Rainer v. State
| Decision Date | 22 September 2022 |
| Docket Number | CR-21-601 |
| Citation | 2022 Ark. 159,651 S.W.3d 713 |
| Parties | Shawn Trevell RAINER, Appellant v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
2022 Ark. 159
651 S.W.3d 713
Shawn Trevell RAINER, Appellant
v.
STATE of Arkansas, Appellee
No. CR-21-601
Supreme Court of Arkansas.
Opinion Delivered: September 22, 2022
Shawn T. Rainer, pro se appellant.
Leslie Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Adam Jackson, Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.
COURTNEY RAE HUDSON, Associate Justice
Appellant Shawn Trevell Rainer appeals from the trial court's denial and dismissal of his pro se petition to correct an illegal sentence pursuant to
Arkansas Code Annotated section 16-90-111 (Repl. 2016). Rainer alleged that his enhanced sentence was imposed ex post facto and that his sentence conflicts with a parole statute in effect when he committed the crime. After briefs were submitted, including Rainer's reply brief, Rainer filed a motion to amend his brief-in-chief with additional exhibits. Because Rainer failed to demonstrate that his sentence was illegal, we affirm the trial court's order. The motion to amend the appellant's brief-in-chief is denied.
In 2011, a Mississippi County Circuit Court jury convicted Rainer of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Takina Douglas. Rainer was sentenced as a habitual offender to 960 months’ or eighty years’ imprisonment pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-4-501(c) (Supp. 2007) because Rainer had been previously convicted of second-degree murder in 1998. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed. Rainer v. State , 2012 Ark. App. 588, 2012 WL 5328599. Thereafter, Rainer filed multiple unsuccessful petitions for postconviction relief. In 2019, Rainer filed a petition to reinvest jurisdiction in the trial court to consider a petition for writ of error coram nobis. In the petition, Rainer alleged that the enhanced sentence of eighty years was illegal because the trial court applied Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-4-501(c) and erroneously sentenced Rainer as a "serious violent offender." Rainer v. State , 2019 Ark. 42, at 2, 566 S.W.3d 462, 464. This court found that Rainer had been convicted of second-degree murder in 1998 and was therefore subject to the enhancement set forth in Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-4-501(c), which was in effect when Rainer committed the offense in 2009.
Rainer then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus that was denied by the circuit court, and Rainer appealed. In his petition and on appeal, Rainer again alleged that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter the judgment reflecting Rainer's conviction for second-degree murder as a...
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