Gowen v. State

387 S.W.3d 230, 2011 Ark. App. 761, 2011 WL 6062665, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 801
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 7, 2011
DocketNo. CA CR 11-635
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 387 S.W.3d 230 (Gowen 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
Gowen v. State, 387 S.W.3d 230, 2011 Ark. App. 761, 2011 WL 6062665, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 801 (Ark. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

DOUG MARTIN, Judge.

Appellant Robbin Gowen entered a plea of guilty on March 26, 2010, to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia. At that time, the Lo-noke County Circuit Court sentenced her to sixty months’ probation on the felon-in-possession count and twelve months’ probation on the paraphernalia charge. In addition, Gowen was ordered to pay $1500 in fines and $150 in court costs.

The State filed a petition to revoke Gowen’s probation on July 30, 2010, alleging that Gowen had failed to report to her probation officer as required; committed the crimes of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture methamphetamine; associated with a known felon; and failed to pay her fines, court costs, and supervision fees. On August 23, 2010, the State filed a felony information against Gowen, charging her with possession of drug paraphernalia with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine and with maintaining a drug premises.

Following a bench trial during which the circuit court considered both the new criminal charges and the State’s revocation petition, the court found Gowen not guilty of the drug-premises charge but convicted her of possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture, for which the court sentenced Gowen to forty-two months in the Arkansas Department of Correction. In addition, the court revoked Gowen’s probation based on the new conviction, sentencing her to seventy-two months in prison.

Gowen filed timely notices of appeal from both the new conviction and the revocation. On appeal, she argues that the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction for possession of paraphernalia with intent to manufacture, and she contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the revocation of her probation. We find no error and affirm.

In her first argument on appeal, Gowen argues that her conviction for possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture methamphetamine is not supported by substantial evidence because the State failed to establish that she had exclusive possession of the paraphernalia. Our standard of review for determining the sufficiency of the evidence is well set-tied. The test for determining the sufficiency of the evidence is whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence, direct or circumstantial. Holt v. State, 2009 Ark. 482, 348 S.W.3d 562; Walley v. State, 353 Ark. 586, 112 S.W.3d 349 (2003). 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 resorting to speculation or conjecture.” Holt, supra. With regard to circumstantial evidence, such evidence may provide a basis to support a conviction, but it must be consistent with the defendant’s guilt and inconsistent with any other reasonable conclusion. Id. When we review a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, this court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, and only evidence supporting the verdict will be considered. Id. Furthermore, a finder of fact need not lay aside its common sense in evaluating the ordinary affairs of life, and it may infer a defendant’s guilt from improbable explanations of incriminating conduct. Id.

At trial, probation officer Thomas McBroom1 testified that, on June 9, 2010, he received information that led him and probation officer John Rooney to travel to Gowen’s residence. Once there, McBroom observed a teenage boy in the driveway next to the home. A gate blocked the driveway, so McBroom honked his car’s horn to attempt to get someone to come open the gate. When no one came out, he and Rooney climbed over the fence and went to the door of the home. McBroom and Rooney knocked on the door, trying to alert anyone inside to their presence, but, although McBroom could hear noises inside the home, no one would come to the door. McBroom and Rooney continued to knock on the door for thirty to forty-five minutes; while doing so, they walked around the property, and McBroom noticed what appeared to be a burn barrel in the back yard that contained what appeared to McBroom to be components for a meth lab.

Rooney called Officer Kevin Trigg of the probation office for assistance. When Trigg arrived, he also observed the barrel and then contacted Lieutenant James Kulesa of the drug task force. After Kulesa arrived, Rooney and McBroom continued knocking on the door, but still no one responded. At that point, Kulesa called the prosecuting attorney’s office to determine whether they had probable cause to enter the house.

Upon being informed that they had probable cause, the officers again knocked on the door and advised the occupants of the house that they needed to respond or the officers would make a forced entry. Once more, no one responded, so the officers entered the home. Rooney went to one end of the house, where he found Gowen and Clayton Ainsworth, who was also on probation, in a bedroom. Rooney brought Gowen and Ainsworth to the kitchen, and Kulesa then obtained consent from Gowen to search the house.

Rooney searched the residence, and, in the master bedroom, he found a homemade funnel, some plastic tubing, and some other paraphernalia next to the bed. Trigg found coffee filters in a plastic bag underneath the bedroom dresser and two cans of camp fuel in a black bag in the bedroom. Trigg also found a smoking device in the bottom drawer of the dresser, as well as tubing, syringes, gloves, a metal spoon with residue, and coffee filters. Trigg also recalled seeing a pill crusher near the bed.

Kulesa verbally advised Gowen of her Miranda rights, and Gowen told him that she did not know anything about a bottle found in the burn barrel. Gowen also told Kulesa that Ainsworth had been staying with her for a couple of weeks. Kulesa asked Gowen when was the last time she used methamphetamine, and she said, “about two or three days ago.”

Kulesa also found a glass smoking device in a jewelry box in the bedroom where Gowen had been found. Kulesa retrieved the burned bottles from the burn barrel along with some blister packages. In addition, Kulesa found a bag of ammonia nitrate on the side of the bed, along with a pill grinder and some stained tubing. Based on his experience in investigating hundreds of meth labs, Kulesa identified the items discovered in the bedroom and the burn barrel as materials utilized to manufacture methamphetamine.

Leonard Brickell, a pharmacist at the Wal-Mart in Cabot, testified that his pharmacy’s computer records showed that Gowen purchased packages of pseu-doephedrine totaling 2.4 grams on three occasions between May 20, 2007, and July 3, 2010.

Dan Hedges, a forensic chemist with the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory, testified that he tested the materials recovered from Gowen’s home, including a plastic sampling bottle that had a glass vial containing a red-and-white beaded material and dark-gray metallic pieces in it; those materials were positive for methamphetamine and indicative of ephedrine/pseu-doephedrine, as well as sodium nitrate and ammonia. This mixture, Hedges said, was the reaction mixture for manufacturing methamphetamine. The metal spoon found at Gowen’s house tested positive for methamphetamine and oxycodone.

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Related

Robison v. State
2013 Ark. App. 456 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
387 S.W.3d 230, 2011 Ark. App. 761, 2011 WL 6062665, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 801, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gowen-v-state-arkctapp-2011.