Henson v. State

320 S.W.3d 19, 2009 Ark. App. 464, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 578
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJune 3, 2009
DocketCA CR 08-1300
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 320 S.W.3d 19 (Henson 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
Henson v. State, 320 S.W.3d 19, 2009 Ark. App. 464, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 578 (Ark. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Judge.

|,A jury in Boone County found appellant Tommy Henson guilty of two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping as a class Y felony. 1 As a consequence, the trial court imposed cumulative sentences totaling seventeen years in prison. For reversal, appellant argues that the evidence is not sufficient to support his convictions for rape, his conviction for kidnapping, or his conviction of kidnapping as a class Y offense. Substantial evidence supports appellant’s convictions. Therefore, we affirm.

The record reflects that appellant and C. Behayza, the victim, lived with one another at various times over the course of a ten-year period. During this time, Behayza gave birth |?to four children who were fathered by appellant. Behayza ended the relationship against appellant’s wishes in January 2007. Appellant and Behayza maintained contact, primarily because appellant kept the children while Behayza was at work. Sometimes, appellant, Be-hayza, and the children did things together on the weekends.

Behayza testified that she did not have consensual sexual relations with appellant after he moved out of her home. In her testimony, she described two incidents in which appellant had sexual intercourse with her following their separation. She testified that the first incident transpired at her home in April 2007. After inspecting her phone bill, appellant formed the belief that Behayza was seeing another man, and an argument ensued. Behayza said that, in the presence of the children, appellant pushed her down the hallway, picked her up, and carried her into her bedroom. With the children screaming in the hallway, appellant locked the bedroom door and removed his clothing. Behayza testified that she tried to get away but that appellant pushed her down, took off her shorts, and engaged in sexual intercourse with her. Behayza said that, the entire time appellant was on top of her, she was kicking, pushing, and telling him that he should not be doing this. At some point, the children came into the bedroom after one child picked the lock on the door. Behayza urged one of the children to go next door to call the police. However, appellant, while naked, chased the children out of the room and told them that they would get in trouble if they called for help.

|sBehayza further testified that, on July 26, 2007, appellant asked her for assistance in taking one of his vehicles to be repaired. She said that appellant became angry while they were driving in her vehicle because he thought that she had an alcoholic beverage in a cooler, which signified to him that she was dating another man. When they exited the vehicle, she locked it so appellant could not look inside the cooler, and appellant retrieved a tire iron from his truck and tried to pry open the back door of her vehicle. When that effort proved unsuccessful, appellant pulled his truck behind Behayza’s vehicle. Appellant’s anger escalated after Behayza told him to leave, and he began poking her in the chest with a hammer. Appellant then asked to go inside the house to get a drink of water. Behayza refused to let him in the house, but appellant snatched her purse and used the keys to gain entry. Once inside the home, appellant discovered that Behayza was preparing to move, and when he came back outside, he demanded the return of some furniture that he claimed belonged to him.

Behayza testified that appellant tossed her keys to her. When she moved toward her vehicle, appellant rushed at her. Be-hayza locked herself inside her vehicle and tried to leave the premises but could not do so because appellant’s car and a basketball goal blocked her path. Appellant slashed a tire on Behayza’s vehicle with his pocket knife, and he tried to break a car window with the tire iron. Behayza slightly rolled down her window, and appellant reached inside the vehicle and unlocked the door. He then grabbed her shirt and Lrousted her out of the vehicle. Behayza said that appellant dragged her by the arm through the garage and into the kitchen. Because she was crying, Behayza used the pretense of retrieving a tissue, but she instead ran out of the house. Appellant caught her on the front porch, and although Behayza was holding onto a support beam, he jerked her away and forced her back inside the house into the kitchen, down the hallway, and into the bedroom. Behayza said that she tried to hold onto the door frames as he dragged her through the house but that appellant pried her loose from them. Once inside the bedroom, appellant took off his clothes, removed Behayza’s clothes, and had sex with her. Behayza testified that she was hitting him and telling him to stop. The doorbell rang just after appellant completed the act. Behayza said that she grabbed her pants and shirt and “just took off.” She said that appellant grabbed her arm and told her not to answer the door but that she “got loose” because he could not hold onto her and get dressed at the same time.

Behayza discovered a police officer at the door, and the officer placed appellant under arrest. Charles Christopher, Be-hayza’s neighbor, had summoned the police. Christopher had heard appellant and Behayza arguing in the front yard, and he witnessed appellant trying to break the car window with a tire iron. He also saw appellant drag Behayza into the house. Christopher testified that Behayza looked frightened and was screaming for appellant to stop. During the investigation, officers found a button from Behayza’s shirt near her vehicle and another button from her shirt in the bedroom. Semen collected from a rape kit | ¡¡matched appellant’s DNA. The officers also removed a pocket knife from appellant’s person upon his arrest.

Shane Reese, a detective with the Harrison Police Department, interviewed appellant. During the interview, appellant and Reese mainly discussed the July 26 incident. Appellant related that he knew that Behayza did not want to have sex with him. He said that he “messed up” and knew that it was wrong. Appellant stated that Behayza “just laid there,” and he did not recall her telling him to stop or her hitting him. He said that he did not know why he forced her to have sex or why he did not stop, except to say that he hoped that forcing her to have sex might rekindle their relationship. Appellant further acknowledged that the day he had sexual relations with Behayza in April involved the “same stuff’ that occurred on July 26.

In this appeal, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence with regard to his convictions for both rape and kidnapping. Although we will address appellant’s arguments separately, the standard of review for each is the same. The test for determining the sufficiency of the evidence is whether the verdict is supported by substantial evidence. Moore v. State, 355 Ark. 657, 144 S.W.3d 260 (2004). Substantial evidence is evidence forceful enough to reach a conclusion one way or the other beyond suspicion or conjecture. Smith v. State, 352 Ark. 92, 98 S.W.3d 433 (2003). When a defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence convicting him, the evidence is viewed in the light most | ^favorable to the State, and only evidence supporting the verdict will be considered. Moore, supra.

We first consider appellant’s argument concerning his convictions for rape.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
320 S.W.3d 19, 2009 Ark. App. 464, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 578, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henson-v-state-arkctapp-2009.