Clark v. State

913 S.W.2d 297, 323 Ark. 211, 1996 Ark. LEXIS 59
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 29, 1996
DocketCR 95-408
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 913 S.W.2d 297 (Clark 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
Clark v. State, 913 S.W.2d 297, 323 Ark. 211, 1996 Ark. LEXIS 59 (Ark. 1996).

Opinions

Donald L. Corbin, Justice.

Appellant, Richard Clark, appeals the order of judgment and commitment, entered October 7, 1994, in the Phillips County Circuit Court convicting him, by jury trial, of one count of rape and sentencing him to imprisonment for forty years. Jurisdiction is properly in this court pursuant to Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 1-2(a)(2). Appellant asserts five points for reversal. We affirm the trial court’s order.

Appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence, so there is no need to recite it in detail. The charge against appellant was the result of a single incident occurring on the evening of April 8, 1993, when appellant picked up his daughter, the victim, then aged ten years, to drive her to his house. The victim testified that on their way to appellant’s house, appellant stopped the car, told her to get in the back seat, put her “short pants” on the floor, put his own clothes on the front seat, got in the back seat with her, lay on top of her while she lay on her back, and stuck “his private” in “her private.” The victim testified that it felt like a bottle, that she told appellant to stop, that appellant did this for about an hour, and that she had to go to the hospital later because appellant had hurt her and she was bleeding. On April 9, 1993, the victim was treated for a bleeding vaginal laceration at the emergency room of Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and was admitted to its medical surgical unit. The hospital recommended that the victim receive mental health counseling, and, subsequently, she did.

Evidence of prior bad acts

Appellant’s first assignment of error is the admission of certain portions of the testimonies of the victim and Donna McKuen, an Arkansas Department of Human Services family service worker, as follows. The victim testified that appellant had never “done this” to her before. When asked whether appellant had “done it” to any of the other children who lived in his house, the victim replied affirmatively, and testified that she had seen appellant do the same thing he had done to her to eight-year-old Kenisha Harris in his house. Ms. McKuen testified that she had interviewed the victim on May 3, 1993, and had asked the victim if anyone had done anything bad to her, and that the victim had answered “yes, my daddy” and described the circumstances of the April 8, 1993 rape. Ms. McKuen also testified that, during the same interview, the victim told her that appellant had “done this to her” four times before.

Appellant contends these testimonies should have been excluded pursuant to Ark. R. Evid. 404(b) and 403, respectively, as character evidence that had no relevance except to show appellant’s propensity to commit the crime charged, and that was unfairly prejudicial. This argument is meritless.

In Greenlee v. State, 318 Ark. 191, 197, 884 S.W.2d 947, 950 (1994), we reversed Greenlee’s conviction for the rape of a five-year-old girl on other grounds, but stated that the trial court did not err by admitting evidence of Greenlee’s four prior convictions for sex-related offenses against other minor victims, as follows:

If this case did not pertain to child abuse or incest, the evidence of other crimes would be inadmissible character evidence under Rule 404(b) of the Arkansas Rules of Evidence. However, we allow such evidence under a pedophile exception to show “similar acts with the same child or other children in the same household when it is helpful in showing a ‘proclivity toward a specific act with a person or class of persons with whom the accused has an intimate relationship.’ ” Free v. State, 293 Ark. 65, 71, 732 S.W.2d 452, 455 (1987) (quoting White v. State, 290 Ark. 130, 717 S.W.2d 784 (1986)). Appellant committed the prior offenses against young children, just as he was accused of doing in this case .... We have long held that such evidence helps to prove the depraved sexual instinct of the accused. Williams v. State, 103 Ark. 70, 146 S.W. 471 (1912).

This rationale is equally applicable to evidence of other sexual acts by the accused with the victim or another child in the same household. See Thompson v. State, 322 Ark. 586, 910 S.W.2d 694 (1995); Jarrett v. State, 310 Ark. 358, 833 S.W.2d 779 (1992); Free v. State, 293 Ark. 65, 732 S.W.2d 452 (1987). Appellant cites no authority contradicting this rule of law in the context of a sex-related offense involving a minor victim. Thus, appellant fails to demonstrate that the trial court’s ruling violated Rule 404(b).

Further, the challenged testimony was relevant to prove the charge of rape, and its probative value substantially outweighed its prejudicial effect. Jarrett, 310 Ark. 358, 833 S.W.2d 779; Free, 293 Ark. 65, 732 S.W.2d 452. Thus, appellant fails to demonstrate that the trial court’s ruling violated Rule 403.

Ark. R. Evid. 615

The victim was permitted, without objection, to testify while seated at a table placed before the witness stand so that she faced the jury. As the examining attorney asked the victim each question, she wrote her response on a piece of paper and the attorney read the response aloud before proceeding to the next question. Appellant’s second assignment of error is the trial court’s ruling, over appellant’s objection pursuant to Ark. R. Evid. 615, that Ms. McKuen would be permitted to sit with the victim while the victim testified. The state requested this seating arrangement to “enable [the victim] to testify betterf.]” The trial court granted the state’s request on the conditions that: (1) if Ms. McKuen was called as a witness by the state, she would testify prior to the victim, (2) Ms. McKuen would not make suggestions to the victim during the victim’s testimony, and (3) Ms. McKuen would not be subject to recall by the state.

Rule 615 governs the exclusion of witnesses from the courtroom so that they may not hear the testimony of other witnesses. The provisions of Rule 615 are mandatory. King v. State, 322 Ark. 51, 907 S.W.2d 127 (1995). Nonetheless, pursuant to exceptions set forth in Rule 615 and in Ark. R. Evid. 616, certain persons, including the victim of the crime, have the right to remain in the courtroom. Appellant does not argue and the record does not reflect that Ms. McKuen was qualified to remain in the courtroom under any exception. Therefore, Ms. McKuen should have been excluded from the courtroom, id., and the trial court erred in ruling otherwise.

We do not find, however, that the trial court’s error requires us to reverse its judgment because appellant fails to show that any prejudice resulted. Prejudice is not presumed and we do not reverse absent a showing of prejudice. Id.; Wallace v. State, 314 Ark. 247, 862 S.W.2d 235 (1993). Appellant argues, without authority, that he was prejudiced because Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
913 S.W.2d 297, 323 Ark. 211, 1996 Ark. LEXIS 59, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-state-ark-1996.