Taylor v. State

• Decision Date: 12 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Citation: 799 S.W.2d 519,303 Ark. 586
• Parties: Debra Lynn TAYLOR, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 89-222.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 519

799 S.W.2d 519

303 Ark. 586

Debra Lynn TAYLOR, Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 89-222.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Nov. 12, 1990.

Mark S. Cambiano, Morrilton, for appellant.

Kelly K. Hilly, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.

GLAZE, Justice.

Appellant was charged as an accomplice to the premeditated murder of her husband, Roy Taylor. Henry Price also was charged with the murder, but he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to forty years imprisonment. At appellant's trial, Price testified and admitted to his and appellant's respective roles in the crime. Appellant was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. She raises seven points for reversal.

We first consider appellant's contention that the trial court erred in failing to suppress statements she made to investigating officers. Taylor's body was found at home on October 22, 1988, and appellant initially gave a statement to North Little Rock officers on that date. She gave another statement on October 27, the day of Taylor's funeral, and in that statement, gave general background information in an attempt to locate or eliminate suspects. On this date, and after her statement, the police placed her under surveillance. At this stage of their investigation, the officers believed she had been engaged in an extramarital affair, and it was during this surveillance that they observed her spending several nights in motels with Price. During this same period, the officers were investigating a boyfriend of a woman whom Taylor had been seeing prior to his death.

Appellant again met with the North Little Rock police on November 4 for another investigative interview which focused on any drug contacts or extramarital relations Taylor might have had that could possibly be connected with his death. In this same interview, the officers first became aware that appellant was being untruthful with them because while appellant denied having had any affairs with anyone, they had just confirmed that she was intimately involved with Price.

Finally, on November 9, the police took Price in for questioning, and upon learning of this, appellant called the police to inquire about this latest event. Appellant was asked to come to the station, and she did, whereupon she was notified that she was a suspect in her husband's killing. The officers then told her some of the evidence that implicated her in the murder, and afterwards, they read her her Miranda rights. Following this procedure, appellant gave a statement, which reflected her involvement in the murder.

Recently, we reiterated the settled rule that the safeguards prescribed under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1976), become applicable as soon as a suspect's freedom of action is curtailed to a degree associated with a formal arrest. Gardner v. State, 296 Ark. 41, 754 S.W.2d 518 (1988). We further stated as follows:

[N]o Miranda warnings are required if the questioning by officers is simply investigatory and that an officer's unarticulated intent has no bearing on the question of whether a suspect is in custody; rather, on that issue, the only relevant inquiry is how a reasonable man in the suspect's position would have understood his situation. (Emphasis supplied.)

Id., 296 Ark. at 58, 754 S.W.2d at 526.

According to the testimony at the suppression hearing, appellant voluntarily appeared at the police station on each of the aforementioned occasions, and, except for her last visit, her freedom was never curtailed, and she was free to leave at all times. The record reflects that the police officers initially did not suspect the appellant of any complicity in her husband's murder and only became aware that she had been untruthful with them when on November 4 she denied any involvement with Price. After that date, the officers focused their investigation on Price and appellant, and when she appeared at the police station on November 9, the officers prevented her from making any statements concerning her involvement in the murder until she had been informed of and had waived her rights.

We conclude the evidence clearly supports the trial court's ruling that the officers' investigation had not reached the accusatory stage towards appellant until after November 4. Further, appellant's interviews did not become custodial in nature until November 9, at which time she was properly advised of and waived her rights before giving the statements that implicated her in the murder.

Before leaving this suppression issue, we note appellant's argument that she had asserted her right to counsel on October 25, and that, under the principles set out in Shea v. Louisiana, 470 U.S. 51, 105 S.Ct. 1065, 84 L.Ed.2d 38 (1985), and Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1980), the officers were obliged to stop further interrogation of her until her counsel was present or unless she initiated further communication with the police.

As pointed out above, the appellant was not a suspect on October 25, the date when she initially appeared at the police station with a friend, who also was an attorney. Appellant's purpose for appearing on this date was to obtain some items that had been confiscated by police as part of the investigation. She did not give a statement on this visit. The attorney testified that at the time he and appellant went to the station, no one suspected the appellant of murder, and he made it clear to the police that he in no way legally represented the appellant. After their initial trip to the police station, the attorney said the appellant called him later, and in this conversation, he advised her to obtain counsel if the officers should read her her rights. Again, the record simply fails to support her claim that she had asserted her right to counsel. Indeed, the proof clearly supports the view that she knew her attorney friend did not represent her in this matter, and that, at all relevant times, she voluntarily chose to meet with the officers who were conducting an ongoing investigation of Taylor's murder. That being so, appellant's reliance on Shea and Edwards is misplaced. The trial court was correct in allowing her statements into evidence.

Appellant next contends that her conviction cannot be based solely upon Price's (her accomplice's) testimony unless corroborated by other evidence which connects her with the commission of her husband's murder. See Carr v. State, 300 Ark. 158, 777 S.W.2d 846 (1989); Ark.Code Ann. § 16-89-111 (1987). She also argues the broader issue that the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction. We disagree with both contentions.

First, having determined appellant's statements admissible, we conclude that an abundance of evidence exists to corroborate Price's testimony implicating appellant in the crime. For example, she admitted in her statement to the police and in her testimony at trial that, approximately two and one-half months prior to Taylor's murder, she and Price had discussed killing her husband. She also admitted they discussed having someone perform the murder or that they might cause his death to appear as a result of a hunting accident or a robbery at his office. During this planning stage, appellant obtained an increase of $300,000 in her husband's life insurance. In reaching their final plans, she conceded that she and Price agreed that Taylor must be shot, but that appellant must be elsewhere when the murder occurred. Appellant stated further that she and Price discussed these plans during the week Taylor was killed. On October 21, she went to her brother's home in Texarkana and called Price that night. She admitted that, in her conversation with Price, he told her Taylor "might not be there" when she got back, and she took this to mean Taylor would be dead. According to Price, appellant was to call back the next morning to find out whether Price had actually killed Taylor and appellant's statement and phone records corroborate Price's assertion.

Price's other testimony is generally consistent with the foregoing evidence connecting the appellant with Taylor's murder. He related that he and appellant developed a code by which appellant would call Price on the morning of October 22, and he would tell her to shop for a black dress, indicating Taylor had been killed. While appellant denied such a code, appellant admitted to having called Price on the morning of October 22 and claims he said, "[H]e could not do it (kill Taylor)." Such an admission, while specifically denying knowledge of a code, certainly leads to the inference that she had called Price to find out if he had killed Taylor. Considerable proof was offered reflecting appe...