Stanley v. State

• Decision Date: 09 May 1994
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Citation: 875 S.W.2d 493,317 Ark. 32
• Parties: Charles B. STANLEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 93-1023.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 493

875 S.W.2d 493

317 Ark. 32

Charles B. STANLEY, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 93-1023.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

May 9, 1994.

J. Bradley Green, Stuttgart, for appellant.

Brad Newman, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.

GLAZE, Justice.

Appellant Charles B. Stanley was arrested after two DeWitt police officers stopped a vehicle in which Stanley was a passenger. Lawrence Stanley, Charles's brother, was the driver of the vehicle. The officers viewed some speakers and a stereo in the back seat of the car. The policemen subsequently obtained a warrant, searched the Stanley vehicle and recovered several items of what were determined to be stolen property. Afterwards, Lawrence and Charles's nephew, William Stanley, were also placed under arrest. All three men were each charged in separate informations with two counts of burglary and two counts of theft of property. Lawrence gave a tape recorded statement on the same day he was arrested in which he claimed to have been the only participant in the burglaries. However, after William's arrest, William gave two written custodial statements wherein he admitted that he, Charles and Lawrence participated in the burglaries of two DeWitt churches from which they took certain stereo equipment and speakers. Later, William wrote several letters to the prosecuting attorney, attempting to recant the portion of his prior statements implicating Charles's involvement. Eventually, however, William entered a negotiated guilty plea, and received a sentence of seven years imprisonment in exchange for his testimony against Charles.

At Charles's trial, William testified that he, Charles and Lawrence were staying at Elizabeth Hill's house when they came up with the idea of burglarizing the two churches. Mrs. Hill is William's grandmother and Charles's and Lawrence's mother. According to William, he, Charles and Lawrence broke into the first church, removed two Peavey amp speakers, a portable radio/cassette player, a dual cassette player, and other stereo equipment. They placed these stolen items in Lawrence's car. The Stanleys then proceeded to the second church, where they broke in with a crowbar. After gaining entry, they located and placed a VCR and other equipment on the floor when they discovered a safe. They then attempted to break into the safe. William stated that he and his uncles abandoned most of the property they found in the second church because they had no room for it in the car.

Angela Fischer, William's ex-girlfriend, also testified against Charles, stating that she was at the Hill residence where she witnessed Charles, Lawrence and William gathering up stolen items such as stereo equipment and speakers and preparing to dispose of the items by throwing them off of a bridge in DeWitt. Fischer also testified that the Stanleys gave her a Sony "jam-box," which she later gave to the police.

Bob Paxton, a DeWitt police officer, who was present when Lawrence's vehicle was stopped and searched, testified for the state. Paxton stated that, on the date of the arrests, he and another officer had stopped a red 1979 Ford Thunderbird which was driven by Lawrence, and they observed a large quantity of speakers and stereo equipment in the back seat of the car. He then arrested Charles, who was a passenger in the car, and transported him to the police station "for investigation." The officers ordered Lawrence to drive his car to the county jail, where the car was impounded. After the officers obtained a search warrant, they recovered the items in the car that were later identified as being property that had been reported stolen from the two DeWitt churches.

For his defense, Charles called, as witnesses, Rebecca Brown, Elizabeth Hill, and Barbara Nash. Ms. Brown, Charles's former girlfriend, stated that she, Charles and his mother, Mrs. Hill, were at Hill's residence the entire night the two burglaries took place. Mrs. Hill corroborated Brown's testimony. Hill stated that, because of the configuration of her house, it would be impossible for anyone to come in or go out of the door without Mrs. Hill being aware of it. Barbara Nash, William's mother, testified that William "had been known to lie," and in fact, "never tells the truth." Nash went on to state that her son "doesn't know how to tell the truth" and called him "a pathological liar."

Based upon the foregoing evidence, Charles was found guilty of the burglary and theft counts with which he was charged, and was sentenced as a habitual offender. Charles Stanley filed a pro se notice of appeal and was allowed to proceed in forma pauperis. He also filed motions to replace counsel, to secure records, and a motion to reappoint counsel, alleging his attorney's efforts on his behalf at trial were ineffective. Charles's motions were denied.

For reversal, Charles Stanley's counsel, appointed on appeal, argue eight points, but only one has been properly preserved. His first three arguments concern accomplice testimony and its insufficiency. He claims (1) that Angela Fischer was an accomplice as a matter of law, or at least a fact issue existed as to this issue, (2) that the corroborating evidence was insufficient to sustain the accomplice testimony and (3) that Fischer's testimony should not be given any more weight than William Stanley's. In considering these three matters, we note that it was Charles Stanley's burden to establish at trial that Fischer was an accomplice to the crimes with which Charles was charged. Charles failed to meet that burden. Vickers v. State, 313 Ark. 64, 852 S.W.2d 787 ...