Williams v. State

• Decision Date: 13 December 1982
• Docket Number: No. CR,CR
• Citation: 278 Ark. 9,642 S.W.2d 887
• Parties: Harvey WILLIAMS, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. 82-102.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 887

642 S.W.2d 887

278 Ark. 9

Harvey WILLIAMS, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee.

No. CR 82-102.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

Dec. 13, 1982.

Supplemental Opinion on Denial

of Rehearing Jan. 10, 1983.

Danny P. Rodgers, Prescott, and James C. Graves, Nashville, for appellant.

Steve Clark, Atty. Gen. by Victra L. Fewell, Asst. Atty. Gen., Little Rock, for appellee.

GEORGE ROSE SMITH, Justice.

Williams was convicted of having committed capital felony murder on February 23, 1981, in that he fatally stabbed Sidney Riley after raping her. In appealing from the ensuing sentence to life imprisonment without parole Williams contends primarily (1) that the trial judge erred in finding his confession to have been voluntary without first requiring the State to produce all witnesses material to the issue of voluntariness and (2) that the confession and certain clothing and other articles seized by the police should have been excluded as the fruits of a warrantless arrest made without probable cause.

Testimony taken at the hearing on the motions to suppress is pertinent to both contentions. The murder occurred on February 23 in the living room of the victim's home near Antoine, but was not discovered until two days later. Williams was living with his sister and her husband in the next house down the road, some 300 yards away. Because of that proximity Sheriff Baker, State Police Officer Ursery, and Prosecuting Attorney Arnold went out to interview Williams at about 4:00 p.m. on February 26, the day after the victim's body had been found at her home.

When the three men walked up to the house, Williams came across the yard to meet them. He recognized Arnold, who had represented him when he was convicted of manslaughter in 1967. Out of Williams's hearing the officers commented on the resemblance between Williams's toboggan cap and certain red fuzz found on a blanket under the victim's body when the crime was discovered. Arnold told them to warn Williams of his rights and to check with the police laboratory at Little Rock about the red fuzz.

Officer Ursery warned Williams before he was questioned. Williams first said he had not known the victim, but he then said he had seen her working in her yard a few days earlier. The four men walked to the victim's house, where the officers' vehicle was parked. While the sheriff began checking with the laboratory, Officer Ursery again warned Williams of his rights. Williams said that on the earlier day he had walked up the road, had seen Ms. Riley working in her garden, and had carried to her some mail that he took from her mail box. He tried to explain that he was the brother of her neighbor, but she became frightened, ran into the house, and threatened to call the police. He followed her into the kitchen, but did not go beyond that point into the living room.

Officer Ursery then asked Williams if he would go to Hope and take a polygraph examination to show that he only went into the kitchen area. Williams said he would. Sheriff Baker and Officer Ursery then drove Williams to the state police office at Hope. There Ursery used a printed waiver to again warn Williams of his rights while they waited a few minutes for the polygraph examiner to arrive. When he got there Williams refused to take the test. Another state police officer, Finis Duvall, then told Williams they needed to take his clothes for examination. Williams said he would tell the officers what they wanted to know. After interrogation he signed a highly damaging statement in which he admitted having had intercourse with the victim and having caused her death. At the trial Officer Ursery testified that Williams had been in custody since they left the scene of the crime, but he was not told that he was under arrest until after he gave the statement.

Probable cause for an arrest existed when Sheriff Baker, Officer Ursery, and Williams left the scene to drive to Hope. Williams had first denied knowing the victim, but changed his story. His account of having removed mail from her mail box to take it to her was suspect, for such actions would hardly be performed with an innocent motive by a stranger. Williams admitted that the woman was frightened, that she ran to the house with a threat to call the police, and that he followed her into the house. His assertion that he stopped short of going into the living room could indicate guilty knowledge of where the crime occurred. Both officers attached significance to the red fuzz. The proof supplied the recognized elements of probable cause. See Sanders v. State, 259 Ark. 329, 334, 532 S.W.2d 752 (1976).

It was not essential, as the appellant argues, for the trial court to pinpoint the moment of arrest. The officers were not required to make an arrest when they first had probable cause to do so. State v. Coleman, 412 So.2d 532 (La., 1982). Although A.R.Cr.P. Rule 4.4 requires that the officer inform the arrested person that he is under arrest, such formal words are not essential to an arrest. Ark.Stat.Ann. § 43-412 (Repl.1977); Logan v. State, 264...