Meadows v. State

• Decision Date: 16 September 2004
• Docket Number: No. CR 03-1175.,CR 03-1175.
• Citation: 191 S.W.3d 527
• Parties: Dale MEADOWS, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

191 S.W.3d 527

Dale MEADOWS, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 03-1175.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

September 16, 2004.

Wright & Van Noy, P.A., by: Herbert T. Wright, Jr., Little Rock, for Appellant.

Mike Beebe, Att'y Gen., by: David J. Davies, Ass't Att'y Gen., Little Rock, for Appellee.

ROBERT L. BROWN, Justice.

This is an appeal from the judgment of conviction and sentence of appellant Dale Meadows for the crimes of capital murder and arson.¹ Meadows makes the following arguments on appeal: (1) the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions of capital murder and arson, because the testimony of state witness Thomas Conner was inherently improbable and unbelievable and should have been disregarded, and (2) the circuit court erred in sentencing him for both arson and capital murder, because arson was the underlying felony of the capital-murder conviction. We affirm.

On November 7, 2001, at about 8:30 p.m., Tracy Meadows, wife of appellant Meadows, and Diane Sprague, who lived about five miles from Meadows's trailer home, drove to Harrison to visit Diane's family and to buy Tracy groceries. Diane testified that Tracy left Harrison about fifteen minutes before she did. When Diane arrived home at around 10:30 p.m., she found Tracy and Meadows in her home. Meadows asked Diane for a change of pants, because he had soiled his blue jeans. He told Diane that he had tried to get his live-in girlfriend, Lorraine "Lori" Pattison, out of his trailer home but that the trailer home had exploded and Lori had died. Diane testified that Meadows was very upset but that he did not look like he had been in a fire, because he did not have any burns or singed hair. In addition, he did not act like he was hurt. Meadows and Tracy left Diane's home when Diane requested that they do so.

At about 12:30 a.m., the morning of November 8, 2001, while returning from Branson, Missouri, Gay Lynn Easter drove by the trailer home owned by Bob Trigg and occupied by Meadows and Lori, which was two miles from her home in Green Forest. She noticed that the trailer home had "already collapsed, and it was just burning around the edges." She telephoned the Carroll County Sheriff's Department from her home to report the fire. Kim Marshall at the Sheriff's Department took the call from Gay and stated at trial that Meadows had failed to report the fire or to call for an ambulance while she was on her shift, which was from 11:45 p.m. on November 7, 2001, until 8:00 a.m. on November 8, 2001.

Gary Coleman, Captain of the Green Forest Volunteer Fire Department, was the first to arrive at the scene. He testified that no one was around the trailer home when he arrived and that it was very dark, because there were no street lights in the area. He also testified that the trailer home "was already burned down. Just pretty much [a] frame left was all." He added that no one had reported, and no one noticed at the fire scene whether there was a dead body in the trailer home.

At about 7:30 a.m. on November 8, 2001, Tracy and Meadows visited Patty and Tim Lively at their home in Yocum Creek. Patty testified that Meadows did not have any cuts on him or singed hair or look like he had been in a fire. She also testified that Meadows told her that his trailer home had caught on fire, that Lori went into the trailer home to retrieve her dog, that he had tried to pull Lori out of the trailer home through the bedroom window but could not, and that she died.

Tracy then requested that Patty accompany her to look at the burned trailer home. After arriving at the fire scene, Tracy walked directly to the former bedroom of the trailer home where the body was located and touched it. Patty discouraged Tracy from touching the body and told her that she would help remove the body as a ruse to get her to leave the scene. Tracy and Patty returned to Patty's home, and Tracy and Meadows left together.

While Tracy and Patty were at the fire site, Tim Lively arrived home where Meadows was waiting. He testified that Meadows told him that Lori set the couch on fire and that his trailer home caught on fire as a result. Both Meadows and Lori escaped from the fire, he said, but Lori reentered the trailer home to retrieve her dog. When she could not escape again, Meadows said he ran to the back of the trailer and tried to pull Lori through a window. He told Lively that he was holding Lori's hands to pull her through the back window when the floor of the trailer home fell through and Meadows lost his grip on Lori's hands. Because of that, she died in the fire. Tim Lively testified that both Thomas Conner and Brice Sneed were present when Meadows told him this story.

After Tracy and Meadows left the Livelys' home, Patty testified that she stopped at her nearest neighbor's home, Brice Sneed, to tell him what had happened. At about 9:30 a.m., Sneed telephoned the Carroll County Sheriff's Department to advise that someone died in the fire of Meadows's trailer home. Investigator Alan Hoos of the Carroll County Sheriff's Department testified that after receiving Brice Sneed's phone call, he and Lieutenant Leighton Ballard visited the fire scene to search for any human remains. They discovered the remains of a human body and a dog and telephoned Carroll County Sheriff J.R. Ashlock and the Arkansas State Police. The Arkansas State Police requested Charles Rexford, a deputy sheriff from Washington County who specialized in arson investigation, to assist in the investigation. Bill Baskin, an arson investigator for the Arkansas State Police, also investigated the fire.

After Tracy and Meadows left the Livelys' home, they drove to Loretta Smith's home in Oak Grove. There, they asked to use Smith's telephone and also asked for two trash bags and to borrow a shovel. Smith gave Tracy two large trash bags but refused to give her a shovel, because Smith was suspicious. Tracy and Meadows left.

On November 8, 2001, Meadows was arrested on outstanding warrants, and on November 12, 2002, a bench warrant was issued for Meadows's arrest for committing the crimes of capital murder and arson. On August 11, 2003, the State filed an amended criminal felony information, charging him with capital murder and arson. On August 13 and 14, 2003, Meadows was tried before a jury. Thomas Conner, who was imprisoned for his fourth DWI conviction, testified at the trial that he, Meadows, and Lori had been drinking all day at Meadows's trailer home. He further testified that Tracy entered the trailer home with a folding clasp knife in her hand and asked where Lori was. Tracy then walked into the bedroom where Lori was hiding, and Meadows told him that he expected there to be a fight. Conner heard Lori shouting from the bedroom like there was an emergency. Meadows went back to the bedroom, emerged with blood on him, and told Conner that Lori was dead and that he needed to leave. Conner testified that as he was leaving, he saw Meadows get some kerosene from the trailer...