Hughes v. State

46 S.W.3d 538, 74 Ark. App. 126, 2001 Ark. App. LEXIS 462
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJune 6, 2001
DocketCA CR 00-748
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 46 S.W.3d 538 (Hughes 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
Hughes v. State, 46 S.W.3d 538, 74 Ark. App. 126, 2001 Ark. App. LEXIS 462 (Ark. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

LARRY D. VAUGHT, Judge.

Appellant was arrested and i /charged with: 1) possession of a schedule II controlled substance — methamphetamine; 2) manufacture of a schedule II controlled substance — methamphetamine; and 3) possession of drug paraphernalia. He was convicted of possession of methamphetamine, attempted manufacture of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Appellant’s first point on appeal is that the trial court erred in admitting the alleged drug paraphernalia. We disagree and affirm appellant’s paraphernalia conviction. Appellant also argues that the trial court erred in allowing the State to amend its information that originally charged manufacture of a controlled substance to attempted manufacture a controlled substance after a directed verdict on the original charge had been entered in his favor. We agree and reverse appellant’s conviction of attempted manufacture.

Appellant was arrested after an anonymous call was placed to the Greene County Sheriff s Office, indicating that there were two suspicious men near a wooded area in Greene County. Appellant and his co-defendant were observed by poHce leaving a wooded area and getting into a green Geo Metro. The appellant was observed driving the car and the police pulled him over in a driveway near the location where they first entered the vehicle. Both appellant and his co-defendant were asked to produce identification. After appellant presented his identification, the officer determined he had multiple outstanding city warrants and a parole revocation warrant. The vehicle registration indicated the vehicle belonged to Wayne Wilson. Appellant was then arrested by Sheriff Langston.

Sergeant Toby Carpenter arrived at the scene to assist the arresting officer. When Carpenter arrived at the scene, appellant was in the Sheriff s pickup and the co-defendant was standing near the Geo Metro. Prior to the car being towed, Carpenter inventoried the vehicle. The inventory indicated the following items had been recovered from the vehicle: a black garden hose, burnt tinfoil, two bottles of pseudoephedrine, moist coffee filters, and a white substance (later identified as methamphetamine). After taking the co-defendant to jail, Carpenter returned to an area just south of the scene of the arrest. Photographs taken by Carpenter showed a trash bag, which was found partially covered by brush and trees, that contained an altered flashlight, a drain opener, salt, coffee filters, several baggies, a soda botde fid, a glass measuring cup, and several muddy shoe prints. The area also contained two bottles of anhydrous ammonia, four punched cans of starter fluid, and an HCI generator.

At trial, appellant moved for a directed verdict on all three counts. The trial court denied his motion as to the counts related to possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, but granted the directed verdict on the manufacture count. After granting the directed verdict on the manufacture, the trial court allowed the State to amend the information to attempted manufacture, over appellant’s double-jeopardy objection. Appellant was convicted of: 1) possession of methamphetamine and sentenced to a term of ten years; 2) possession of drug paraphernalia and sentenced to a term of ten years; and 3) attempted manufacture methamphetamine and sentenced to a term of thirty years. All sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Appellant does not challenge his possession-of-methamphetamine conviction on appeal.

Sufficiency of the Evidence

On appeal, Hughes’s first point heading challenges the admissibility of the evidence in support of possession of drug paraphernalia; however, the actual argument contained in the appeal has elements of a sufficiency of the evidence argument. Additionally, appellant has met the minimum threshold of citing authority or convincing argument in support of the point. The argument section of appellant’s brief contains phrases like “no evidence presented”; “the jury had to leap to the conclusion”; “was there any proof’; and “the State failed to prove.” Also, the State concedes in its brief that much of the authority appellant cites in his first point of appeal goes to sufficiency of the evidence. While it is true that the appellant’s sufficiency of the evidence argument could have been offered in a much more straight-forward manner, the argument was preserved for appeal and will be considered by this court.

A directed-verdict motion is treated as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence and will be considered before all other arguments on appeal. Burmingham v. State, 342 Ark. 95, 27 S.W.3d 351 (2000). When reviewing a denial of a directed verdict, we look at the evidence in the fight most favorable to the State, considering only the evidence that supports the judgment or verdict. Darrough v. State, 330 Ark. 808, 810, 957 S.W.2d 707, 708 (1997); Killian v. State, 60 Ark. App. 127, 128, 959 S.W.2d 432, 433 (1998). We will affirm if there is substantial evidence to support a verdict. Ryan v. State, 30 Ark. App. 196, 786 S.W.2d 835 (1990). Evidence is sufficient to support a verdict if it is forceful enough to compel a conclusion one way or another. Hall v. State, 315 Ark. 385, 868 S.W.2d 453 (1993). Where the evidence is circumstantial, the appellate court must consider whether the evidence was sufficient to exclude all other reasonable hypotheses. Carter v. State, 324 Ark. 395, 398, 921 S.W.2d 924, 925 (1996).

After appellant’s arrest, the Geo Metro belonging to Wayne Wilson was inventoried. A black rubber hose with blue residue on one end was found in the “backseat or back portion” of the vehicle.1 The hose was introduced into evidence over appellant’s objection. A piece of burnt aluminum foil was also introduced over appellant’s objection. The officer that conducted the inventory of the vehicle testified that the tinfoil was beside the passenger’s seat, in the console of the vehicle.2 The testimony indicates that both of these items were in plain view. Also, damp coffee filters containing a “large amount of moist white powder” were found under the driver’s seat and were admitted into evidence without objection. The coffee filters and the white powder (subsequently identified as methamphetamine) both smelled strongly of ether. Finally, a botde of pseudoephedrine was found under the driver’s seat. Under the passenger’s seat the inventory revealed another bottle of pseudoephedrine and a police scanner.

A report written by Toby Carpenter, regarding what the arresting officer had observed at the time of arrest was introduced into evidence, without a hearsay objection. The report placed appellant in the driver’s seat of the vehicle registered to Wayne Wilson. The report, authored by Toby Carpenter, recounted what Sheriff Lang-ston observed when he responded to a call regarding two suspicious men.3 Specifically, Carpenter’s statement said, “Langston asked both subjects for their ID and learned that the driver, Robert Hughes, had multiple warrants . . . .”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wilson v. State
196 S.W.3d 511 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2004)
Hughes v. State
66 S.W.3d 645 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2002)
Sanders v. State
61 S.W.3d 871 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2001)
Hughes v. State
46 S.W.3d 538 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
46 S.W.3d 538, 74 Ark. App. 126, 2001 Ark. App. LEXIS 462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hughes-v-state-arkctapp-2001.