Buffalo v. State

374 S.W.3d 82, 2010 Ark. App. 127, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 118
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 11, 2010
DocketNo. CA CR 09-586
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 374 S.W.3d 82 (Buffalo 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
Buffalo v. State, 374 S.W.3d 82, 2010 Ark. App. 127, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 118 (Ark. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

JOHN B. ROBBINS, Judge.

| ¶Appellant Bailey Buffalo, age twenty-two, was convicted of internet stalking of a child by a jury in Faulkner County. He was sentenced to serve six years in prison in addition to a $7500 fíne. Appellant appeals, arguing that (1) there was insufficient evidence that appellant believed that the persona he chatted with on-line was age fourteen; (2) there was insufficient evidence that appellant’s purpose in meeting this persona was to conduct inappropriate sexual acts; and (3) the trial court abused its discretion in admitting into evidence a cut-and-paste word document from the police computer system because it was not properly authenticated or the best evidence. After reviewing these assertions under the proper standards, we affirm appellant’s conviction.

The evidence leading to the charge and presented at trial is as follows. The Conway Police Department was conducting an undercover crimes-against-children investigation using 12the Yahoo instant-messaging program. Officer Brian Williams testified to his training and experience in investigating internet-stalking-of-a-child and his process of setting up a Yahoo account for that purpose. To set up the account, one must be at least eighteen, so for his computer account profile, he would deliberately type age 100 to prompt anyone who read his profile that his age was false. Williams testified that he would wait online in a chat room until someone initiated contact with him, which is what happened in this instance. Williams stated that all on-line chats like these are archived onto the hard-drive of the police computer system. Williams explained that when he receives comments from suspects that violate the law, he creates a computer folder for that suspect. Williams said that for each such conversation or exchange, he highlights the entire text to copy-and-paste it onto a Wordpad document page. This text is then placed in the suspect’s computer folder.

A pre-trial motion in limine to exclude the printout was denied, so at trial the prosecutor presented Williams with a nine-page printout, which he identified as an accurate depiction of his conversation with appellant. Appellant’s attorney objected to its admission again, asserting that this was not the actual archive and the font might have been different than that on the live chat. Williams responded that he could not be certain if this font was the same as the live chat, but that it was the reader who chose his own font. The trial judge admitted the printout into evidence. Williams continued his testimony that there was never any invisible font or font that would have been hard to read, from his perspective, in the chat. Williams stated that in his on-line chats, he is deliberately vague because he does not want to plead the other person. Rather, he wants the other person to tell him what they want to do.

Moving to this specific chat, Williams described that on the afternoon of January 31, 2008, a conversation was initiated appellant (on-line as “duckhunter50”) with him (on-line as “misty_webb2003”). The entire on-line exchange lasted approximately two and one-half hours, between 2:20 p.m. and 4:50 p.m. The officer asked appellant’s age, sex, and location, to which appellant replied that he was age twenty-two, a man, and living in Little Rock, by typing “22/m/lr.” The officer replied that he was a fourteen-year-old female living in Conway by typing, “14 f Conway.” Appellant’s next line read, “cool.” For the next twenty minutes, the two chatted about their hobbies and their boredom. Appellant asked if “Misty” had a boyfriend and if he could come keep her company; she explained that she did not have a boyfriend, nor did she have a car. “Misty” said that he could come see her when her mother was at work and her friends would not be around. “Misty” offered to skip the next day’s study hall at school. Appellant then said “my favorite activities usually involve takin clothes off, but we can just hang out too.”

By this time, appellant and “Misty” had been chatting on-line approximately an hour and twenty minutes. At about this point, appellant asked “would u come to the door in ur underwear?” and then later “how bout naked?” This progressed to appellant asking, “u like oral?.... u swallow? .... had a guy c * * in your mouth? ... would u?” “Misty” replied “sure,” to which appellant said, “cool.” Another officer, Melissa Grantham, took a cell phone call from appellant in the midst of the online chat. Grantham impersonated a teenage girl, |4and in that conversation, she and appellant made light chitchat and confirmed where they would meet. The conversation returned to on-line chatting, and toward the end of it, appellant said, “btw I don’t have any condoms so ur gonna have to be a good girl.” Concluding, appellant agreed to take a shower, drive to Conway, and meet “Misty” at the nearby Hobby Lobby store. When appellant arrived at the Hobby Lobby, Conway police arrested him. Appellant admitted that he was “duckhunter50.”

Officer Melissa Grantham testified that she assisted Officer Williams in this case by taking the telephone call from appellant, impersonating a young teenage girl. The conversation, recorded on a computer disc, was played for the jury. On it, there was light chitchat and confirmation of meeting at Hobby Lobby.

Thereafter, the State rested, and the defense moved for directed verdict. In it, defense counsel argued that there was no proof that appellant ever acknowledged that the other person was fourteen years old, particularly where it could not be proved with certainty to what comment appellant was responding, “cool.” Defense counsel added that there was no real proof that the discussions of a sexual nature were the reason that they later agreed to meet. The trial court denied the motion, stating that the proof was sufficient to survive the motion for directed verdict. The jury found him guilty, and this appeal followed.

When an appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction on appeal, this court’s test is whether there is substantial evidence to support the verdict. Britt v. State, 83 Ark.App. 117, 118 S.W.3d 140 (2003). Substantial evidence is evidence that is |Bof sufficient force and character that it will, with reasonable certainty, compel a conclusion one way or another. Cluck v. State, 365 Ark. 166, 226 S.W.3d 780 (2006). In determining whether the evidence is substantial, evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the State, considering only the evidence that supports the verdict. Bell v. State, 371 Ark. 375, 266 S.W.3d 696 (2007). Circumstantial evidence may constitute sufficient evidence to support a conviction, but it must exclude every other reasonable hypothesis other than the guilt of the accused. Whitt v. State, 365 Ark. 580, 232 S.W.3d 459 (2006). The question of whether the circumstantial evidence excludes every other reasonable hypothesis consistent with innocence is for the trier of fact to decide. Id. The means to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence is via a motion for directed verdict. Ark. R.Crim. P. 33.1(a) (2009).

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Related

Washington v. State
2016 Ark. App. 565 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2016)
Todd v. State
425 S.W.3d 25 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
374 S.W.3d 82, 2010 Ark. App. 127, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buffalo-v-state-arkctapp-2010.