Boykin v. State

409 S.W.3d 321, 2012 Ark. App. 274, 2012 WL 1327792, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 369
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedApril 18, 2012
DocketNo. CA CR 11-936
StatusPublished

This text of 409 S.W.3d 321 (Boykin v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boykin v. State, 409 S.W.3d 321, 2012 Ark. App. 274, 2012 WL 1327792, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 369 (Ark. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

DOUG MARTIN, Judge.

hA Hot Spring County jury found appellant Dewayne Boykin guilty of possession of cocaine and simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms. He was sentenced as a habitual offender to twenty years’ imprisonment on the conviction for possession of cocaine and sixty years’ imprisonment on the drugs-and-firearms conviction, with those sentences running consecutively. Boykin argues on appeal that the trial court erred in denying his directed-verdict motions and motion to suppress evidence seized during a search of his vehicle. We affirm.

At approximately 5:00 a.m., on April 7, 2011, Kenny Henson, who worked with loss prevention at Walmart, observed a vehicle on video surveillance pulling into the store’s parking lot. Boykin emerged from the driver’s seat and went inside the store. Henson continued to watch Boykin once he was inside Walmart over the course of approximately two hours. Boy-kin went to the electronics department, kneeled down in front of a case | ¡^containing iPods and iPads, and began prying open the glass doors of the ease with a screwdriver. Henson stated that Boykin worked on opening the case for a while and then went to the main aisle and appeared to be “watching for folks.” Henson contacted the Malvern Police Department.

Officers Joseph Pauli and Chris Coke with the Malvern Police Department were dispatched to Walmart. Henson gave the officers a description of Boykin and his clothing and told the officers that Boykin was in the electronics section near the iPod-iPad case. In an aisle near the electronics department, Pauli saw a screwdriver with a black-and-blue handle on the floor. There was no one at the iPod-iPad case when the officers reached the electronics department, but Pauli observed two shopping carts in the area full of miscellaneous merchandise. Pauli and Coke returned to the front of the store where they met Henson who advised that Boykin had just fled from the store. The officers saw Boykin running toward a sport utility vehicle (SUV) parked at the Murphy USA gas station located adjacent to Walmart’s parking lot.

Pauli and Coke got into their patrol cars and blocked the SUV from leaving the gas station. Boykin was standing at the rear of the SUV near the passenger’s side, holding a set of keys in his hand. The officers asked Boykin whether the SUV belonged to him, and Boykin stated that he owned the vehicle. The officers then arrested Boykin and conducted an inventory of the SUV’s contents. Pauli and Coke later testified that it was police policy, upon the arrest of a suspect, to inventory a vehicle’s contents prior to towing it.

| ¡¡Inside the SUV’s glove compartment, the officers found the registration to the SUV, confirming that Boykin was in fact the owner. Officers also found a loaded handgun in a pocket behind the passenger’s seat. Pauli later testified that the driver of the SUV could “definitely” reach the handgun. Officer Coke found a small baggie containing six or seven rocks of what appeared to be crack cocaine. At trial, Stacy Winkler, a forensic chemist at the Arkansas State Crime Lab, confirmed that the substance was 1.0684 grams of cocaine base. The baggie was located inside a spiral notebook found in a pocket below the radio on the driver’s side of the console. Coke later testified that the cocaine was level with the driver’s knee. In the SUV’s rear compartment, officers found several miscellaneous tools, including small screwdrivers, wire snips, and pliers. Pauli later testified that the screwdrivers in Boykin’s vehicle matched the one that Pauli had observed in the aisle at Walmart.

After the inventory, Pauli and Coke returned to Walmart where they viewed the surveillance video. The officers observed Boykin’s vehicle in the Walmart parking lot and saw that someone was sitting in the passenger’s seat. The officers then observed a person crawling from the back seat into the driver’s seat. That person then drove the SUV to the Murphy USA gas station. Coke recalled that, when he and Pauli arrested Boykin, there were two men standing approximately thirty to forty feet away near the gas pumps and that, at the time, he did not think the men were involved.

Photographs introduced into evidence at Boykin’s trial depicted scratches on the iPod-iPad case, which Pauli testified appeared to have been caused by prying the end of the case’s glass doors. At trial, Henson testified that, ultimately, nothing was stolen from Walmart.

|4I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

We first consider Boykin’s argument challenging the sufficiency of the evidence in order to preserve his right to freedom from double jeopardy. Malone v. State, 364 Ark. 256, 217 S.W.3d 810 (2005). In reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we determine whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence, direct or circumstantial. McKenzie v. State, 362 Ark. 257, 208 S.W.3d 173 (2005). Substantial evidence is evidence of sufficient force and character that it will, with reasonable certainty, compel a conclusion one way or the other, without resort to speculation or conjecture. Fultz v. State, 333 Ark. 586, 972 S.W.2d 222 (1998). Circumstantial evidence provides the basis to support a conviction if it is consistent with the defendant’s guilt and inconsistent with any other reasonable conclusion. Id. The question of whether the circumstantial evidence excludes every hypothesis consistent with innocence is for the jury to decide. Ross v. State, 346 Ark. 225, 57 S.W.3d 152 (2001). It is only when the evidence leaves the jury solely to speculation or conjecture that it is insufficient as a matter of law. Boston v. State, 69 Ark.App. 155, 12 S.W.3d 245 (2000). We view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and only evidence supporting the verdict will be considered. Paschal v. State, 2012 Ark. 127, 388 S.W.3d 429.

Arkansas Code Annotated section 5-64-401(c) provides that it is unlawful for any person to possess a controlled substance. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-64-401(c) (Repl.2005). It is not necessary for the State to prove literal physical possession of drugs in order to prove possession. Mings v. State, 318 Ark. 201, 884 S.W.2d 596 (1994). Possession of drugs can be proved by constructive possession. Dodson v. State, 341 Ark. 41, 14 S.W.3d 489 (2000). In border to prove constructive possession, the State must establish beyond a reasonable doubt (1) that the defendant exercised care, control, and management over the contraband, and (2) that the defendant knew that the matter possessed was contraband. Ewings v. State, 85 Ark.App. 411, 155 S.W.3d 715 (2004).

We note that no one actually occupied Boykin’s SUV at the time of his arrest. The State maintains that the joint-occupancy analysis is inapplicable; however, even if we were to apply the joint-occupancy analysis, the result would be the same.

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Related

Colorado v. Bertine
479 U.S. 367 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Flowers v. State
282 S.W.3d 767 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2008)
Malone v. State
217 S.W.3d 810 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2005)
Dodson v. State
14 S.W.3d 489 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2000)
McKenzie v. State
208 S.W.3d 173 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2005)
Davis v. State
94 S.W.3d 892 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2003)
Blockman v. State
11 S.W.3d 562 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2000)
Ewings v. State
155 S.W.3d 715 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2004)
Ross v. State
57 S.W.3d 152 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2001)
Thompson v. State
966 S.W.2d 901 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1998)
Mings v. State
884 S.W.2d 596 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1994)
Fultz v. State
972 S.W.2d 222 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1998)
Welch v. State
955 S.W.2d 181 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1997)
Holt v. State
2009 Ark. 482 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2009)
Franklin v. State
378 S.W.3d 296 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2010)
Paschal v. State
2012 Ark. 127 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2012)
Boston v. State
12 S.W.3d 245 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
409 S.W.3d 321, 2012 Ark. App. 274, 2012 WL 1327792, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boykin-v-state-arkctapp-2012.