Misskelley v. State

• Decision Date: 19 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Citation: 915 S.W.2d 702,323 Ark. 449
• Parties: Jessie Lloyd MISSKELLEY, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 94-848.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 702

915 S.W.2d 702

323 Ark. 449

Jessie Lloyd MISSKELLEY, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 94-848.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Feb. 19, 1996.

Opinion on Denial of Rehearing April 1, 1996.

Appeal from the Clay County Circuit Court, No. CR93-47; David Burnett, Judge.

Daniel T. Stidham, Gregory L. Crow, Paragould, for Appellant.

J. Brent Standridge, Asst. Attorney Gen., Little Rock, for Appellee.

JESSON, Chief Justice.

On June 21, 1993, the appellant, Damien Echols, and Charles Jason Baldwin were charged with the murders of three West Memphis boys. Steven Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, all eight years of age, had been missing since the early evening hours of May 5, 1993. Their bodies were found the next day submerged in a creek in a park-like area of West Memphis known as Robin Hood. The boys' bodies were nude, their hands and feet had been tied, and it was evident they had been severely beaten and mutilated.

The West Memphis Police began an extensive investigation. On June 3, 1993, they questioned the appellant regarding any knowledge he might have about the murders. In the course of the interrogation, he made statements in which he implicated himself, Baldwin and Echols. All three were arrested and charged with capital murder.

The appellant was tried separately from Baldwin and Echols. ¹ The jury convicted him of first degree murder in the death of Michael Moore, for which he received a life sentence, and second degree murder in the deaths of Steven Branch and Christopher Byers, for which he received a combined sentence of 40 years. It is from these convictions that he appeals. He raises numerous and varied points for reversal. After thorough consideration of each issue, we find no error and affirm the convictions.

Sufficiency of the Evidence

It is our general rule that, when an appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, we address that issue prior to all others. Harris v. State, 284 Ark. 247, 681 S.W.2d 334 (1984). The appellant's argument is directed solely to his first degree murder conviction.

At the close of the state's case, and again at the close of all evidence, the appellant moved for a directed verdict. He claimed that the state failed to prove he had acted with the purpose of causing the deaths of the three boys, or that he had acted as an accomplice to the commission of a homicidal act. The trial court denied the motion.

A directed verdict motion is a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Durham v. State, 320 Ark. 689, 899 S.W.2d 470 (1995). The test for determining the sufficiency of the evidence is whether there is substantial evidence to support the jury's verdict. Substantial evidence is that which is forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or another and which goes beyond speculation or conjecture. Davis v. State, 317 Ark. 592, 879 S.W.2d 439 (1994). We review the evidence in the light most favorable to the appellee and consider only that evidence which supports the verdict. Moore v. State, 315 Ark. 131, 864 S.W.2d 863 (1993).

The Moore, Byers and Branch boys were last seen at approximately 6:00 p.m. on May 5, 1993. At least two of the boys were riding their bicycles. Their parents reported them missing at about 8:00 p.m. Police and area residents conducted a search later that evening, but the boys were not found. The search continued on May 6. The boys' bodies were discovered about 1:15 that afternoon.

On June 3, 1993, the crime having remained unsolved, Detective Sergeant Mike Allen sought the appellant out for questioning. The appellant was not considered a suspect, but it was thought he might have knowledge about Damien Echols, who was a suspect. Detective Allen located the appellant and brought him back to the station, arriving at approximately 10:00 a.m. Later in this opinion, we will address in detail the circumstances surrounding the appellant's interrogation. For now, it is sufficient to say that the appellant was questioned off and on over a period from 10:00 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. At 2:44 p.m. and again at approximately 5:00 p.m., he gave statements to police in which he confessed his involvement in the murders. Both statements were tape recorded.

The statements were the strongest evidence offered against the appellant at trial. In fact, they were virtually the only evidence, all other testimony and exhibits serving primarily as corroboration.

The statements were obtained in a question and answer format rather than in a narrative form. However, we will set out the substance of the statements in such a way as to reveal with clarity the appellant's description of the crime:

In the early morning hours of May 5, 1993, the appellant received a phone call from Jason Baldwin. Baldwin asked the appellant to accompany him and Damien Echols to the Robin Hood area. The appellant agreed to go. They went to the area, which has a creek, and were in the creek when the victims rode up on their bicycles. Baldwin and Echols called to the boys, who came to the creek. The boys were severely beaten by Baldwin and Echols. At least two of the boys were raped and forced to perform oral sex on Baldwin and Echols. According to appellant, he was merely an observer.

While these events were taking place, Michael Moore tried to escape and began running. The appellant chased him down and returned him to Baldwin and Echols. The appellant also stated that Baldwin had used a knife to cut the boys in the facial area and that the Byers boy was cut on his penis. Echols used a large stick to hit one of the boys. All three boys had their clothes taken off and were tied up.

According to the appellant, he ran away from the scene at some point after the boys were tied up. He did observe that the Byers boy was dead when he left. Sometime after the appellant arrived home, Baldwin called saying, "we done it" and "what are we going to do if somebody saw us." Echols could be heard in the background.

The appellant was asked about his involvement in a cult. He said he had been involved for about three months. The participants would typically meet in the woods. They engaged in orgies and, as an initiation rite, killing and eating dogs. He noted that at one cult meeting, he saw a picture that Echols had taken of the three boys. He stated that Echols had been watching the boys.

The appellant was also asked to describe what Baldwin and Echols were wearing the day of the murders. Baldwin was wearing blue jeans, black lace-up boots and a T-shirt with a rendering of a skull and the name of the group Metallica on it. Echols was wearing black pants, boots and a black T-shirt.

The appellant initially stated that the events took place about 9:00 a.m. on May 5. Later in the statement, he changed that time to 12:00 noon. He admitted that his time periods might not be exactly right. He explained the presence of the young boys by saying they had skipped school that day.

The first tape recorded statement concluded at 3:18 p.m. At approximately 5:00 p.m., another statement was recorded. This time, the appellant said he, Echols and Baldwin had come to the Robin Hood area between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. Upon prompting by the officer, he changed that to 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. He finally settled on saying that his group arrived at 6:00 p.m. while the victims arrived near dark. He went into further detail about the sexual molestation of the victims. At least one of the boys had been held by the head and ears while being accosted. Both the Byers boy and the Branch boy had been raped. All the boys, he said, were tied up with brown rope.

One of the interrogating officers later testified that his notes revealed the appellant told him he received a phone call from Baldwin on the night before the murders. Baldwin stated that they planned to go out and get some boys and hurt them.

The appellant's statements are a confusing amalgam of times and events. Numerous inconsistencies appear, the most obvious being the various times of day the murders took place. Additionally, the boys were not tied with rope, but with black and white shoe laces. It was also revealed that the victims had not skipped school on May 5. However, there were portions of the statements which were consistent with the evidence and were corroborated by the state's testimony and exhibits. The victims had been seen riding their bicycles. ² The medical examiner testified that the boys had been severely beaten. Two of them had injuries consistent with being hit by a large object. One of the boys had facial lacerations. The Byers boy had indeed been severely mutilated in the genital area. All the boys had injuries which were consistent with rape and forced oral sex. There was evidence that drowning contributed to the deaths of the Moore and Branch boys, but not the Byers boy. This is consistent with the appellant's statement that the Byers boy was already dead when he left the scene. The boys were in fact tied up, albeit with shoe laces rather than rope. Damien Echols was observed near the crime scene at 9:30 p.m. on May 5. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt and his clothes were muddy. A witness testified that she had attended a satanic cult meeting with Echols and the appellant. Christopher Byers' mother testified that, approximately two months before the murders, her son told her that a man dressed all in black had taken his picture. There was evidence that Baldwin owned a shirt and boots of the type described by the appellant. Finally, a witness from the State Crime Lab testified that she found fibers on the victims' clothing which were microscopically similar to items in the Baldwin and Echols residences.

The appellant does not argue that the inconsistencies in his statements render them insufficient. Indeed, when inconsistencies appear in the evidence, we defer to the jury's determination of credibility. A jury is free to believe part of the evidence before it and reject other parts. Harris v. State, ...