Bennett v. State

825 S.W.2d 560, 308 Ark. 393, 1992 Ark. LEXIS 116
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 24, 1992
DocketCR 91-170
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 825 S.W.2d 560 (Bennett v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bennett v. State, 825 S.W.2d 560, 308 Ark. 393, 1992 Ark. LEXIS 116 (Ark. 1992).

Opinion

Tom Glaze, Justice.

This is appellant’s third appeal, and in each one, he was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for the drowning death of his wife. We reversed and remanded the two prior convictions because of errors that occurred at the trial. Bennett v. State, 302 Ark. 179, 789 S.W.2d 436 (1990) (Bennett II); Bennett v. State, 297 Ark. 115, 759 S.W.2d 799 (1988) (Bennett I). In this appeal, the appellant raises six points for reversal. We find no merit in the appellant’s arguments, and therefore affirm.

We first discuss the appellant’s argument that there is insufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict. After the state presented its case and appellant’s motion for directed verdict was denied, appellant also rested and properly preserved this issue for appeal by renewing his motion. A.R.Cr.P. Rule 36.21(b). As this court has stated numerous times, we treat directed verdict motions as challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence. See, e.g., Glick v. State, 275 Ark. 34, 627 S.W.2d 14 (1982).

The state’s case against the appellant is built entirely upon circumstantial evidence based mainly on inconsistent statements made by the appellant to various authorities and inconsistencies between those statements and the physical evidence obtained by the officers investigating the drowning. Appellant told the police that his wife fell off the unfinished bridge near Morrison Bluff while they were fishing, and that he jumped into the water in an attempt to save her. Circumstantial evidence can be sufficient to sustain a conviction as it may constitute substantial evidence. Still v. State, 294 Ark. 117, 740 S.W.2d 926 (1987). However, in order for circumstantial evidence to be sufficient to support the finding of guilt in a criminal case, it must exclude every other reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence. Id. Whether the evidence excludes every other reasonable hypothesis is for the fact finder to determine. Id.

The appellant has challenged the sufficiency of the evidence in both of his previous trials, and the evidence is particularly detailed in Bennett I. There, we set out the state’s evidence bearing on appellant’s guilt, but then mentioned “additional evidence” describing how the appellant’s former girlfriend, Connie Mosier, testified that the appellant had previously commented to her the Morrison Bluff bridge would be a good place to kill someone. This third trial is the first where Mosier has not testified. Mosier testified in the second trial, Bennett II, as a rebuttal witness, but did not testify about the appellant’s previous statement about the bridge. Here, the state anticipated having Mosier testify again as a rebuttal witness, but the appellant rested at the end of the state’s case.

In Bennett II, we refused to address the appellant’s sufficiency of the evidence argument citing the doctrine of law of the case. The doctrine of law of the case prevents an issue raised and decided on first appeal from being raised in a subsequent appeal, unless the evidence materially differs between the appeals. Findley v. State, 307 Ark. 53, 818 S.W.2d 242 (1991); Henderson v. State, 284 Ark. 493, 684 S.W.2d 231 (1985). Again, we refuse to address the appellant’s sufficiency of the evidence issue because of the law of the case doctrine. Except for Mosier’s testimony, the evidence presented in the Bennett II and the present case was essentially the same evidence.

Relying again on the law of the case doctrine, we summarily dismiss two additional arguments by the appellant. First, the appellant argues that the trial court erred in allowing Sheriff Bill Kimbriel to testify as an expert witness. Kimbriel testified that it was not possible for the appellant, being over six feet tall, to jump from the bridge, a distance of twenty-five feet, into water four-to-five feet deep without breaking his legs and ankles from the impact. Appellant argued this identical point in Bennett II, and we held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion because the sheriff qualified as having considerable experience concerning the subject of his testimony. Kimbriel’s testimony was essentially the same as his testimony in Bennett II, and therefore the law of the case doctrine applies. Next, the appellant argues that the trial court erred in allowing his deceased wife’s daughter, Gloria Good, to testify about the appellant’s behavior after his wife’s death. Ms. Good presented similar testimony in Bennett II, and the appellant failed to raise this issue in his second appeal. The law of the case doctrine prevents considerations of arguments that not only were made but could have been made in a previous appeal. Findley, 307 Ark. 53, 818 S.W.2d 242.

Turning now to issues peculiar to the present appeal, the appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a new trial on the basis of juror disqualification. Specifically, the appellant argues that juror Linda Brents was disqualified to act as a juror because she was not a resident of Conway County at the time of the trial. Under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-3 l-102(a)(1) (1987), if a juror does not meet the qualifications set out in Ark. Code Ann. § 16-31-101 (1987), he or she is disqualified to act as a juror. One of these qualifications is that the registered voter must be a resident of the county in which he or she is summoned for jury service. Ms. Brents was a resident of Pope County, but was a registered voter in Conway County. As provided in Ark. Code Ann. § 16-31-107(1987), a disqualified juror does not always necessitate the voiding of a verdict. That statute reads as follows:

No verdict or indictment shall be void of voidable because any juror shall fail to possess any of the qualifications required in this act unless a juror shall knowingly answer falsely any question on voir dire relating to his qualifications propounded by the court or counsel in any cause. A juror who shall knowingly fail to respond audibly or otherwise as is required by the circumstances to make his position known to the court or counsel in response to any question propounded by the court or counsel, the answer to which would reveal a disqualification on the part of the juror, shall be deemed to have answered falsely.

During a hearing on the appellant’s motion for a new trial, Ms. Brents testified that she never made an attempt to conceal her residence during the trial. In fact, on the juror questionnaire, Ms. Brents correctly listed her address as Route 1, Box 343, Atkins, Arkansas, which is located in Pope County. She also stated in this questionnaire that she lived fifteen miles from the courthouse. During the court’s voir dire, the prospective jurors were asked if they were qualified electors of Conway County. Ms. Brents testified that she thought the purpose of the trial judge’s question was to determine if the prospective jurors were registered voters in Conway County; she did not know that she had to live in Conway County to be a juror for the trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
825 S.W.2d 560, 308 Ark. 393, 1992 Ark. LEXIS 116, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bennett-v-state-ark-1992.