Douthitt v. State

935 S.W.2d 241, 326 Ark. 794, 1996 Ark. LEXIS 662
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 9, 1996
DocketCR 96-622
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 935 S.W.2d 241 (Douthitt 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
Douthitt v. State, 935 S.W.2d 241, 326 Ark. 794, 1996 Ark. LEXIS 662 (Ark. 1996).

Opinion

Tom Glaze, Justice.

Appellant, Ralph Douthitt, was convicted of sixty-one felony counts for rape, incest and violation of a minor, and was sentenced to serve 174 years at the Department of Correction. Douthitt brings this appeal with eight points for reversal. For an understanding of the issues, a short statement of the facts is necessary.

On March 28, 1995, Misty Wilson, eighteen years old, confided in her mother, Tammy Douthitt, that her stepfather, Ralph Douthitt, had been sexually abusing her since approximately 1988, when she was eleven years old. Misty told her mother that over the course of those years, her stepfather had taken numerous nude photos and videos of her. That same evening, Tammy and Misty reported these prior incidents to Sergeant Jerry Hagar, who was with the Independence County Sheriff’s Department. Misty told Hagar some of the photographs and other material might be kept in a metal ammunition box somewhere in the shop building (garage). Hagar asked Tammy if the police could have permission to search her house and the detached garage adjacent to it that night. Tammy agreed, and signed a consent to search form.

Upon arriving at the Douthitt residence the officers began their search of the garage, which was unlocked. Shortly thereafter, Douthitt arrived at the home and was immediately taken into custody. The officers continued their search of the garage, and discovered a false wall under a cabinet, which concealed a secret compartment. Within the secret compartment, the officers found a locked metal box and a videotape, which was attached beneath a shelf in the hidden compartment. The officers removed the locked metal box and broke the padlock with a screwdriver. Inside the box they discovered nude photographs of Misty and Douthitt’s handwritten diary which corroborated what Misty had previously told Hagar. After searching the garage, the officers searched the home, where they found a metal box, photographs of Misty partially nude, and a two-way mirror from a bedroom that allowed viewing into the bathroom.

On April 11, 1995, an arrest warrant was issued for Douthitt based upon the statements of Misty and the evidence seized during the search. On the same day, the State filed its information against Douthitt, charging him with sixty-three (63) felony counts. Counts 1, 2, and 3 each charged Douthitt with rape, a class Y felony; counts 4 through 33 charged Douthitt with violation of a minor in the first degree, a class C felony; and counts 34 through 63 charged him with incest, a class C felony.

Douthitt filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized as a result of the search of his home and garage. He also filed a motion challenging the constitutionality of the State’s incest statute. Both motions were denied.

Douthitt’s first point for reversal concerns the trial court’s denial of his suppression motion. The State’s initial response is that Douthitt’s abstract is flagrantly deficient and fails to support his suppression argument. We must agree.

We initially note that, while Douthitt’s motion below appeared to challenge the evidence seized from both the Douthitt’s home and garage, Douthitt’s argument focused only on the expectation of privacy he may have had regarding those items seized in the garage. He never seriously argued at trial that his wife, Tammy, did not have common authority to consent to the officers’ search of their home; nor does Douthitt question that segment of the search in this appeal. In fact, Douthitt’s argument concedes both Douthitt and Tammy joindy occupied the home, but Douthitt asserts no such joint occupancy or possession of the garage existed, permitting Tammy to consent to its search.

This court’s problem in considering the validity of the officers’ search of the garage arises because Douthitt fails to adequately abstract the exhibits whereby the members of this court can determine what evidence was taken from the garage and what was seized from the home. For example, Douthitt’s abstract refers to 115 exhibits that apparendy had been introduced at trial by the State, but exhibits 29 through 115 reflect no mention as to whether they were found — in the garage or in the home. Douthitt also submits a somewhat abbreviated abstract of Tammy Douthitt’s and Officers Hagar’s and Norman’s testimonies at the suppression hearing, and those testimonies, too, fail to address where most of the 115 exhibits had been discovered. Even Douthitt’s abstract of the trial testimony omits reference to most of the exhibits at issue.

The 115 exhibits in this case are obviously relevant in deciding Douthitt’s suppression argument, and they are also important when considering what, if any, prejudice Douthitt may have sustained by an illegal search of the garage or the locked box found inside the garage. Too, we would point out that a metal box was found in the Douthitt’s mobile home and exhibits were discovered in that box, but Douthitt’s abstract fails to specify which ones.

While one could argue all the exhibits were relevant to the suppression motion raised by Douthitt, the posed photographs of Misty are particularly significant in determining how Douthitt may have been prejudiced by any invalid search of the garage, especially if any of those photos were discovered in the Douthitt home. This court’s rule requires, unless waived by the court upon motion, that the appellant reproduce a photograph and attach it to his abstract whenever that photograph must be examined for a clear understanding of the testimony. See Ark. Sup. Ct. R. 4-2(a)(6); Bunn v. State, 320 Ark. 516, 898 S.W.2d 450 (1995). Here, the record reflects no such waiver motion was made by Douthitt; nonetheless, he still chose not to reproduce and attach the photographs to his abstract.

In examining Douthitt’s abstract, we see where he repeatedly stated he did not abstract certain exhibits or testimony because either he believed those portions of the record were irrelevant to the issues on appeal or he thought he had previously abstracted the relevant testimony. Unfortunately, such abstract omissions have caused considerable confusion for the justices who had no record to help them understand the relevant factual questions and omissions we have discussed hereinabove. Our rule is clear that, without proper abstracting, seven justices would be forced to pore through the sole record of the case on file with the clerk of the supreme court in search of the error(s) propounded by the defense. We have said repeatedly, and our rule so states, that we will not go to the record in search of prejudicial error. Britton v. State, 316 Ark. 219, 870 S.W.2d 762 (1994).

Douthitt’s second argument is that Ark. Code Ann. § 5-26-202 (1987), the statute governing incest, does not provide for equal treatment of relatives by consanguinity and affinity and therefore violates the Equal Protection Clause. As pointed out by the State, this court has decided this issue in Camp v. State, 288 Ark. 269, 704 S.W.2d 617 (1986). In addressing the incest statute, the court mentioned Camp’s argument that that law created a dichotomy of criminal responsibility between stepchildren and natural children.

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Bluebook (online)
935 S.W.2d 241, 326 Ark. 794, 1996 Ark. LEXIS 662, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/douthitt-v-state-ark-1996.