Rollins v. State

• Decision Date: 08 October 2009
• Docket Number: No. CR 09–265.,CR 09–265.
• Citation: 347 S.W.3d 20,2009 Ark. 484
• Parties: Vance Benton ROLLINS, Jr., Appellantv.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

2009 Ark. 484

347 S.W.3d 20

Vance Benton ROLLINS, Jr., Appellant

v.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 09–265.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Oct. 8, 2009.

Lassiter & Couch, by: Jack T. Lassiter and Erin Cassinelli Couch, Little Rock, for appellant.Dustin McDaniel, Att'y Gen., by: LeaAnn J. Irvin, Ass't Att'y Gen., for appellee.ELANA CUNNINGHAM WILLS, Justice.

Appellant Vance Rollins was charged with two counts of manslaughter after he caused a head-on car collision that killed Lawrence and Nina Humphrey. He was tried by a Perry County jury on October 24, 2007, and was sentenced to two consecutive four-year terms of imprisonment. Rollins appealed to the court of appeals, contending that there was insufficient evidence to support his manslaughter convictions. The court of appeals agreed, affirming his convictions but modifying the judgment to reflect the lesser-included offense of negligent homicide. Rollins v. State, 2009 Ark.App. 110, 302 S.W.3d 617. The State petitioned for review from the court of appeals' opinion, arguing that it was decided contrary to this court's prior decisions and involved an issue of substantial public interest that requires clarification.

When we grant review of a decision by the court of appeals, we review the case as though the appeal was originally filed in this court. See Brown v. State, 374 Ark. 341, 288 S.W.3d 226 (2008); Yarbrough v. State, 370 Ark. 31, 257 S.W.3d 50 (2007).

In his first argument for reversal, Rollins argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for directed verdict because the evidence was insufficient to sustain the manslaughter conviction. On appeal, we treat a motion for directed verdict as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. See Johnson v. State, 375 Ark. 462, 291 S.W.3d 581 (2009). We will affirm the circuit court's denial of a motion for directed verdict if there is substantial evidence, either direct or circumstantial, to support the jury's verdict. Id. This court has repeatedly defined substantial evidence as evidence forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or the other beyond suspicion or conjecture. Hoyle v. State, 371 Ark. 495, 501, 268 S.W.3d 313, 318 (2007). In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence and all reasonable inferences deducible therefrom in the light most favorable to the State, without weighing it against conflicting evidence that may be favorable to the appellant, and affirm the verdict if it is supported by substantial evidence. Wetherington v. State, 319 Ark. 37, 889 S.W.2d 34 (1994).

As noted above, Rollins contends that the evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to support his manslaughter conviction. More specifically, he contends that the evidence was insufficient to demonstrate that he acted recklessly. Rollins was charged under Arkansas Code Annotated section 5–10–104(a)(3) (Repl.2006), which states that a person commits manslaughter if the “person recklessly causes the death of another person.” “Recklessly” is defined in Arkansas Code Annotated section 5–2–202(3) (Repl.2006) as follows:

(A) A person acts recklessly with respect to attendant circumstances or a result of his or her conduct when the person consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the attendant circumstances exist or the result will occur.

(B) The risk must be of a nature and degree that disregard of the risk constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the actor's situation[.]

At trial, the State introduced the testimony of O.J. and Barbara Williams. Mr. Williams testified that, on the day of the accident, he was driving southbound on Highway 7 towards Hot Springs when a vehicle came up behind him. Mr. Williams decided to let the vehicle pass him, so he slowed down and pulled over to the edge of his lane. The vehicle did not pass, and Mr. Williams resumed his speed. The vehicle, however, “just kept coming up behind” Mr. Williams, which made him nervous. Mr. Williams attempted several times over the course of about fifteen miles to slow down to let the other vehicle pass, but it never did. Mr. Williams said he never observed the vehicle cross the center line, but the tailgating nonetheless made him nervous.

Finally, Mr. Williams pulled into a CCC camp and stopped for a while. After a few minutes, during which several other vehicles went down the road, he returned to the highway and resumed his journey. About five miles down the road, he saw that the vehicle that had been following him had been in a wreck. That vehicle was completely on the opposite side of the center lane, he said.

Barbara Williams described the vehicle behind them as “driving erratically.” She said that the vehicle would repeatedly “come way up on our bumper, and then would back off.” Mrs. Williams said that the other vehicle was “not fast,” but would pull up close behind them and then back away without passing. She also described how they eventually pulled off the road at a CCC camp for five minutes or so and then, when they got back on the highway, they came upon the wreck. Mrs. Williams testified that the vehicle that had been following them was “obviously in the wrong lane.”

The State's next witness was Linda Brewer, a nurse who witnessed the accident. Brewer said that she and her daughter had spent the day in Hot Springs and were driving north on Highway 7 at around 3:00 p.m. behind a tan car. As they started down a little grade, she saw a red sport-utility vehicle driving in their lane. At first, she thought it would swerve back, but then she saw the taillights of the tan car just before the SUV hit it. She saw a flash of flame, pulled up alongside the tan car and then, concerned about the fire, quickly accelerated past the wreck. She then pulled over and told her daughter to call 911.

Brewer ran first to the red SUV and tried to open the door but could not. She saw the driver moving around and told him to stay still. She then went to the tan car and tried to help its passengers, the Humphreys; however, they were badly injured, and both expired at the scene of the wreck. As she attempted to assist the Humphreys, she saw the driver of the red SUV, Rollins, trying to get out of his vehicle, so she ran back to help him. She told him that he had been in an accident and needed to sit still, but he got out and kept trying to open the back door of the SUV. Brewer heard him say “Molly,” and she realized that there was someone else in the vehicle. After they managed to get the door open, Brewer saw a woman on the floorboards of the back seat. Brewer and her daughter helped the woman out of the vehicle. Rollins then began feeling around on the floorboard, and Brewer thought that perhaps he needed oxygen.

By that time, emergency vehicles had arrived, and Brewer went to speak with the emergency personnel. As she was doing so, she saw Rollins at the side of the road and thought he looked like he was going to pass out. She went to him and told him he needed to sit down; she also asked if he was hurt. He said that he was not, and as she looked at his hands, she saw him drop some green pills. Brewer said that, as a nurse, she thought they might be heart pills, so she asked whether he had any conditions that required medication. He shook his head, and she eventually got him to sit down. A moment or two later, however, he began struggling to get up, and Brewer again tried to get him to sit still. At that point, the woman who had been in the backseat of the SUV began hollering, and Rollins rolled over to try to get up. When he did, Brewer saw green pills underneath him, and she picked up three or four of them and later gave them to police.

Faith Miller, Brewer's daughter, also witnessed the collision. As they came around a curve on the highway, she saw Rollins's red SUV “all the way” in their lane and also observed Rollins looking over his right shoulder. She said that Rollins was going fast around a curve and “never appeared to slow down, he didn't dodge, he didn't swerve.” After the accident, Miller said that her mother went to help Rollins, who “was shaky and wobbly” and appeared to be “in shock and stuff.”

Trooper Greg McNeese of the Arkansas State Police, who responded to the scene of the accident at 5:45 p.m., testified that an officer from the Perry County Sheriff's Office handed him the pills that Brewer had picked up; he placed them in an envelope and secured them in his vehicle. McNeese also testified that he found a duffel bag in the front passenger floorboard of the SUV that contained clothes, toiletries, and a black cigarette case with three pipes in it. Christa Hall, a forensic chemist at the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, testified that the pipes tested positive for cocaine residue. Hall also testified that the green pills were hydrocodone and acetaminophen.

Shawn Wright, a nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hot Springs, testified that he took a blood sample from Rollins on the day of the wreck; the blood-alcohol-report form indicates that the sample was collected at 7:15 p.m. Becky Carlisle, a forensic toxicologist at the Crime Lab, testified that she tested the blood samples that were taken from Rollins after the accident. The samples tested positive for cocaine and sertraline, or Zoloft, but the level of both drugs was less than .05 micrograms per milliliter, which indicated that the person had ingested the drugs, but it was a fairly low amount.¹ She said that she did not know how or when the drugs were ingested, and she could not ascertain how long either drug had been in the blood prior to the samples' being taken. When asked whether there was a period of time at which blood tests would no longer detect the ingestion of cocaine, Carlisle said it would be “over eight hours.” Her testing revealed no other controlled substances in Rollins's blood sample, including hydrocodone. On cross-examination, Carlisle said that she...