Harris v. State

234 S.W.3d 273, 366 Ark. 190
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 20, 2006
DocketCR 05-751
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 234 S.W.3d 273 (Harris 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
Harris v. State, 234 S.W.3d 273, 366 Ark. 190 (Ark. 2006).

Opinion

Annabelle Clinton Imber, Justice.

Appellant Eddy Harris, Jr., appeals the judgment and commitment order of the Pulaski County Circuit Court convicting him of two counts of capital murder and sentencing him to life without parole for the deaths of Craig Tedder and Brad Dison. On appeal, he raises three points of error: (1) the circuit court erred in denying the appellant’s motions for a directed verdict when the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant committed or attempted to commit robbery or that he caused the deaths; (2) the circuit court abused its discretion in fading to suppress a pretrial identification when the identification was the result of an unduly suggestive identification procedure; and (3) the circuit court abused its discretion in denying the appellant’s motion in limine to prohibit Chandra Baskin from testifying that two weeks prior to the shootings, she heard the appellant and her boyfriend, George Larue Hall, planning a robbery, which testimony was irrelevant, unduly prejudicial, and inadmissible as a prior bad act. We find no error and affirm. Because this case involves a fife sentence, our jurisdiction is proper pursuant to Ark. Sup. Ct. R. l-2(a)(2) (2005).

On May 3, 2002, the Little Rock Police Department received a phone call about a shooting on West 12th Street. When officers arrived, they found the bodies of two victims, Craig Tedder and Brad Dison. Both victims had sustained multiple gunshot wounds. The police investigation revealed that Tedder and Dison had come to Little Rock from Jonesboro to recover a large sum of money they had advanced two weeks earlier in connection with an aborted drug transaction. The homicide investigation led by Detective Ronnie Smith eventually turned up information indicating that George Larue Hall and his cousin, Appellant Harris, were responsible for the double homicide.

Thereafter, the police received a tip from an anonymous caller that George Hall and his cousin “E” were on the street bragging about a shooting. The caller was able to give police a home address for “E.” Upon arriving at his home, the police discovered that “E” or “EJ” was Appellant Harris. Apparendy, Hall was living with the appellant in Litde Rock at the time of the murders.

The homicide investigation later revealed that Hall ran up to a parked vehicle after the shooting and asked the occupants, who were coincidentally smoking marijuana, for a ride. In fact, one of the occupants, Jarvis McKeller, testified that he heard the shots just before Hall appeared and started banging on the car window, begging for a ride. Hall even offered to pay the driver two-hundred dollars ($200) for a ride to the appellant’s house, where he was living at the time. McKeller also testified that Hall had “spatters of blood” on his shirt and seemed a bit nervous and shaky. When they arrived at the appellant’s house, Hall told them to get out of the vehicle and go inside. While inside the house, McKeller saw two other individuals besides Hall, and he later identified the appellant as being one of them. Furthermore, McKeller overheard a conversation between Hall and the appellant about “who got the money.” Evidence was presented at trial that the victims had $25,000 cash in a Wal-Mart bag in the back of their vehicle.

Johilda Harris, the appellant’s aunt, and her husband Michael Ford also testified that several weeks after the murders they overheard the appellant and his father discussing the murder. Specifically, Johilda Harris testified at trial that the appellant told her that he had “shot the white boy.”

Chandra Baskin testified that several weeks prior to the shooting she overheard a conversation between the appellant and Hall about a robbery they were planning. In that conversation, Baskin stated Hall told the appellant that the robbery would take place in the alleyway off of 12th Street. She also heard Hall tell the appellant that he would be standing back in some bushes when the robbery took place. On May 3, 2002, the day of the murders, she and Hail spent the night at a motel. The next morning Hall left and came back with a newspaper article about the double murders. Later that day, Baskin went with Hall back to the appellant’s house and then to the crime scene. She stated they stopped the car a few blocks from the location, and Hall got out of the car and jumped a fence. Within five minutes, he returned to the car and they drove to Fordyce. About two weeks later, Baskin overheard another conversation between the appellant and Hall in which the appellant asked Hall if he found the gun he had used. In that conversation, Baskin also heard the appellant ask whether the police could link them to the double homicide.

Finally, cell phone records linked Hall’s cell phone to the victims’ cellphone. Detective Smith testified that on the day of the murders Tedder called Hall at 11:33 a.m. Hall returned the call at 11:53 a.m. and made another call to Tedder at 11:55 a.m. Later that afternoon, Hall received a call from Tedder at 3:51 p.m., and within a few minutes, at approximately 4:05 p.m., Tedder and Dison were shot and killed.

The State charged the appellant with two counts of capital murder. Prior to trial, the appellant filed two motions in limine. The first motion requested that McKeller’s pretrial identification of the appellant be suppressed on the ground that the identification procedure was unduly suggestive. In the second motion, the appellant sought to prohibit Chandra Baskin from testifying about a conversation she heard two weeks before the shooting in which Hall and the appellant talked about planning a robbery. The circuit court denied both motions, and the jury subsequently convicted the appellant of both counts of capital murder. From the judgment of conviction, he now brings this appeal.

For his final point on appeal, the appellant claims that the circuit court erred when it denied his motions for directed verdict. Because the appellant’s claims, based on the denial of a directed verdict, implicate his right to be free from double jeopardy, we consider them first, although it is his third and final point on appeal. Hamm v. State, 365 Ark. 647, 232 S.W.3d 463 (2006). A motion for a directed verdict is treated as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Coggin v. State, 356 Ark. 424, 156 S.W.3d 712 (2004). This court has long held that in reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and consider only the evidence that supports the verdict. Stone v. State, 348 Ark. 661, 74 S.W.3d 591 (2002). We affirm a conviction if substantial evidence exists to support it. Id. 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. Id.

The State charged the appellant with two counts of capital murder on the theory that he and Hall attempted to rob the victims, and in the course of doing so, killed both men. The relevant criminal statutes provide in pertinent part as follows:

A person commits capital murder if. . . [ajcting alone or with one (1) or more other persons, he or she commits or attempts to commit ...

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Bluebook (online)
234 S.W.3d 273, 366 Ark. 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-state-ark-2006.