Cosey v. State

2014 Ark. App. 441, 439 S.W.3d 731, 2014 Ark. App. LEXIS 578
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedSeptember 3, 2014
DocketCR-13-1053
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2014 Ark. App. 441 (Cosey 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
Cosey v. State, 2014 Ark. App. 441, 439 S.W.3d 731, 2014 Ark. App. LEXIS 578 (Ark. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

RITA W. GRUBER, Judge.

hTeleatha Cosey was charged with robbery and theft of property for acts committed against Caitlin Dempsey, who had given a ride to Cosey and another person. Cosey waived her right to a jury trial, was tried before the bench, and was convicted of the robbery charge and a reduced charge of Class D felony theft. She received concurrent terms of seventy-two months’ probation and was ordered to pay a fíne, fees, and restitution.

On appeal, Cosey does not challenge her conviction of robbery. She concedes that she attempted to take Dempsey’s cell phone and employed physical force in fighting to get the phone, and she admits asking Dempsey to stop in the parking lot where the struggle occurred. But she asserts that the back-seat passenger took advantage of the front-seat struggle to steal Dempsey’s wallet and the $3700 it contained. She argues that the evidence was insufficient to show that she had committed the theft and that the State failed to establish ^accomplice liability on her part. We affirm.

A person commits theft of property if she knowingly (1) takes or exercises unauthorized control over another person’s property with the purpose of depriving the owner of the property, or (2) obtains another person’s property by deception or by threat with the purpose of depriving the owner of the property. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-36-103 (Repl.2013). Our criminal code defines “accomplice” as follows:

(a) A person is an accomplice of another person in the commission of an offense if, with the purpose of promoting or facilitating the commission of an offense, the person:
(1) Solicits, advises, encourages, or coerces the other person to commit the offense;
(2) Aids, agrees to aid, or attempts to aid the other person in planning or committing the offense; or
(3) Having a legal duty to prevent the commission of the offense, fails to make a proper effort to prevent the commission of the offense.
(b) When causing a particular result is an element of an offense, a person is an accomplice of another person in the commission of that offense if, acting with respect to that particular result with the kind of culpable mental state sufficient for the commission of the offense, the person:
(1) Solicits, advises, encourages, or coerces the other person to engage in the conduct causing the particular result;
(2) Aids, agrees to aid, or attempts to aid the other person in planning or engaging in the conduct causiiig the particular result; or
(3) Having a legal duty to prevent the conduct causing the particular result, fails to make a proper effort to prevent the conduct causing the particular result.

Ark.Code Ann. § 5-2-403 (Repl.2013).

A person is criminally liable for the conduct of another person if the person is an |saccompIice of the other person ih the commission of an offense. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-2-402(2) (Repl.2013). Factors relevant to determining whether a person is an accomplice include the presehce of the accused near the crime, the accused’s opportunity to commit the crirhe, and association with a person involved in the crime in a manner suggestive of joint participation. Goforth v. State, 2010 Ark. App. 735, 2010 WL 4345706.

Caitlin Dempsey testified that the following events occurred on October 2, 2012. Dempsey, expecting a text from a woman. who was selling a car to her, drove her grandmother’s car to Western Union and then to the house of a friend who was to help her get and drive the other car. Appellant, whom Dempsey had not met before, was introduced there as the frierid’s mother. Appellant later came into a rpom where Dempsey and the friend were counting Dempsey’s money — $300 from her boyfriend and $3400 her mother had wired — and asked Dempsey for a ride home. The seller’s text never came, so Dempsey decided to leave. Appellant then asked if a boy in the house — who was about fourteen or fifteen — could also have a ride. Dempsey testified that she had seen him there once or twice to the past and that appellant seemed to know him. Following appellant’s directions along an unfamiliar back way, Dempsey drove the two of them to a parking lot at The Container Store — appellant to the front seat and the boy sitting behind her.

Dempsey testified that when she stopped the car,

I thought they were going to get out and walk. And that’s when I got robbed.... [Appellant] grabbed my phone off my lap. It took me a minute to register what was going on, and I said, “Give my phone back.” She said I didn’t get it back, and so we fought over my phone.

Dempsey testified that appellant hit her in the struggle; Dempsey bit appellant, trying to make |4her release the phone; and the boy got out, ran around to Dempsey’s open window, and took her wallet from the door. After grabbing her wallet, he “didn’t really do anything ... just took off running.” She chased him until he jumped over a fence, and appellant began walking away to the opposite direction:

As soon as he got off with my wallet, [appellant] stopped fighting for the phone, got out of the car and started walking as I was calling the police. I called the police right then.
I was freaking out. The lady on dispatch was trying to figure out where I was. I was telling her “she’s walking away.” She told me not to follow her, but I did anyway. I parked my car in the middle of Markham Street and I got out of the car and held onto her until a large crowd of people pulled us apart, sat her on the ground and waited for the police to come.

Dempsey explained that she “held onto [appellant] through her shirt. I had my hand wrapped up to her bra strap through her shirt. She continued to beat me in the face trying to get me off of her. She scratched my back really badly.” Photographs of Dempsey’s face and back, taken at the police station shortly after the altercation, were introduced into evidence.

Other witnesses testified that they were driving in the area when traffic stopped on Markham Street and that the following events unfolded. UAMS student Andrea Taylor, describing appellant as a “black woman” and Dempsey as a “white woman,” said she saw the two women get out of a car in the middle of the road. Taylor called 911 when she saw Dempsey grabbing appellant’s shirt and appellant using her fist and purse to beat Dempsey. A crowd gathered, and appellant began “taking off.” Taylor followed her to the parking lot of the IHOP restaurant, where appellant asked, “You’re gonna follow me as long as I walk, aren’t you?” When Taylor replied, ‘Tes, ma’am, I am,” appellant sat down.

IsRachael Grant left her workplace at Massage Envy, beside The Container Store, and was turning onto Markham from the street behind the store when she saw the fight. Describing Dempsey as a “little white girl” and appellant as “a black lady,” Grant said Dempsey “had a hold of the lady,” who was punching Dempsey in the face while Dempsey used her phone.

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Related

Robinson v. State
2017 Ark. App. 689 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2017)
Wilson v. State
2016 Ark. App. 218 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2016)
Harris v. State
2016 Ark. App. 23 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2016)
Jackson v. State
2015 Ark. App. 164 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Brumley v. Arkansas Department of Human Services
2015 Ark. App. 90 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
2014 Ark. App. 441, 439 S.W.3d 731, 2014 Ark. App. LEXIS 578, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cosey-v-state-arkctapp-2014.