Howard v. State

• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON, Associate Justice
• Citation: Howard v. State, 2016 Ark. 434, 506 S.W.3d 843 (Ark. 2016)
• Decision Date: 08 December 2016
• Docket Number: No. CR–16–7,CR–16–7
• Parties: Timothy Lamont HOWARD, Appellant v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee

2016 Ark. 434

506 S.W.3d 843

Timothy Lamont HOWARD, Appellant

v.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee

No. CR–16–7

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Opinion Delivered: December 8, 2016

Janice W. Vaughn, Arkansas Public Defender Commission, for appellant.

Leslie Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Vada Berger, Ass't Att'y Gen., Little Rock, for appellee

COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON, Associate Justice

A jury in the Little River County Circuit Court found appellant Timothy Lamont Howard guilty of two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted second-degree murder for which he received consecutive sentences totaling thirty-eight years in prison. For reversal, he contends that the circuit court erred by failing to grant his motions for directed verdict. We affirm.

This case involves the homicides of Brian Day and his wife, Shannon, and the attempted murder of their seven-month-old son, Trevor, which occurred in December 1997. The prosecuting attorney initially charged Howard with capital murder for the deaths of Brian and Shannon and with the attempted capital murder of Trevor. A jury found Howard guilty as charged, and he received two death sentences for the capital murders and a thirty-year sentence and a $15,000 fine for the offense of attempted capital-murder. This court affirmed his convictions and sentences. Howard v. State , 348 Ark. 471, 79 S.W.3d 273 200¹ We also upheld the denial of postconviction relief. Howard v. State , 367 Ark. 18, 238 S.W.3d 24 (2006). In 2012, this court granted Howard permission to pursue a petition for writ of error coram nobis in the circuit court. Howard v. State , 2012 Ark. 177, 403 S.W.3d 38. The circuit court subsequently found merit in Howard's petition and ordered a new trial. The following facts are adduced from the record of this trial.

On Saturday, December 13, 1997, Danny Russell, the Sheriff of Little River County, received a dispatch at 10:00 a.m. about a U–Haul truck that was parked in a field and backed up to a wooded area. This field was located off a county road and on a farm owned by the Howard family near Ogden, Arkansas, approximately three miles from the intersection of Highway 71 and East Ogden Road. The report, which was made by persons searching for their escaped horses, was that blood was dripping out of the back of the U-Haul. After he arrived, Russell saw what appeared to be blood on the left side of the bumper, and he used bolt cutters to remove the padlock on the U-Haul's cargo area. Inside, he discovered the body of a deceased male.

Although the lease agreement found inside the U-Haul stated that the vehicle had been rented by Brian, the identity of the body was not immediately known. Once the authorities confirmed that it was Brian's body, they went to the Days' home near Ashdown to notify Shannon of his death. The officers received no answer at the door, but they later returned and gained entry into the home with the aid of Brian's brother, David Day. After hearing muffled cries coming from a bedroom, they found Trevor alive stuffed inside a closed Marlboro bag underneath clothing. He had a lamp cord wrapped tightly around his neck. The officers also found Shannon's body, who was naked below the waist, in the bedroom on the floor of a closet with clothing and other items stacked on top of her.

According to the medical examiner, Brian had sustained a hinge-type injury to the skull, caused by a massive delivery of force and which accounted for the high volume of blood found in the U–Haul. He also had been shot in the back of the head. The medical examiner offered the opinion that the hinge fracture occurred while Brian lay on the ground after being incapacitated by the gunshot wound. He stated that the hinge fracture was consistent with Brian's having been run over by the U–Haul while his head was wrapped in a piece of carpet found at the scene. The physical evidence at the site indicated that the assault on Brian had begun at an old cook shed in the field. The medical examiner estimated that Brian's death occurred between the hours of midnight and 8:00 a.m. Expert testimony also established that the projectile recovered from Brian's head was a .38–caliber bullet that had most likely been fired from a .38 Special or a .357 revolver. Vickie Howard, who was then Howard's ex-wife,² testified that Howard was in possession of a .38–caliber revolver on Friday, December 12, 1997, the day before Brian's body was found. Howard's fingerprints were on the outside of the driver's door of the U-Haul.

That Saturday morning, Herbert Jones was walking home from his aunt's house. At 8:30 a.m., he found a pair of work boots sitting sixty feet off the roadway at the corner of Highways 71 and 380, a distance of three miles from the Howard field. Blood on the left boot matched Brian's DNA. In her testimony, Vickie stated that the boots were the same size and style of boots she had purchased for Howard.

Hairs found inside the boots were a match to Howard's DNA.

The medical examiner also testified that Shannon died as a result of strangulation and blunt-force trauma. When her body was discovered, she had a ligature tied around her neck and her wrists were bound in handcuffs behind her back. The handcuffs had black fur on them. Jennifer Stanley, one of Howard's girlfriends, testified that the handcuffs were similar to those Howard had purchased at an adult novelty store.³ At the Days' house, officers collected a Mountain Dew bottle with Howard's fingerprint on it.

By all accounts, Howard and Brian were long-time, close friends. One witness stated that "when I saw one, I saw the other. If one was into something, the other was into something." The testimony established that they used and sold drugs together. According to Vickie, Brian and Howard's friendship had cooled until two weeks before the murders. Lloyd Day testified that Brian suspected that Howard had stolen a rifle from him that Brian had borrowed from his brother and that Howard owed Brian a lot of money.⁴ There was also testimony suggesting that Howard and Shannon were having an affair or that Brian suspected they were. Witnesses also testified that Shannon believed she was pregnant with Howard's child. Nonetheless, Howard accompanied Brian to rent the U–Haul on Thursday, December 11, 1997. The testimony of several witnesses indicates that the two had deals arranged for Thursday and Friday that either involved drugs or stolen merchandise. On Friday, Shannon confided in David that she and Brian were afraid of Howard because "he found out something."

Howard's whereabouts that weekend were established primarily through the testimony of Vickie and Jennifer. Before her shift ended on Friday morning, December 12, 1997, Vickie left work and drove to Ashdown because she was worried about Brian and Shannon. At around 4:00 a.m., she stopped at a café to eat breakfast while waiting for them to wake up. Howard also arrived at the restaurant. Howard told her that he had just left the Days' house, and he discouraged her from visiting them because, he said, they were fighting. Instead, Vickie and Howard made plans to meet at the Motel 6 in Texarkana. Howard was driving a U-Haul truck, and at the motel, Howard told her not to tell anyone about the U–Haul because it would get her killed. Howard asked her to drive him to the family farm, and they arrived there before daylight. He told her to shine the headlights of her vehicle on the cook shed. Howard informed her that this was where Brian and Shannon were hiding their drugs, and Vickie testified that Howard went inside the shed and that she saw him bend down. Vickie then dropped off Howard at the apartment of Jennifer's sister, Kimberly Jones, whom Howard was living with at the time.⁵ When Vickie returned to the motel, the U-Haul was still there.

At approximately 5:00 p.m. on Friday, Vickie picked up Howard at a friend's residence near Kimberly's apartment. They returned to the motel. Vickie stated that Howard was carrying a black nylon camera bag. She asked him what was inside the bag, and Howard replied that the bag contained "kinky stuff." He did not allow her to look inside the bag, and he said that its contents included handcuffs, rope, and tape. Vickie testified that Howard went to Walmart and that when he returned, she saw a .38 revolver sticking out of his pants. She stated that he left the motel driving the U-Haul at 9:30 p.m., wearing a black sweatshirt, jeans, and his work boots.

At approximately 11:00 p.m. that night, Howard called Jennifer and asked her to pick him up at a rest area on Highway 71 near the Red River Bridge. When she arrived, Howard emerged from her sister Kimberly's car and got into her vehicle. He told Jennifer he needed to rest. She testified that Howard was lying in her backseat and that his "body was just jerking and shaking and his eyes were all bugged out." Jennifer believed that he had been awake too many days doing drugs and that she had never seen him in that condition. They went to bed when they arrived at her duplex, and she said that Howard continued to shake as he lay beside her. He woke up sometime between 1:00 and 1:30 a.m. and told Jennifer that he had to go "take care of some business" and to get his money. She saw him put on his clothes and his work boots. Howard left in her silver 1997 Honda Civic, and he returned between 3:00 and 3:30 a.m. He awoke Jennifer to tell her that Shannon and Trevor would be staying with her while he and Brian "took care of some business." Jennifer saw Shannon, while she only heard Brian and Trevor. Jennifer went back to sleep, and she was alone when she awoke. Dale Fields testified that he was driving by the Days' home at 5:45 a.m. that morning and saw a small silver car sitting in the driveway.

Jennifer got up sometime between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. that Saturday morning, and she proceeded to get ready for work. Howard came into the bathroom while she was bathing and told her that Brian and Shannon were "in hiding" and that he was the...