Mackool v. State

• Decision Date: 09 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. CR 05-609.,CR 05-609.
• Citation: 231 S.W.3d 676
• Parties: Michael Raymond MACKOOL, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

231 S.W.3d 676

Michael Raymond MACKOOL, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 05-609.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 9, 2006.

Arkansas Public Defender Commission, by: Janice Vaughn, Little Rock, for appellant.

Mike Beebe, Att'y Gen., by: Karen Virginia Wallace, Ass't Att'y Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.

JIM HANNAH, Chief Justice.

On September 12, 2003, Janie Ballard was stabbed to death in her home. Subsequently, Ms. Ballard's daughter, Leslie MacKool, and her husband, appellant Mike MacKool, were charged with the crime. Leslie and Mike were tried separately; at both trials, Leslie admitted to killing her mother, but alleged that she was forced to do so by Mike.¹ At his trial, Mike was convicted of first-degree murder and theft of property. He was sentenced to forty years for the first-degree murder conviction and twenty years for the theft-of-property conviction, with the sentences to be served consecutively.

Mike raises several assignments of error on appeal. Specifically, he argues that the circuit court erred: (1) in denying his motion for a directed verdict; (2) in denying his motion to suppress out-of-court statements; (3) in denying his motion to redact prejudicial and irrelevant portions of his statements; (4) in allowing Leslie MacKool to testify against him over his assertion of the marital privilege; (5) in allowing cumulative, hearsay statements of the victim expressing her fear of the appellant; (6) in granting the State's motion in limine prohibiting him from questioning the State's expert forensic pathologist about the emotional nature of the murder; (7) in allowing jurors to question witnesses; (8) in allowing nineteen irrelevant and highly prejudicial financial documents into evidence; (9) in allowing evidence during sentencing of a thirty-two-year-old investigation and a ten-year-old expunged conviction; and (10) in denying his motion for mistrial based on cumulative error. We affirm.

Facts

At 6:00 a.m., on September 13, 2003, Mickey Holloway, a crime scene specialist for the Little Rock Police Department, found Ms. Ballard dead in her home. Ms. Ballard had been stabbed over seventy times, and her throat had been slit in an attempted decapitation. Further, one of Ms. Ballard's vehicles, a coin collection, and jewelry were missing from the home.

Holloway was a friend of Ms. Ballard's, and he checked in with her daily. Because he was unable to reach Ms. Ballard on the telephone, he stopped by her house on the morning of September 13. After finding Ms. Ballard's body, Holloway immediately contacted the Little Rock Police Department, and Officer Steve Dodge was dispatched to the Ballard home to secure the crime scene and begin an investigation into the murder. Upon Dodge's arrival, Holloway told him to question Leslie and Mike because they were probably responsible for the murder.

Holloway suggested that Dodge question the two because on numerous occasions, Ms. Ballard had told Holloway that she was afraid that Leslie and Mike would kill her for her money. In the days leading up to her death, Ms. Ballard expressed those same fears to others. After her husband and Leslie's father, Lester Ballard, died on August 19, 2003, Ms. Ballard became much more fearful.

Under Mr. Ballard's will, Ms. Ballard was the primary beneficiary, and Leslie was entitled to receive only $25,000 of an estimated $2.4 million estate. Leslie testified that when Mike read the will, he interpreted it to say that if her mother died within thirty days of her father, Leslie would inherit everything. She said that Mike then began telling her that her mother deserved to die.

Leslie further testified that Mike devised a plan for her to kill her mother, and he forced her to cooperate by telling her that if she did not do it, he would kill her and her mother. She said that Mike told her she was to dress all in black and wear a wig and gloves while committing the crime. Leslie testified that on the morning of the murder, Mike woke her and told her that they were going to her mother's house. She said that she did not dress herself; rather, Mike dressed her in a black turtleneck, black ski pants, and a black wig. She said that Mike gave her a backpack that contained a towel, a pair of "wire clipper things," and a butcher knife. Leslie testified that Mike told her that in order to cause her mother's death, she needed to stab her mother in the neck, kidneys, and lungs.

Later that morning, Mike dropped Leslie off at her mother's house, and Leslie waited in the bushes for twenty to thirty minutes until her mother arrived home, at which point Leslie followed her mother into the house and stabbed her over seventy times. Leslie testified that per Mike's instructions, she took her mother's jewelry and her father's coin collection, as well as other items in the house, and drove away in her mother's Cadillac. Leslie said that Mike instructed her to park the car at a place he had shown her in the Fourche Dam area.

Leslie stated that, while the plan was for Mike to be there waiting for her at the designated spot, when she arrived, Mike was not there. Leslie drove around and eventually called Mike from a pay phone. He later arrived in his truck to pick her up. Leslie said that Mike put the backpack, jewelry, and coins into his truck. The Cadillac, with the keys in it, was abandoned, and the two then returned to their home.

Once back at home, Leslie stripped off her clothes and washed off in the backyard. Subsequently, Mike and Leslie went to Mike's parents' house in Hot Springs. Leslie said that while there, Mike started a fire in a fire pit located on his parents' property and told her he was going to burn her clothes, the backpack, and the knife. She further testified that Mike got mad at her and told her what a bad job she had done. According to Leslie, Mike told her that he probably needed to kill her because she was going to get him into trouble; however, Mike told her that he might let her live because he had things that he could hold over her head. It was then, Leslie said, that Mike told her he had not burned all of her clothes, but had hidden them at their home.

The following day, Leslie and Mike went to a jewelry store in Hot Springs to have the coins appraised. Thereafter, the two returned to their home in Little Rock, where the police soon arrived. Detectives informed each of the MacKools separately of Ms. Ballard's murder. Detective Eric Knowles was among the investigators who went to the MacKool home, and he testified that upon learning of Ms. Ballard's death, Mike reacted with loud sobbing and crying sounds and ran to embrace Leslie. He said that Mike hugged Leslie for a couple of minutes, and that his emotions were cut off as quickly as they were turned on, explaining that when Mike turned to face the investigators, he was dry-faced and had not shed a tear. Investigators requested that Mike and Leslie follow them to the police station for questioning. Leslie said that Mike drove them to the police station, and that during the drive, he told her repeatedly that if she even mentioned his name, he would find out and kill her. She further testified that Mike coached her on how she should behave, telling her to act upset and "be convincing."

Once at the police station, the MacKools were questioned separately; Detectives Alan Quattlebaum and Ronnie Smith questioned Mike. Mike said that he had been around Ms. Ballard only on a couple of occasions, and that while Ms. Ballard was nice to him, he knew she did not approve of him. Mike told police that a week prior to Ms. Ballard's death, Leslie went to her mother's home and returned with her father's coin collection and some pictures. According to Mike, Leslie was upset because her mother had already disposed of most of her father's things. Quattlebaum asked Mike whether Leslie had received an inheritance from her father, and Mike responded, "Don't ask me. I have no idea what is in the will for her or what's hers or what's not hers or how much she's to get or anything. I don't know." Detective Smith testified that Mike's demeanor was "silly," "goofy," "arrogant," and "manipulative," and he said that Mike did not seem to care about Ms. Ballard's death. For her part, Leslie claimed that she and Mike had a great relationship with her mother and denied any involvement in the murder.

After Mike gave his statement, detectives told him he was free to go. However, police were still questioning Leslie, so Mike chose to remain at the station and wait for Leslie in the hallway. Detective Smith testified that while Mike waited, he appeared to nap on a bench, and at one point, Mike made a paper airplane and flew it in the hallway.

Detectives continued to question Leslie and, eventually, she admitted that she had killed her mother. She also told police that Mike was involved in the murder. Subsequently, detectives arrested Mike and informed him that Leslie had implicated him in the murder, and he was placed in an interview room and given his Miranda warnings. Mike refused to waive his rights, so the detectives left. According to Detective John White, about five minutes later, Mike knocked on the door and asked White what Leslie was saying about him. White told Mike that Leslie had named him as a co-conspirator in the homicide. White testified that Mike then told him that he did not "take part in or have anything to do with Ms. Ballard being chopped up." When asked how he knew this detail of the crime, Mike said that he had heard the information in passing from other detectives; however, he was unable to name a particular detective who made the comment. White then told Mike that unless he waived his Miranda rights, detectives could no longer speak with him. Mike asked White to sit down and talk with him, and White said that they talked about "personal matters" in Mike's life, but they did not discuss the homicide. After talking to Mike for ten to fifteen minutes, White...