him information about the forgeries as well as other crimes he had committed. During this interrogation, Detective Watson scratched out the "refused" notation on the rights form and signed his name beside the scratch-out. When Detective Watson asked Griffin if there was anything else he wanted to tell him, Griffin replied, "I don't know how to tell you this, but I killed a man in West Memphis, Arkansas." Griffin offered to draw a map to the victim's house, and while doing so, Detective Watson left the room to get Detective Erin Kellett and to have someone contact West Memphis authorities to confirm Griffin's story.

Detective Kellett testified that he entered the interview room and witnessed and signed the original rights form, noting that the time was 2:00 p.m. rather than 11:45 a.m. He also witnessed and signed a second rights form before taking both a written and a taped statement from Griffin. In each statement, Griffin confessed to committing the murder.

Detective R.W. Brockwell of the Crittenden County Sheriff's Office testified that he arrived the next day, June 15, 1993, and interviewed Griffin at the Clarksville Police Department. After Brockwell read Griffin his rights, Griffin signed and initialed a waiver-of-rights form. Griffin then made both taped and written statements, in which he again confessed to the murder. Detective Brockwell, as well as Detectives Watson and Kellett, denied using any threats, force, or coercion to obtain the statements from Griffin.

Willie Smith testified that on June 15, 1993, Griffin's sister, Mary Garrard, came by his place of business to tell him that Griffin wanted to talk to him. Later that afternoon, Mr. Smith went by Griffin's mother's residence, where he talked to Griffin on the telephone. According to Mr. Smith, Griffin confessed to him that he had committed the murder.

Griffin testified at the Denno hearing and denied that he had made any statements to police on June 14. According to Griffin, he told the Tennessee officers that he wanted to talk to someone about a murder that happened in Arkansas, but refused to make a statement until the Arkansas detectives arrived the next day. Griffin stated that on June 15, before his rights were read to him, Detectives Brockwell and Watkins took him outside to the top of the building so that the three could smoke cigarettes. According to Griffin, Detective Brockwell handed him a cigarette, then hit him in the head with a pistol. Griffin testified that Detective Brockwell threatened that if he did not say what he was told to say, he would push him off the side of the roof, then "give his family's address to the victim's family to come and kill them." Griffin stated that he was then "carried" back downstairs where he was forced to give both a written and a taped statement. It was Griffin's testimony that during his taped statement, Detective Brockwell hit him on at least two occasions, which explained "[a] whole bunch of pauses in the tape."

Griffin claimed that, after giving statements to the officers, he was carried back down to the drunk tank, where he told either Jailer Anderson or Jailer Monzella, neither of whom was present during his statements to police, that his head was bleeding and that he needed to go to the hospital. According to Griffin, one of the jailers brought him an ice pack. Griffin also denied telling Willie Smith that he had committed the murder; rather, he contended that he merely told Mr. Smith that officers "had me for a murder case." Griffin's counsel proffered this testimony at the hearing. However, when asked by the trial court if the jailers could testify as to the nature and extent of the injuries Griffin had allegedly received, counsel replied that he was "not sure." After oral arguments, the trial court denied the motion to suppress the five statements, finding that, by a preponderance of the evidence and under the totality of the circumstances, the statements were "voluntarily, knowingly, understandably and intelligently given," and that Griffin had "voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently waived his 5th and 6th Amendment Rights."

In Smith v. State, 254 Ark. 538, 494 S.W.2d 489 (1973), we adopted the rule that, whenever an accused offers testimony that his confession was...