Cessor v. State

668 S.W.2d 525, 282 Ark. 330, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1643
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 30, 1984
DocketCR 83-127
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 668 S.W.2d 525 (Cessor 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
Cessor v. State, 668 S.W.2d 525, 282 Ark. 330, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1643 (Ark. 1984).

Opinions

Robert H. Dudley, Justice.

Jerry Cessor, appellant, was charged with capital murder. At trial, the proof of guilt was overwhelming. He was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment, without parole. He appeals. We affirm. Jurisdiction is in this court under Rule 29(l)(b).

On September 3, 1982, Hairl Gene Patterson, a route salesman for Tom’s Toasted Peanuts, commenced his routine Friday route through Arkansas City and McGehee. The appellant, formerly a salesman for Tom’s Toasted Peanuts on the same route, knew that Patterson would possess three to four hundred dollars by the time he completed the route. Various witnesses, including the marshal of Arkansas City, saw appellant, a resident of Dermott, in Arkansas City between 12:00 noon and 3:00 p.m. Between 3:04 and 3:25 the first of several witnesses saw Patterson’s route truck parked, with the door open and the motor running, on the side of Highway 4 midway between Arkansas City and McGehee. Patterson and the sales receipts were missing.

Various law enforcement agencies began to investigate. Patterson was still missing on September 8 when investigators questioned appellant about the possibility he might have observed something on September 3 which would be of assistance in solving Patterson’s disappearance. Appellant told them he had been in Arkansas City on the day Patterson had disappeared and that he had talked to the marshal. He further stated he was there to talk to a man in a bar about construction work in the Arkansas City area. Later, the investigator went to the bar and talked to the manager. She did not know appellant. She knew of no one matching his description and stated that she could not recall ever seeing him. The investigator also found there was no construction work in the Arkansas City area. The police then learned that appellant had gone to either Oklahoma or Texas. A week later, at shortly before 9:00 a.m. on September 15, the police were notified that appellant was in Goudy’s Pawn Shop in Monticello.

Almost a month earlier, on August 23, 1982, the Judge of the Dermott Municipal Court had issued a warrant for the arrest of appellant for nonpayment of a fine for shoplifting. Appellant lived in Dermott. The Dermott Chief of Police had notified appellant by telephone that the warrant of arrest had been issued. The existence of the warrant had been communicated to various nearby law enforcement agencies.

Then, on the morning of September 15, after learning that appellant was at Goudy’s Pawn Shop, the radio operator for the Monticello Police Department dispatched an officer to arrest appellant on the outstanding arrest warrant issued earlier by the Judge of the Municipal Court of Dermott. The arresting officer did not know the reason he was directed to arrest appellant until he took him to the Monticello police station. There, appellant asked why he was being held and a second officer told him that he was arrested pursuant to the Dermott warrant.

The state police investigator assigned to inquire about Patterson’s disappearance drove to Monticello and arrived at the police station between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. He told appellant he wanted to talk to him about his being in Arkansas City on September 3 and about the misleading statements he had previously made. The appellant responded he was tired of the police "being on my back” and he stated he wanted to take a lie detector test. He was not interrogated. Arrangements were made with a state police polygraph examiner to give appellant an examination at 9:00 a.m. the next morning, September 16, in Pine Bluff. Appellant was then taken to Dermott and placed in jail under the authority of the Dermott warrant. At 7:30 the next morning the state police investigator took appellant from the jail and drove him to Pine Bluff for the polygraph examination. The appellant was not questioned during the trip. After arriving in Pine Bluff, the polygraph operator told appellant about each of his constitutional rights. After each right was read to him, he was asked if he understood, and when he responded with a positive answer, he initialed the printed Miranda form. He also signed a form stating that he volunteered to take the polygraph examination.

The examiner asked appellant whether he shot Patterson. He responded “Yes, sir, I did” and started crying. He then asked to see the state police investigator who had driven him to Pine Bluff. He gave the state police investigator the following confession. He had been behind in the payment of his bills and desperately needed money. He knew the amount of money Patterson would have as he left Arkansas City on Friday. He purchased a .38 caliber RG pistol and a box of shells at the Wal-Mart store in McGehee on Friday morning, September 3. He left Dermott between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. and arrived in Arkansas City about noon. He talked to the city marshal and later saw Patterson’s truck. He followed the truck and got Patterson to stop by flashing his lights. He then pulled the pistol on Patterson, tied his hands behind him, robbed him of about $300.00 and forced him to get into his car. He drove Patterson to an old shed at Hudspeth and shot him to death. Later, after being taken to the scene, he showed the officers where he had hidden the body. He showed them where he had burned Patterson’s checks, where he had thrown Patterson’s driver’s license and billfold and showed them where he had discarded the rope he had used to tie Patterson’s hands. He told the police the remainder of the box of .38 caliber shells was in his home and he executed a form authorizing them to search for the shells. Like the other items, the shells were found.

At trial, in addition to the confession, the state put in evidence the proof of appellant’s purchase of the pistol and shells on September 3, medical and ballistics proof that his pistol was the murder weapon, and proof that appellant pawned the same pistol on September 15, after the murder. The state also introduced evidence that appellant purchased five feet of nylon rope on the morning of the crime. The rope was identical to that used to tie Patterson’s hands. Patterson’s collections for the day were proven and his empty billfold was shown.

Prior to trial, appellant filed a motion requesting public funds for the employment of a psychologist or psychiatrist, a ballistics expert, and an independent investigator. The trial court ordered that appellant be given a complete record of the state hospital’s psychiatric examination. Prior to trial, appellant, in response to a motion for discovery, stated that he would not rely on an affirmative defense. Under these circumstances, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant’s motion for an unnamed private psychiatrist or psychologist. Love v. State, 281 Ark. 379, 664 S.W.2d 457 (1984).

Appellant did not name the ballistics expert he wished to employ, nor did he support his contention by showing what, if anything, an additional ballistics expert could have offered in appellant’s behalf. Appellant did not deny that he killed Patterson with the pistol he had purchased. At trial, he did not cross-examine the state’s expert. Under these circumstances, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant’s motion for an additional ballistics expert. See Adams v. State, 276 Ark. 18, 631 S.W.2d 828 (1982).

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Bluebook (online)
668 S.W.2d 525, 282 Ark. 330, 1984 Ark. LEXIS 1643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cessor-v-state-ark-1984.