Wallace v. State

• Decision Date: 21 October 1996
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Citation: 326 Ark. 376,931 S.W.2d 113
• Parties: Byron Lamont WALLACE and Rodney Fitzgerald Bledsoe, Appellants, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 96-367.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 113

931 S.W.2d 113

326 Ark. 376

Byron Lamont WALLACE and Rodney Fitzgerald Bledsoe, Appellants, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 96-367.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Oct. 21, 1996.

Jeff Rosenzweig, Little Rock, for Byron L. Wallace.

Rita F. Bailey, Little Rock, for Rodney Bledsoe.

J. Brent Standridge, Asst. Atty. General, Little Rock, for Appellee.

BROWN, Justice.

This is a consolidated appeal by appellants Byron Lamont Wallace and Rodney Fitzgerald Bledsoe. Wallace was convicted of residential burglary, four counts of aggravated robbery, and two counts of theft. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison. A probationary sentence pertaining to Wallace was also revoked and a six-year sentence to run concurrently was assessed. Bledsoe was convicted of the same crimes as Wallace and was sentenced, as a habitual offender, to 45 years in prison. We find the points raised by Wallace and Bledsoe on appeal to be without merit, and we affirm.

On the evening of December 7, 1993, Marcus Sanders, Steven Campbell, Anthony Hatchett, Marvin Weathersby, and Juan Boykins were in Sanders's Little Rock home playing Nintendo and working on music for their rap band. At approximately 6:50 p.m., a man later identified as Wallace knocked on the door and asked if Joe was there. After Sanders went to the door and answered that no such person was present, Wallace forced his way into the house with two other men, pulled out a handgun, and announced that it was a robbery. One of the men, later identified as Bledsoe, brandished a pipe bomb. The third robber was never identified and was not tried with Wallace and Bledsoe.

Once inside, Wallace led Sanders at gunpoint into the bedroom, where Sanders gave him $500 in cash. Sanders was then taken back into the living room, where he and the other men were forced to remove their clothes and lie down on the floor. Wallace and the third man then proceeded to go through the victims' pockets and take jewelry and $300 or $400 in additional cash. According to Marcus Sanders, Bledsoe stood by the front door, yelled, and punched holes in the wall with the pipe bomb.

After the money and jewelry were taken, the robbers began to leave, but on the way out, Bledsoe lit the pipe bomb and threw it on the floor between Sanders and Juan Boykins. Campbell testified that Wallace then fired two shots back into the house as the five victims scattered for cover. The pipe bomb detonated. Although none of the men was seriously injured, windows were broken, furniture was destroyed, and the ceiling and walls buckled from the explosion.

Wallace and Bledsoe were charged with counts of residential burglary, aggravated robbery, and theft. Bledsoe was further charged as a habitual offender. The men were convicted and sentenced as set out above.

I. Appellant Wallace

Wallace first contends that the trial court abused its discretion in allowing testimony of his flight and arrest. At trial, the State called Officer David Smith of the Little Rock Police Department to describe the events surrounding Wallace's arrest. Officer Smith stated that he was working with the Street Crimes Unit, a squad of five patrolmen and one sergeant that operated in plain clothes and unmarked cars to assist in the service of arrest warrants. On December 9, 1993, at 11:00 p.m., he testified that he received information that detectives were attempting to serve a warrant on Wallace. At this point, Wallace's defense counsel objected to Officer Smith's testimony based on relevance and unfair prejudice. The objection was overruled.

Officer Smith continued that he and his partner first made contact with Wallace at 11:20 p.m. in the College Station area of Little Rock. He stated that he pulled up beside an unknown car, and a young man, whom the police officer identified as Wallace, stepped half-way out of his car. The police officer stated that Wallace asked them where Stout Street was, which was the street they were on. Officer Smith testified that he told Wallace that he was lost. He did not identify himself as a police officer. Wallace then got in his car and proceeded along Stout Street ahead of Officer Smith's car. Officer Smith called for assistance. Sergeant Wilson, also of the Little Rock Police Department, arrived in an unmarked car and attempted to stop Wallace's car as he turned from Stout Street to Avant Street by turning on his blue lights. Officer Smith testified that Wallace spun his tires and "took off." The police officer followed down the three-block road whereupon Wallace and a passenger left his car and fled on foot. Officer Smith testified that he and other police officers identified themselves as police officers. They followed Wallace and his companion into a wooded area. Officer Smith stated that he apprehended Wallace, and in the course of doing so, Wallace lunged at him and attempted to grab his gun.

Wallace argues that this testimony was admitted in violation of Rule 403 of the Arkansas Rules of Evidence. Wallace also requests that we reverse the trial court because Officer Smith's testimony was evidence of "other crimes, wrongs, or acts" under Ark. R. Evid. 404(b). We do not address this latter issue because it was not raised before the trial court. It is blackletter law that issues may not be raised for the first time on appeal. See, e.g., Hill v. State, 325 Ark. 419, 931 S.W.2d 64 (1996); Stewart v. State, 320 Ark. 75, 894 S.W.2d 930 (1995).

A determination by the trial court of no unfair prejudice under Arkansas Rule of Evidence 403 will not be reversed absent a manifest abuse of discretion. See Killcrease v. State, 310 Ark. 392, 836 S.W.2d 380 (1992); Logan v. State, 300 Ark. 35, 776 S.W.2d 341 (1989). Wallace argues that the evidence should have been excluded because the apprehension occurred two days after the crime at Sanders's home, that he denied his guilt in those events based on an alibi, that the police officers never identified themselves to him, that the police officers were in unmarked cars, and that the chase occurred late at night on an unlit, dead-end street. The crux of his argument is that a reasonable person might not have believed the officers to be authentic policemen.

This court has held that flight to avoid arrest or trial is admissible as a circumstance in corroboration of evidence tending to establish guilt. See Hill v. State, supra; Cooper v. State, 317 Ark. 485, 879 S.W.2d 405 (1994); Ricks v. State, 316 Ark. 601, 873 S.W.2d 808 (1994); Killcrease v. State, supra. Wallace asks us to rule differently based, in part, on the fact that he was arrested approximately two days after the events at Marcus Sanders's house as opposed to being caught immediately fleeing the scene. This court, however has previously rejected this argument. See Murphy v. State, 255 Ark. 90, 498 S.W.2d 884 (1973) (holding evidence of flight after the commission of a crime was admissible even though it did not occur immediately after...