Williams v. State
| Decision Date | 03 July 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. CA,CA |
| Citation | 927 S.W.2d 812,54 Ark.App. 271 |
| Parties | Houston WILLIAMS and Kathlene Williams, Appellants, v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee. CR 94-894. |
| Court | Arkansas Court of Appeals |
Kent McLemore, Fayetteville, Finch & Gartin by Jay T. Finch, Bentonville, for Appellant.
Winston Bryant, Atty. Gen. by Clint Miller, Asst. Atty. Gen. and Senior Appellate Advocate, Little Rock, for Appellee.
Houston Williams and Kathlene Williams, husband and wife, were each convicted of conspiracy to deliver methamphetamine. They each appeal from their convictions. Houston Williams argues three points on appeal: (1) that the trial court erred in failing to grant his motion for directed verdict in that the evidence was insufficient because Henry Glosemeyer and his wife Terry Glosemeyer were accomplices and their testimony was uncorroborated; (2) that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury that Henry and Terry Glosemeyer were accomplices as a matter of law whose testimony must be corroborated; and (3) that the trial court erred in failing to grant appellants' motions to dismiss for double jeopardy. Kathlene Williams argues these same points, and also that the trial court erred in refusing to sever her trial from that of her husband; the court erred in refusing to grant a mistrial after the prosecutor referred to facts outside of the record; the court erred in preventing her cross-examination of Henry Glosemeyer; and the court erred in allowing evidence of her previous conviction for enhancement purposes at sentencing. We affirm as to both appellants on all issues.
We first address appellants' arguments concerning their motion for directed verdict, as they involve a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Goins v. State, 318 Ark. 689, 890 S.W.2d 602 (1995); Martin v. State, 316 Ark. 715, 875 S.W.2d 81 (1994); Coleman v. State, 315 Ark. 610, 869 S.W.2d 713 (1994). The test for determining the sufficiency of the evidence is whether there is substantial evidence to support the verdict.
Substantial evidence is evidence forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or another without suspicion or conjecture. Owens v. State, 313 Ark. 520, 856 S.W.2d 288 (1993). In determining the sufficiency of the evidence, we review the proof in the light most favorable to the State, considering only that evidence which tends to support the verdict. Gunter v. State, 313 Ark. 504, 857 S.W.2d 156 (1993).
Viewed in the light most favorable to the State, the following evidence was presented at trial. Henry Glosemeyer testified that he and Terry Glosemeyer met Houston Williams and Kathlene Williams around Thanksgiving of 1991 when they were all working for a trucking company. Henry Glosemeyer was aware that the Williamses were behind in their house payments. He had a Mac Ten .9mm semiautomatic handgun that he wanted to get rid of, and he suggested that Houston Williams take the weapon to California and either sell it or trade it for drugs so that they could split the proceeds. Glosemeyer testified that Williams took the weapon to California and when he returned he gave Glosemeyer a quarter ounce of methamphetamine in return. Just before Christmas of 1991, the Williamses lost their job with the trucking company. Glosemeyer testified that he and Terry continued to have contact with the Williamses, living out of a bedroom and staying at their residence just about every weekend when they came through. Glosemeyer testified that the Williamses would make trips to California to obtain drugs and were making their living collecting unemployment and dealing drugs. He testified that he and Terry used drugs at the Williams' residence. In April 1992, Henry and Terry Glosemeyer quit their job with the trucking company and moved into the Williams' residence full time, where they all did drugs regularly. He testified that they had numerous conversations about buying, selling, and using drugs. He testified that Houston Williams, sometimes accompanied by his wife Kathlene, would make a trip to California every four to six weeks to procure more drugs. On one trip, the Williamses took Henry Glosemeyer's personal pickup truck to California to procure drugs. Glosemeyer testified that Terry moved out of the Williams' residence in either June or July, but he continued to live there until September 1992. During the time he was living with the Williamses he saw people come to the house to talk to the Williamses about drugs. He testified that people came to the house and they all did drugs and there was constant conversation about selling drugs and that both Houston and Kathlene were part of the conversations. Henry Glosemeyer testified that even after he moved out of the Williams' house he continued to be involved with drugs and with the Williamses. In November of that year, Glosemeyer began to sell quantities of methamphetamine to another truck driver he knew. He testified that he got the drugs from Houston and gave the money to both Houston and Kathlene. Glosemeyer continued to sell drugs that he got from Houston Williams until February 22, 1993, when he was arrested leaving the Williams' house with two ounces of methamphetamine in his truck. After his arrest, Glosemeyer cooperated fully with the police and told them about the Williamses and his own role in the drug trade. He testified that before his arrest he had been waiting for Williams to return from a trip to California that he had made in Glosemeyer's truck, and that Williams had told Glosemeyer he was to pick up four pounds of methamphetamine in California. Glosemeyer testified that at this time "I was a major distributor for him."
Terry Glosemeyer testified about meeting the Williamses, moving in with them, and their collective drug use. She testified that they all used methamphetamine, but she never bought drugs from Houston and Kathlene Williams. She testified that Henry did buy drugs from the Williamses and that she had witnessed Houston and Kathlene sell drugs to other people. Terry Glosemeyer testified that on one occasion she and Kathlene took some methamphetamine, mixed it with Inositol, and put it in bags. On another occasion, she testified that she counted between eight and ten thousand dollars in cash for Houston before a trip to California to buy drugs. She testified that after her husband was arrested on February 22, 1993, eight days later when he was out of jail they went to the Williams' house. Terry testified that she slept on the Detective Allen McCarty testified that he had been involved in an investigation of Houston and Kathlene Williams involving their distribution of methamphetamine. He first received information regarding Houston Williams in November 1992. He eventually interviewed a confidential informant named Fred Colvin. Colvin told him that a person living in West Fork named Houston Williams was making approximately three trips a month to California, was buying drugs, and bringing them back to northwest Arkansas for distribution. In February 1993, after receiving information from a detective with the Ninth Judicial Drug Task Force, McCarty and members of the Fourth Judicial Drug Task Force set up surveillance of the Williams' residence. They saw Henry Glosemeyer drive to the Williams' residence, and then leave. A few hours later a red pickup arrived at the residence driven by Glosemeyer. About 8:30 p.m., they observed the pickup leave the residence driven by Glosemeyer. The truck was stopped and Glosemeyer consented to a search, which produced two ounces of methamphetamine. After Glosemeyer's arrest, he indicated that he had gotten the drugs from Houston Williams.
couch that night and when she woke in the morning, she heard conversations in the house between Houston Williams, Richie Dickson, and Ron Fox. They were discussing the location of methamphetamine that they had hidden. She believed the drugs they were talking about were the last shipment that Houston had brought in.
We hold that there was substantial evidence presented at trial to support the jury's verdict. Because the trial court ruled that Henry and Terry Glosemeyer were not accomplices as a matter of law, there was no requirement of corroborating evidence to send the case to the jury for deliberation. See King v. State, 323 Ark. 671, 916 S.W.2d 732 (1996). The trial court did not err in denying the appellants' motions for directed verdict.
Both appellants contend that the trial court erred in not holding that both Henry and Terry Glosemeyer were accomplices to the conspiracy as a matter of law. We cannot agree. Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-2-403 provides, in part:
A person is an accomplice of another person in the commission of an offense if, with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the commission of an offense, he ... aids, agrees to aid, or attempts to aid the other person in planning or committing it.
In the case at bar the trial court gave AMCI 2d 403, which allowed the jury to determine whether the Glosemeyers were accomplices to the conspiracy and therefore whether corroboration was required. The "Note on Use" to AMCI 2d 403 states that the instruction should be given when an alleged accomplice has testified and the sufficiency of the corroborating evidence presents an issue of fact for the jury. The court should not instruct the jury that a certain witness is an accomplice if there is any dispute in the testimony upon that point. Odom v. State, 259 Ark. 429, 533 S.W.2d 514 (1976). Whether a witness is an accomplice is ordinarily a mixed question of law and fact, to be submitted to the jury. Odom v. State, supra. The problem here cannot be adequately understood without some discussion of the nature of the crime of conspiracy. Professor LaFave states:
As courts have so often said, the agreement is the "essence" or "gist" of the crime of conspiracy.
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