Gilbert v. State

198 S.W.3d 561, 88 Ark. App. 296
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 17, 2004
DocketCA CR 03-1303
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 198 S.W.3d 561 (Gilbert 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
Gilbert v. State, 198 S.W.3d 561, 88 Ark. App. 296 (Ark. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

Robert J. Gladwin, Judge.

Lisa Anne Gilbert was charged with attempted capital murder and filing a false report. A Yell County jury found her guilty of attempted first-degree murder and filing a false report, and she was sentenced to an aggregate term of thirty years’ imprisonment. She raises two points on appeal: (1) the trial court erred in denying her motion to suppress certain statements she made to police; (2) her conviction for attempted first-degree murder should be reversed because she established the defense of renunciation. We affirm.

At the suppression hearing, Lieutenant David Kimball with the Yell County Sheriffs Department testified that he advised appellant of her Miranda rights prior to interviewing her. On the rights form, twenty-year-old appellant indicated that she had graduated from high school and could read and write. Kimball testified that her statement was taped and transcribed. He stated that, during the interview, appellant asked, “Do I need a lawyer or something?” to which he responded, “Are you asking for a lawyer?” Kimball testified that appellant did not answer and that the matter never came up again during the interview.

In denying her motion to suppress, the trial court found that appellant had waived her right to counsel when she signed the Miranda rights form and that her question was not a request for a lawyer and was not a request to stop the interview. The trial court noted that Kimball inquired as to whether she wanted a lawyer and that she did not make the request even though she had ample opportunity to do so.

At trial, Kimball testified that on March 5, 2002, someone called at approximately 9:00 p.m. to report that a child had been abducted. Kimball went to the residence of Brian Blevins to speak to appellant about her missing child, two-year-old S.D.W. Kim-ball testified that appellant did not appear to be distraught at all. He also testified that appellant’s story was different from the time she called the police to when the police arrived to speak with her in person. At first, appellant told Kimball that she stopped her car to pick up the baby’s bottle, which had fallen behind the seat, and that people pulled in behind her car and took the baby. Appellant’s second version was that some people ran her off the road, stuck a gun in her back, and took the child. Kimball testified that he noticed that appellant did not call S.D.W. by name until approximately twenty minutes after he arrived and that she had been referring to him as simply “the child” or “the kid.” Kimball stated that appellant was taken to the police station and was interviewed by him twice. During the first interview, appellant repeated her inconsistent stories. She was interviewed by another officer, who persuaded her to tell him where the police could find S.D.W. When Kimball subsequently interviewed appellant for the second time, he told her that S.D.W. had been found. Kimball testified that appellant stayed with her initial story that S.D.W. had been abducted but then changed her story again. According to Kimball, appellant said that she took S.D.W. to the overlook on Mount Nebo and that she walked with him to the end of the overlook and then turned around and walked back to the car. Kimball stated that appellant told him that she took S.D.W. to the end of the overlook a second time and threw him over the side and did not look back. Kimball testified that S.D.W. was located thirty-five feet and six inches down from the railing. He also stated that he did some research and determined that the temperature that night was twenty-eight degrees at 2:00 a.m. Kimball testified that appellant’s disclosure as to where she thought S.D.W. could be found was instrumental in finding him in such a short time.

Detective Gary Morrison testified that appellant told him two different stories about how her son came to be missing, with a slight variation from what she told Kimball, in that appellant said she stopped to put the baby’s shoe back on and not to retrieve his bottle. Morrison noted that appellant appeared calm but confused. He stated that after appellant revealed S.D.W.’s location, he and other officers went to Mount Nebo to search for the boy. Morrison testified that he walked out on the first overlook and that he thought he saw something, so he called the child’s name. Morrison heard something, so he went down a steep, rocky hill and through a briar thicket. Morrison testified that when he picked S.D.W. up, the child clung to him.

Sheriff Bill Gilkey testified that he interviewed appellant between the two interviews conducted by Kimball. Gilkey stated that he began talking about S.D.W. and explained how cold it would get later in the night and how it was imperative that they find him soon. Gilkey stated that he asked her where they might find S.D.W. and that, although she at first said she did not know, appellant finally said that the abductors might have taken him to Mount Nebo. Gilkey stated that he asked whether S.D.W. was at Mount Nebo and where, precisely. Gilkey testified that appellant said that S.D.W. was at Mount Nebo and could be found at one of the overlooks. Gilkey stated that S.D.W. was found almost immediately after appellant told him where the child could be found.

After the State rested its case, appellant moved for a directed verdict. Her attorney said, “I move for a directed verdict to the offense of capital murder. I don’t believe the State has met the burden of proof that she attempted to commit capital murder and she took any actions which were in the furtherance of her desire to commit capital murder or that her actions were actually for the purpose of committing capital murder.” The trial court denied her motion.

Appellant then took the stand in her own defense. Appellant testified that on the day in question, she called her employer and claimed to be sick when she was actually just under a lot of stress. She testified that she went to her mother’s house and asked her mother to keep S.D.W. that night but that her mother could not and there was no one else to keep him. Appellant testified that she took S.D.W., picked up a friend, and went to her former boyfriend’s house to talk about a disagreement they had several months prior. The former boyfriend would not talk to her, so she left while the others stayed and watched movies. She stated that she drove around with S.D.W. She was upset, and S.D.W. was cranky. Appellant stated that she went to Mount Nebo to think and be alone. She said that she tried everything but could not get S.D.W. to stop crying. Appellant stated that she took him to the end of the lookout and sat him up on a post. She was holding his hands, but he was fussing and squirming. Appellant said that the next thing she knew, S.D.W. was not there. She insisted that he fell and that she did not throw him. Although she heard S.D.W. below, it was dark and she did not think she could get down to him, so she left the mountain. She went back to her former boyfriend’s house and told him to call the police. On the stand, appellant admitted that she lied to the police but insisted that she wanted to find S.D.W. without getting herself into trouble.

Dr. Brad Diner, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Dean Whiteside, a psychologist, opined that appellant suffered from a depressive disorder but that appellant knew right from wrong. Dr. Diner testified, however, that appellant’s emotional state clearly affected her thinking and behavior.

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Bluebook (online)
198 S.W.3d 561, 88 Ark. App. 296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilbert-v-state-arkctapp-2004.