Marta v. State

• Decision Date: 14 January 1999
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Citation: 336 Ark. 67,983 S.W.2d 924
• Parties: Yitzhak Abba MARTA, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 98-105.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 924

983 S.W.2d 924

336 Ark. 67

Yitzhak Abba MARTA, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 98-105.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Jan. 14, 1999.

Denny Hyslip, Fayetteville, for Appellant.

Winston Bryant, Attorney General, Mac Golden, Assistant Attorney General, Little Rock, for Appellee.

ANNABELLE CLINTON IMBER, Justice.

The appellant in this case, Yitzhak Abba Marta, told the victim's mother that her "son was killed because of his sexual preferences." After a three-day trial, the jury found Mr. Marta guilty of capital murder, and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole. We affirm.

On November 12, 1996, the police discovered Alan Walker's slain body in the floor of his bedroom near the entrance to his bathroom. Mr. Walker had been strangled and beaten several times in the head with a hard metal or wooden object. At the time of his death, Mr. Walker was wearing only a pair of lady's heels and a wig. The letters "KKK" were written in blood on the wall, and there was a significant amount of blood splattered on the walls, ceiling, and bed sheets. A reddish fluid, possibly blood, was found on the bathroom sink. The tires to Mr. Walker's vehicle were slashed, and a television, VCR, boom box, watch, fireplace set, and several rings were missing from his duplex.

After an investigation, the police charged Yitzhak Abba Marta and Adam Blackford with the murder of Mr. Walker. Mr. Marta and Mr. Blackford were tried separately. After Mr. Blackford was convicted of first-degree murder, he agreed to testify against Mr. Marta with the understanding that his testimony might result in some leniency on his sentence. At the beginning of Mr. Marta's trial, the court declared Mr. Blackford an accomplice as a matter of law. Mr. Blackford then testified that in the early morning hours of November 9, 1996, he and Mr. Marta went to a local bar where they met Mr. Walker, who was dressed as a woman. Both Mr. Blackford and Mr. Marta thought that Mr. Walker was a woman. Mr. Walker invited them back to his home for a party. When they arrived at Mr. Walker's home, Mr. Walker and Mr. Marta went into the bedroom, while Mr. Blackford remained in the living room. Mr. Blackford then decided to steal Mr. Walker's television and boom box for drug money. Mr. Blackford placed both items in the back of his red Chevy pick-up, and then slit the tires to Mr. Walker's car. Soon after Mr. Blackford reentered the duplex, Mr. Marta came out of the bedroom and exclaimed, "I'm going to Jack him [Mr. Walker] up." Mr. Blackford retrieved a crowbar from his pick-up truck and handed it to Mr. Marta. Mr. Blackford also disabled both of Mr. Walker's phones. As Mr. Walker exited from his bathroom, Mr. Marta struck him approximately five to ten times with the crowbar. As Mr. Walker attempted to arise from the floor, Mr. Blackford took the crowbar from Mr. Marta and struck Mr. Walker two or three additional times. Mr. Blackford then attempted to remove any trace of their presence from the duplex. Meanwhile, Mr. Marta wrote the letters "KKK" on the wall with Mr. Walker's blood. During this time, Mr. Marta made several derogatory remarks about Mr. Walker's sexual preference. As the two men left Mr. Walker's duplex, they decided to get rid of the stolen items. The two men smashed the television and boom box and dumped the pieces in a nearby creek. Mr. Blackford later directed the police to the creek where they retrieved portions of the broken television and boom box.

Several witnesses corroborated Mr. Blackford's story. First, several people testified that they saw Mr. Blackford and Mr. Marta talk to Mr. Walker outside the bar, and then get into a red Chevy pick-up truck and follow Mr. Walker's car as it left the bar. One witness, who was suspicious of the two men, correctly recorded the license plate to Mr. Blackford's Chevy truck. Mr. Walker's supervisors testified that he did not appear for work on the morning of November 9. Friends and relatives testified that several items were missing from Mr. Walker's duplex, including a television, boom box, and some rings.

Mr. Marta's wife, Rochelle Marta, testified that her husband and Mr. Blackford came home around 4:00 a.m. on November 9. While Mr. Marta was taking a shower, Mrs. Marta searched his belongings and found two rings that she had never seen before. Mrs. Marta could not go back to sleep and remained awake in her bedroom until she left for work around 8:00 a.m. During this time, Mrs. Marta overheard her husband and Mr. Blackford talking and "laughing hysterically." She did not hear either man leave the trailer. Sometime later, Mrs. Marta could not find the clothes, towel or washrag that Mr. Marta used that morning. Mrs. Marta testified that this was unusual because Mr. Marta never cleaned-up after himself. The next day, when Mrs. Marta asked her husband about the rings, he gave her several different explanations including that he found them, that they belonged to his mother, that he got them at a flea market, and that Mr. Blackford gave them to him. Later that day, Mr. Marta showed the rings to his wife again. This time the rings looked like they had been burned.

Next, two men testified about statements Mr. Marta made while he was incarcerated with them. First, Harold Galbraith testified that Mr. Marta made several derogatory remarks about homosexuals, including that they deserved to die, and that whoever killed Mr. Walker was a hero. Mr. Galbraith also overheard Mr. Marta tell Mr. Blackford, "You should have covered your tracks. That's what you get for not covering your tracks." According to Mr. Galbraith, Mr. Marta insinuated that Mr. Blackford should have covered his tracks as he [Mr. Marta] had done. During the investigation, Mr. Galbraith told Officer Anthony Smith that the letters "KKK" were written in blood on the victim's wall, which was a fact that had not been released to the press.

A second inmate, Dana Coleman, testified that Mr. Marta said that he and Mr. Blackford went home with a man they thought was a woman. When Mr. Marta discovered that Mr. Walker was a man, Mr. Marta became very angry and hit Mr. Walker. Mr. Blackford got a baseball bat from his truck, and Mr. Marta, followed by Mr. Blackford, "slugged" Mr. Walker with the bat.

Finally, Mr. Marta testified in his own defense. Mr. Marta admitted that he and Mr. Blackford went home with Mr. Walker. Mr. Marta asserted that when he discovered that Mr. Walker was a man, he "told the victim that it wasn't my cup of tea. I don't do these sort of things. I thanked her, him for inviting me over, but I don't do these sort of things. I didn't hurt his feelings in any kind of way." Mr. Marta claimed that he and Mr. Blackford were shown to the door by Mr. Walker. Mr. Marta declared that he laughed about the matter when they returned home, but Mr. Blackford was not amused. Mr. Marta also claimed that sometime after 5:00 a.m., Mr. Blackford sneaked out of the trailer, and returned to Mr. Walker's duplex where he killed Mr. Walker and stole some of his property.

At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found Mr. Marta guilty of capital murder. Because the State waived the death penalty, the court sentenced Mr. Marta to life imprisonment without parole. Mr. Marta timely filed a notice of appeal.

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

For his first argument on appeal, Mr. Marta claims that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for a directed verdict. Motions for a directed verdict are treated as challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence. Bailey v. State, 334 Ark. 43, 972 S.W.2d 239 (1998). When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, we do not weigh the evidence but simply determine whether the evidence in support of the verdict is substantial. Passley v. State, 323 Ark. 301, 915 S.W.2d 248 (1996). In this respect, substantial evidence is direct or circumstantial evidence that is forceful enough to compel a conclusion and which goes beyond mere speculation or conjecture. Id. In making this determination, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the State. Id.

On appeal, Mr. Marta claims that the State failed to adequately corroborate the testimony of Mr. Blackford, who the trial court declared was an accomplice as a matter of law. Arkansas Code Annotated § 16-89-111(e)(1) (1987) provides that:

A conviction cannot be had in any case of felony upon the testimony of an accomplice unless corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense. The corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows that the offense was committed and the circumstances thereof.

The corroboration must be sufficient standing alone to establish the commission of the offense and to connect the defendant with it. Peeler v. State, 326 Ark. 423, 932 S.W.2d 312 (1996); Gordon v. State, 326 Ark. 90, 931 S.W.2d 91 (1996). The test for corroborating evidence is whether, if the testimony of the accomplice were totally eliminated from the case, the other evidence independently establishes the crime and tends to connect the accused with its commission. Peeler, supra; Gordon, supra. Circumstantial evidence qualifies as corroborating evidence but it too must be substantial. Peeler, supra; Gordon, supra. Corroborating evidence need not, however, be so substantial in and of itself to sustain a conviction. Peeler, supra; Gordon, supra.

After eliminating Mr. Blackford's testimony, we conclude that the State sufficiently connected Mr. Marta to the capital murder of Mr. Walker. Mr. Marta admitted during the trial that in the early morning hours of November 9 he and Mr. Blackford were with Mr. Walker in the duplex where Mr. Walker's body was later found. Moreover, Mr. Walker's supervisors testified that Mr. Walker failed to appear at work as scheduled on November 9. In Passley, supra, we said that "the presence of the accused in the proximity of a crime, opportunity, and...