Hicks v. State

12 S.W.3d 219, 340 Ark. 605, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 117
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 9, 2000
DocketCR 99-871
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 12 S.W.3d 219 (Hicks 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
Hicks v. State, 12 S.W.3d 219, 340 Ark. 605, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 117 (Ark. 2000).

Opinion

Ray Thornton, Justice.

Appellants Jeffrey Hicks and Ricardus Flowers were charged with aggravated robbery, theft of property, and residential burglary as perpetrators of crimes connected with the burglary of Doyle Keith and Debbie Ann Coddington’s home in Saline County. They were arrested while fleeing the crime scene and were tried together. The jury returned verdicts convicting each appellant of the charged crimes. Flowers was sentenced to twenty-five years’ imprisonment for the aggravated-robbery offense and twenty years’ imprisonment for the theft-of-property offense and the residential-burglary offense, with the sentences to be served concurrently. Based on Hicks’s status as a habitual offender, he was sentenced to fife imprisonment, a sentence reviewable by this court in accordance with Ark. Sup. Ct. R. l-2(a)(2). Because there was only one trial and one record, we consider their appeals together. Neither appellant has questioned the sufficiency of the evidence in support of their convictions, so we will only summarize the evidence. Each appellant makes a different assignment of error in seeking reversal, and we affirm the convictions.

On December 28, 1997, the appellants, accompanied by John Fell, who remained in the car, entered the Coddington home while Ashley Coddington, Doyne and Debbie Coddington’s daughter, was on the telephone to a friend. Ms. Coddington told her friend of the intrusion, and when the phone was disconnected, the friend called 911, and the dispatcher sent a police officer to investigate.

Hicks held the Coddington family at gunpoint, requiring Mrs. Coddington to remove her jewelry while Flowers struck Ashley Coddington’s boyfriend, Ronnie Heinz, in the head with his gun. Flowers threatened to shoot Mr. Heinz and forced him to assist in collecting guns and electronic equipment from the home and from Mr. Heinz’s car.

As the appellants fled in the getaway car, Mr. Heinz pursued them in his car, using his cellular phone to report their progress to the 911 dispatcher, describing the location of the getaway car. The dispatcher kept Saline County Deputy Dwain Davidson posted, and when Deputy Davidson’s patrol car met the fleeing suspects and Mr. Heinz’s car on Vimy Ridge Road, he promptly turned his patrol car around, turned on his emergency lights and sirens, and gave chase. The patrol car quickly passed Mr. Heinz’s car, but the fleeing suspects did not stop until they had entered Pulaski County. Deputy Davidson was quickly joined by other police officers, who assisted in the apprehension and arrest of the appellants, as well as in the recovery of the stolen property.

Criminal informations were filed against Hicks and Flowers on February 3, 1998, and on April 22, 1998, Hicks filed a motion for discovery. At a hearing held on July 7, 1998, Hicks failed to appear. However, his attorney was present but did not know where Hicks could be found. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest but was later dissolved when it was determined that Hicks’s parole had been revoked on another sentence, and he had been returned to the Department of Correction until October 1998, when he was returned to the Saline County Jail. On October 20, 1998, Hicks was brought before the Saline County Circuit Court on the charges filed in this case, and the court quashed the failure-to-appear warrant.

On September 20, 1998, Flowers had requested a continuance until October 27, 1998, and at that hearing, held on October 27, 1998, “officially waive[d] speedy trial” between that date and the trial setting, February 19, 1999. On December 10, 1998, Hicks filed a motion requesting a severance of his case from Flowers’s case, but no ruling was obtained on the motion until April 7, 1999. Hicks did not raise speedy-trial considerations as á reason for the requested severance. On February 18, 1999, Hicks filed a motion, adopting each and every motion previously filed by his co-defendant, Flowers, and on that date joined in a new motion for a continuance.

Flowers filed two motions to dismiss, one alleging a violation of his right to a speedy trial, and the other a motion to dismiss based on an alleged illegal arrest and on March 12, 1999, a hearing was held on these motions. The trial court denied Flowers’s motion to dismiss based on speedy-trial violations and Flowers did not pursue this argument on appeal. With respect to Flowers’s allegation of an illegal arrest, after hearing testimony from Deputy Dwain Davidson, the trial court found that Deputy Davidson was in fresh pursuit when he arrested Flowers and denied Flowers’s motion. On April 7, 1999, the trial court denied Hicks’s December 10, 1998, motion for severance of the two cases, and the matter was tried to a jury. Both appellants were convicted, and from those convictions they bring their appeals. Each appellant raises one point on appeal, and we affirm the trial court on both points.

Hicks v. State

Hicks’s sole point on appeal is that the trial court erred in its denial of his motion to dismiss on the grounds that his right to a speedy trial under Ark. R. Crim. P. 28.1 (1999) had been violated.

Rule 28.1 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure requires that any defendant charged with an offense in circuit court and held to bail “shall be entitled to have the charge dismissed with an absolute bar to prosecution if not brought to trial within twelve months” from the date of the arrest. Id. When a defendant is not brought to trial within a twelve-month period, the State has the burden of showing the delay was legally justified. Webb v. Ford, 340 Ark. 281, 9 S.W.3d 504 (2000). Once the defendant has made a prima facie showing of a violation of Rule 28.1, the State bears the burden of showing that there has been no violation, in that some of the time comprising the one-year period provided in the rule is to be excluded as “legally justified.” Jones v. State, 329 Ark. 603, 951 S.W.2d 308 (1997). It is generally recognized that a defendant does not have to bring himself to trial and is not required to bang on the courthouse door in order to preserve his right to a speedy trial. Id. The burden is on the courts and the prosecutors to see that trials are held in a timely fashion. Id. Under Rule 28.2 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure, the speedy-trial period commences to run “without demand by the defendant.” Id. See also Gwin v. State, 340 Ark. 302, 9 S.W.3d 501 (2000).

Rule 28.3 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure provides in relevant part that:

the following periods shall be excluded in computing the time for trial. Such periods shall be set forth by the court in a written order or docket entry, but it shall not be necessary for the court to make the determination until the defendant has moved to enforce his right to a speedy trial pursuant to Rule 28 unless it is specifically provided to the contrary below. The number of days of the excluded period or periods shall be added to the time applicable to the defendant as set forth in Rules 28.1 and 28.2 to determine the limitations and consequences applicable to the defendant.
(c) The period of delay resulting from a continuance granted at the request of the defendant or his counsel.

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Bluebook (online)
12 S.W.3d 219, 340 Ark. 605, 2000 Ark. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hicks-v-state-ark-2000.