Hayes v. State

2011 Ark. App. 79, 381 S.W.3d 117, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 98
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 2, 2011
DocketNo. CA CR 10-522
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 2011 Ark. App. 79 (Hayes 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
Hayes v. State, 2011 Ark. App. 79, 381 S.W.3d 117, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 98 (Ark. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

RITA W. GRUBER, Judge.

|,Terry Edward Hayes brings this appeal from four felony convictions in his trial by jury in the Washington County Circuit Court. He contends that the circuit court 1) should have granted a hearing on his motion for a new trial, and 2) erred in denying a continuance for his new counsel to prepare for the sentencing hearing. The State contends that no reversible error resulted from the lack of a hearing on the motion for new trial and that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the motion for a continuance. The first point is reversed and remanded. The second point is affirmed.

The procedural and factual history before us is intricate. In amended felony information CR 2009-286-1, Hayes was charged with aggravated assault on a family member, first-degree terroristic threatening, and felon in possession of a firearm, all committed on 12January 19, 2009.1 Felony information CR 2009-1315 charged him with intimidating a witness, committed on June 22, 2009. The four felonies were consolidated for a single trial, which took place over two days on September 23 and 24, 2009. At the trial’s conclusion Hayes was found guilty of each count.

The jury notified the court during sentencing deliberations that it had two questions: whether any sentences imposed would be served concurrently or consecutively, and when Hayes would be eligible for parole. The court answered that it would ultimately decide the running of the sentences but the jury could make a recommendation, and that Hayes’s parole eligibility would be determined by the parole board because he was a habitual offender. The court then learned from defense counsel that, against counsel’s advice, Hayes had disappeared from the courthouse while the jury deliberated his sentence. When the jury completed its deliberations, the court accepted the jury’s recommendations but deferred actual sentencing until Hayes was returned to custody. The court revoked his bail, ordered that an arrest warrant be issued, and ordered that failure-to-appear charges be filed.

On October 6, 2009, Hayes appeared with his trial counsel at a hearing for formal sentencing on his convictions. Counsel was released upon Hayes’s motion after the court confirmed his intent to hire another attorney. The court reset sentencing for the afternoon of October 13, 2009, telling him to have an attorney present or be sentenced without one.

|sNew counsel appeared with Hayes at the rescheduled sentencing hearing. She stated that she was representing her law firm and was ready and willing to proceed should the court deny her oral motion for several days’ continuance. She explained that Hayes had hired Drew Miller, a partner in her law firm, only that morning; Hayes had confidence in Miller, who was unable to attend the sentencing hearing; and Hayes hired the firm to represent him on the new charges as well as the convictions. She reported that Hayes had first spoken with four or more attorneys, two had met with him in jail, and he had been unable to hire Miller until after meeting with him the previous night. Counsel’s basis for requesting a continuance of the hearing was that her firm believed

with the complexity of this case, the two day trial, ... it is in Mr. Hayes’s best interest that we be fully prepared and briefed on the facts of this case in order to articulate some reasons to the court as to ... what the appropriate sentence in this matter would be, Judge.

The court, observing that it failed to see “the complexity of the case at this stage of the particular proceeding, ... simply a sentencing hearing,” ruled that the case should proceed.

Counsel said that her understanding of the facts presented at trial was limited because she had not participated in it, that the convictions were for serious offenses, and that the court might consider concurrent rather than consecutive sentences as recommended by the jury. The court noted the jury’s inquiry during sentencing deliberations about running sentences concurrently or consecutively, the court’s telling the jury of the court’s discretion to decide the matter, and the jury’s failure to make a recommendation on the matter. The court found Hayes guilty of the four felonies and orally pronounced sentences of imprisonment and fines; |4noting the seriousness of the offenses, the court ordered that sentences for counts 3 and 4 run consecutively for a total of forty years on all counts. The court observed that Hayes’s status as a habitual offender should adversely affect his parole eligibility, which the court found appropriate. The court’s original judgment and commitment order and an amended judgment and commitment order were entered on October 19 and November 2, 2009, respectively. Each is a single document reflecting convictions for the three felonies in CR 2009-286-1 and for the single felony in CR 2009-1315, intimidating a witness.

Following the sentencing hearing, Hayes was arraigned on the charge of failure to appear. Counsel, noting that Hayes apparently had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was on medications, moved for a mental evaluation to determine his fitness to proceed and whether he could understand the nature of charges [sic] against him. The court granted her request, continued the arraignment, and ordered an evaluation at Ozark Guidance on October 21, 2009.

Psychiatrist Robin Ross, who performed the court-ordered mental evaluation, diagnosed bipolar disorder, currently with severe depression, and alcohol dependence with physiological dependence. She concluded that Hayes was at the time of the examination unable to assist effectively in his own defense. The basis of this opinion was stated in three parts. First, Dr. Ross stated that Hayes’s conduct during the interview was inappropriate: he was unable to sit still and unable to answer questions, espousing only his lack of will to live, his wanting to die, and the purposelessness of further legal proceedings and the mental Revaluation. Second and third, he did not answer questions on the Georgia Court Competency Test or Folstein Mini Mental State Examination, espousing again suicidal ideation or the pointlessness of answering.

Hayes timely filed a motion and an amended motion for new trial from the original judgment and commitment order. The motions were styled Arkansas vs. Terry Edward Hayes, Case No. CR 09-286-1 in the Circuit Court of Washington County. Dr. Ross’s evaluation was included as an attachment.

Paragraph 8(a) of the motions stated that a new trial should be granted because Hayes suffered bipolar disorder at the time of trial; he had been treated for the disorder for three years and the diagnosis was confirmed in June 2009; in the court-ordered evaluation of October 21, 2009, Dr. Ross determined that Hayes presently suffered from a mental disease; and that evidence of his mental disease had not been presented at any phase of trial. Subsection (b), noting Dr. Ross’s determination less than a month after trial and a week after sentencing that Hayes lacked capacity to assist in his defense on a new charge, asserted that he may have been incompetent during his previous trial, an issue of due process that required examination and a hearing by the circuit court.

Paragraph 4 asserted counsel’s due diligence in moving for new trial and referred to Dr. Ross’s evaluation.

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Bluebook (online)
2011 Ark. App. 79, 381 S.W.3d 117, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 98, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hayes-v-state-arkctapp-2011.