Chapman v. State

38 S.W.3d 305, 343 Ark. 643, 2001 Ark. LEXIS 75
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 15, 2001
DocketCR 00-795
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 38 S.W.3d 305 (Chapman 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
Chapman v. State, 38 S.W.3d 305, 343 Ark. 643, 2001 Ark. LEXIS 75 (Ark. 2001).

Opinion

W.H. “Dub” Arnold,W.H. “Dub” Arnold, Chief Justice.

Appellant, David Kelly Chapman, ice. guilty by a jury of manufacturing a controlled substance, methamphetamine, in violation of Ark. Code Ann. section 5-64-401 (Repl. 1997). Chapman, on parole at the time of his conviction, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction and fined $25,000. Our jurisdiction is authorized pursuant to Ark. R. Sup. Ct. 1-2(a)(2) (2000). Appellant raises two points on appeal. First, Chapman contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. Second, he argues that the trial court erred by admitting evidence of a law-enforcement investigative report as a business-record exception to the hearsay rule. We find no merit in appellant’s arguments, and we affirm his conviction.

Background

On October 22, 1998, Richard Houchin of the Cleburne County Sheriff s office and Bo Hudson, appellant’s parole officer in White County, decided to make a “home visit” to Chapman’s Cleburne County address. Hudson was unaware that Chapman had a residence in Cleburne County. Prior to the visit, Officer Houchin had received a report from Sonny Kennedy, a sales clerk at the Cleburne County Building Center, that Chapman had purchased materials well-known to be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. At trial, Kennedy testified that he had seen appellant purchase such items twice.

When Houchin and Hudson arrived at appellant’s home, accompanied by several other officers, no one was in the house. They investigated several sheds located on the property and discovered that one was locked. They also discovered a man behind the-house, later identified as Bruce Hargrove, who did not have access to either the locked shed or the house but acknowledged that he “stayed there on occasion.”

About twenty minutes after the police arrived, Chapman drove up in a Lincoln four door sedan. As Officer Hudson approached him, appellant put his car in reverse and refused to open the door. Eventually, the car stalled and appellant was apprehended. A woman identified as Tracy Weir was in the passenger seat. Officer Hudson reported that he smelled a strong ammonia odor both outside appellant’s house and around appellant’s car. Subsequently, police searched the car, the house, and the sheds.

According to Chris Harrison, a drug chemist with the State Crime Laboratory, the search revealed all materials necessary for the manufacture of methamphetamine, including pseudoephedrine tablets, starting fluid, sulfuric acid, stripped battery casings, pure lithium, solvents, acetone, mineral spirits, nicotinamide, denatured alcohol, coffee filters, scales, a gas mask, metal fittings, a funnel, strips of plastic tubing, a mini-vac, a tank of anhydrous ammonia, syringes, and trace amounts of methamphetamine on a spoon. A majority of the materials were found in the locked shed. Officers also discovered a cooler in the back seat of appellant’s car that contained 12.739 grams of methamphetamine in oil form. Finally, appellant’s fingerprint was found on a can of denatured alcohol.

I. Sufficiency of evidence

For his first point on appeal, Chapman challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine. When we review a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we will affirm the conviction if there is any substantial evidence to support it, when viewed in the light most favorable to the State. Freeman v. State, 331 Ark. 130, 131-32, 959 S.W.2d 400, 401 (1998). Substantial evidence is that which is of sufficient force and character that it will, with reasonable certainty, compel a conclusion one way or the other, without mere speculation or conjecture. Id. Notably, the evidence may be either direct or circumstantial. Gillie v. State, 305 Ark. 296, 301, 808 S.W.2d 320, 322 (1991). Circumstantial evidence can provide the basis to support a conviction, but it must be consistent with the defendant’s guilt and inconsistent with any other “reasonable” conclusion. Gillie, 305 Ark. at 301, 808 S.W.2d at 322 (citing Trotter v. State, 290 Ark. 269, 719 S.W.2d 268 (1986)).

Here, Chapman contends that the State failed to introduce any direct evidence that he was involved in manufacturing methamphetamine. He reasons that his purchase of tubing and sulfuric acid, items that can be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, was a legal purchase. Additionally, he points out that the State offered no proof that these items were used in manufacturing any methamphetamine.

Similarly, Chapman claims that the circumstantial evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to sustain his conviction because another reasonable theory explained the evidence. Appellant suggests that the circumstantial evidence, which consisted of a great deal of methamphetamine-manufacturing materials found around his home and in the car he was driving, actually belonged to his roommate, Bruce Hargrove, and to Tracy Weir. In support of appellant’s theory, Weir testified that she was responsible for the materials found in the car and that she and Hargrove were making the methamphetamine. Chapman suggests that because the State failed to contradict Weir’s testimony, which presented a reasonable explanation for the presence of the materials, the circumstantial evidence may not sustain his conviction. As to why appellant’s fingerprint was found on a can of denatured alcohol, another item used in manufacturing methamphetamine, Chapman insists that there was no proof that he used the product for manufacturing. Rather, appellant insists that he may have come into contact with the can by simply moving it or throwing it away.

In response, the State points out that it presented evidence found on appellant’s property of all of the ingredients, solvents, chemicals, and hardware necessary to manufacture methamphetamine. Further, Sonny Kennedy testified that he saw Chapman twice purchasing items known to be used in manufacturing methamphetamine. Moreover, appellant was detained after driving a car containing a leaking ammonia tank and 12.739 grams of methamphetamine in unprocessed oil form.

Chapman’s attempted flight at the scene of the search provides additional evidence of guilt. Flight following the commission of an offense is a factor that may be considered with other evidence in determining probable guilt and may be considered as corroboration of evidence tending to establish guilt. Passley v. State, 323 Ark. at 301, 306, 915 S.W.2d 248, 251; Hill v. State, 325 Ark. 419, 931 S.W.2d 64 (1996). Chapman’s failure to notify his parole officer of his residence in Cleburne County also suggests an intent to conceal his activities.

Further, we cannot say that appellant’s explanation for the evidence provided the jury with a reasonable theory to explain its existence. First, Hargrove, Chapman’s alleged roommate, did not appear to have access to either the house or the shed where the majority of the materials were located.

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Bluebook (online)
38 S.W.3d 305, 343 Ark. 643, 2001 Ark. LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapman-v-state-ark-2001.