Snyder v. State, CA
| Decision Date | 03 July 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. CA,CA |
| Citation | 692 S.W.2d 273,15 Ark.App. 277 |
| Parties | Tony Lynn SNYDER, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.* * State Report Title: Snyder v. City of DeWitt CR 85-27. |
| Court | Arkansas Court of Appeals |
Malcolm R. Smith, Stuttgart, for appellant.
Steve Clark, Atty. Gen. by Theodore Holder, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.
In this criminal case, the appellant was convicted of DWI and sentenced to pay a fine of $450.00, serve one day in the county jail (less credit for time served) and his driver's license was suspended for 90 days. From that decision, comes this appeal.
On February 24, 1984, DeWitt police officer Moses Turner responded to an accident report and found an unattended truck in a ditch. Shortly thereafter, the appellant and another individual, Charles Peoples, arrived in another vehicle. They attempted to tow the truck from the ditch. Officer Turner testified that the appellant informed him that he had been operating the vehicle when it ran into the ditch. He also testified that he could smell alcohol on the appellant's breath. He testified that there were no other physical indications that the appellant was intoxicated. The officer testified that the appellant registered 0.10% on the breathalyzer and, based on that fact, he charged the appellant with DWI.
At that point in the trial, the city rested, and the appellant made several motions. First, the appellant asked the court to strike the breathalyzer test results since, he alleged, the machine was not working properly. Second, he moved to strike any testimony concerning statements made by the appellant because he had not been advised of his Miranda rights when he made the statements. Third, the appellant moved to dismiss because there was no corroboration of the appellant's confession to the officer that he had been driving the vehicle. The court took the motions under advisement and the record does not include any indication that the court ruled on the motions, other than the fact that the appellant was found guilty.
The appellant argues on appeal that there was no evidence corroborating his alleged confession at the scene of the accident. The confession, according to the officer, consisted of the appellant's statement that he had been driving the vehicle. The appellant denied having made that statement to the officer. Arkansas Statutes Annotated, Section 43-2115 (Repl.1977), provides that "[a] confession of a defendant, unless made in open court, will not warrant a conviction, unless accompanied with other proof that such an offense was committed." We hold that the appellant's alleged statement that he had driven the vehicle into the ditch merely constituted an admission of one element of the offense and not a confession. A...
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