Cavin v. State

855 S.W.2d 285, 313 Ark. 238, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 323
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 24, 1993
DocketCR 92-978
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 855 S.W.2d 285 (Cavin 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
Cavin v. State, 855 S.W.2d 285, 313 Ark. 238, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 323 (Ark. 1993).

Opinion

Jack Holt, Jr., Chief Justice.

The appellant, Ernest' Metcalf Cavin (Cavin), was convicted of the first degree murder of Taylor Timken Todd (Todd) and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. As his arguments on appeal are without merit, we affirm.

On May 7, 1991, police were called to Todd’s home. Testimony at trial revealed that Pulaski County Sheriff Deputies Bragg and Scott arrived to find the front door open. They saw Cavin inside the living room going through drawers and also saw a figure lying on the bed in the corner bedroom.

Cavin, who met the two deputies on the porch, appeared to have blood on his face, hands, and clothing. He told Deputy Scott that “he’d had a bad night and thought he’d just killed this man.”

Police found Todd lying partially on the bed and bleeding profusely from the head. At that point, Cavin told the deputies, “Well, I gotta go now,” and started out the door, but the officers caught him and put him in handcuffs. Local emergency ambulance service staff arrived soon afterwards and began to administer first aid to Todd, but he died at the scene.

The police placed Cavin in their police car and read him his Miranda warnings. He told them that he had to kill Todd and he did not understand why they were arresting him. Cavin had on his person a roll of money surrounding the victim’s driver’s license.

At the trial, the State introduced the testimony of Deputy Scott as well as that of Ms. Claudette Lamar, a licensed psychiatric technician nurse with Central Arkansas Screening and Assessment Center (a division of Professional Counseling Associates), and Ms. Karen Carlton, a registered nurse with St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center.

Ms. Lamar testified that she received a phone call from Cavin at about 1:30 to 2:00 a.m. during the course of her work as an emergency telephone operator. According to her testimony, Cavin identified himself and asked to speak to his doctor. When Ms. Lamar told him that his doctor was not available, Cavin told her that he had killed somebody; specifically, he said that he had stabbed a man ten times with an ice pick.

Ms. Carlton’s testimony was similar to Ms. Lamar’s. She was working in the Psychiatric Ward at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center on May 7,1991, when she received a call from Cavin. The hospital operator had transferred the call to her. During Cavin’s conversation with Ms. Carlton, he told her that he thought that he had killed someone and that there was blood all over. Although he refused to provide his victim’s name, he told her that he had “beat and beat” his victim over the head. When Ms. Carlton asked him why he had beaten the man, he said that the person would not shut up.

Ms. Carlton said that Cavin was hysterical and distraught through most of the conversation. When she asked him his name, he said that he was Ernest Cavin; he even spelled his last name.

The State also presented the testimony of Dr. Violette Hnilica, a forensic pathologist at the Arkansas State Crime Lab, who performed the autopsy on Todd the day after his death. According to her report, Todd was a seventy-five year old man suffering from both lung cancer and coronary disease. It was her determination that he suffered five to ten head injuries in the form of blunt trauma and that these injuries were serious enough to cause death. She also found at least five marks on the neck indicting strangulation. Her opinion was that Todd had died due to both the blunt trauma and the strangulation.

Detective Ron Tucker with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s office also testified. Tucker was aware that Cavin’s rights had been read to him previously and advised him of his rights again. He asked Cavin if he was sober, and he said yes. Tucker recorded Cavin’s statement but claimed that during the unrecorded part of the interview, Cavin had stated that Todd had injected him with some unknown drug, and Cavin had fallen asleep. He was awakened by Todd fondling his genitals, but Cavin claimed he merely told him to go away. Further, Cavin stated that he did not remember much of the night of the murder.

During the recorded portion of his statement, Cavin asked the police if they thought he needed a lawyer, but they never gave him a direct answer explaining that they could not make that decision for him.

After hearing all of the evidence, the jury returned a verdict of guilty to the charge of first degree murder and sentenced Cavin to life imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. It is from that sentence that he appeals.

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATIONS

Cavin clams that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the testimony of medical personnel, Claudette Lamar and Karen Carlton.

In reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress, we make an independent determination based on the totality of the circumstances and reverse only if the trial court’s ruling was clearly against the preponderance of the evidence. Cook v. State, 293 Ark. 103, 732 S.W.2d 462 (1987).

Cavin complained to the trial court that the testimony of these two women should be suppressed because revealing his conversations to either of them violated A.R.E. Rule 503 in that the statements were made as part of a privileged psychotherapist/patient relationship. The trial judge disagreed, explaining that no privilege existed because the relationship required by Rule 503 had not been established at the time the statements were made.

A.R.E. Rule 503 provides in pertinent part:

(a) (1) A “patient” is a person who consults or is examined or interviewed by a physician or psychotherapist.
(2) A “physician’ is a person authorized to practice medicine in any state or nation, or reasonably believed by the patient so to be.
(3) A “psychotherapist” is (i) a person authorized to practice medicine in any state or nation, or reasonably believed by the patient so to be, while engaged in the diagnosis or treatment of a mental or emotional condition, including alcohol or drug addiction, or, (ii) a person licensed or certified as a psychologist under the laws of any state or nation, while similarly engaged.
(4) A communication is “confidential” if not intended to be disclosed to third persons, except persons present to further the interest of the patient in the consultation, examination, or interview, persons reasonably necessary for the transmission of the communication, or persons who are participating in the diagnosis and treatment under the direction of the physician or psychotherapist, including members of the patient’s family.
(b) General Rule of Privilege.

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Bluebook (online)
855 S.W.2d 285, 313 Ark. 238, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cavin-v-state-ark-1993.