Jorge Antonio Casillas v. State of Arkansas

2025 Ark. App. 117, 708 S.W.3d 90
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 26, 2025
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2025 Ark. App. 117 (Jorge Antonio Casillas v. State of Arkansas) 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
Jorge Antonio Casillas v. State of Arkansas, 2025 Ark. App. 117, 708 S.W.3d 90 (Ark. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

Cite as 2025 Ark. App. 117 ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION III No. CR-24-135

Opinion Delivered February 26, 2025

JORGE ANTONIO CASILLAS APPEAL FROM THE GARLAND APPELLANT COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 26CR-23-159] V. HONORABLE KARA A. PETRO, STATE OF ARKANSAS JUDGE APPELLEE AFFIRMED

BRANDON J. HARRISON, Judge

Jorge Antonio Casillas appeals the denial of his motions to transfer to the juvenile

division of the circuit court. He contends that the circuit court erred in its findings on

factor 7 listed in Ark. Code Ann. § 9-27-318(g) (Repl. 2020), which requires the circuit

court to consider whether there are facilities or programs available to the judge of the

juvenile division of circuit court that are likely to rehabilitate the juvenile before the

expiration of the juvenile’s twenty-first birthday. We affirm.

In a criminal information filed 22 March 2023, the State charged seventeen-year-old

Casillas with first-degree battery and first-degree terroristic threatening (case No. 26CR-

23-159).1 The attached affidavit explained that on 19 March 2023, officers responded to a

call of shots fired on Spring Street in Hot Springs. Police were unable to locate the suspect

1 Casillas turned eighteen on 21 October 2023. 1 at that time but did interview the juvenile male victim, MC, who said that he had been

walking on Spring Street when a Hispanic male known as “Mexican Jay” (later identified

as Casillas) confronted him. Casillas pointed a pistol at MC, placed the barrel of the pistol

to MC’s forehead, and stated that he was going to kill MC. MC attempted to leave, but

Casillas and two other male suspects hit in the back of his head, knocking him to the ground.

Casillas and the others continued to strike MC with their fists and with the butts of pistols.

MC was able to get up and began to run away, and Casillas shot MC in his right thigh.

In a separate case, the State filed a criminal information on 26 May 2023 charging

Casillas with kidnapping (case No. 26CR-23-322). According to the attached affidavit, Hot

Springs police responded to a missing-persons call on 17 May 2023 and were told that Amir

Ellis had been missing since the day before. Casillas and two other individuals were

identified as suspects in the disappearance, and after his arrest on May 27, Casillas reported

that he, Nathaniel Speed, and Alexia Chambers took Ellis, bound and at gunpoint, to an

unidentified area near Jessieville High School. Casillas said that Speed walked Ellis into the

woods at gunpoint, and approximately twenty minutes later, Speed returned to the vehicle

alone.

Casillas moved to transfer his cases to juvenile court. Arkansas Code Annotated

section 9-27-318(g) dictates that in deciding a motion to transfer, the circuit court is to

consider the following factors:

(1) The seriousness of the alleged offense and whether the protection of society requires prosecution in the criminal division of circuit court;

(2) Whether the alleged offense was committed in an aggressive, violent, premeditated, or willful manner;

2 (3) Whether the offense was against a person or property, with greater weight being given to offenses against persons, especially if personal injury resulted;

(4) The culpability of the juvenile, including the level of planning and participation in the alleged offense;

(5) The previous history of the juvenile, including whether the juvenile had been adjudicated a juvenile offender and, if so, whether the offenses were against persons or property, and any other previous history of antisocial behavior or patterns of physical violence;

(6) The sophistication or maturity of the juvenile as determined by consideration of the juvenile’s home, environment, emotional attitude, pattern of living, or desire to be treated as an adult;

(7) Whether there are facilities or programs available to the judge of the juvenile division of circuit court that are likely to rehabilitate the juvenile before the expiration of the juvenile’s twenty-first birthday;

(8) Whether the juvenile acted alone or was part of a group in the commission of the alleged offense;

(9) Written reports and other materials relating to the juvenile’s mental, physical, educational, and social history; and

(10) Any other factors deemed relevant by the judge.

The circuit court is required to make written findings on all the above factors. Ark. Code

Ann. § 9-27-318(h)(1). However, there is no requirement that proof be introduced against

the juvenile on each factor, and the circuit court is not obligated to give equal weight to

each of these factors in determining whether a case should be transferred. D.D.R. v. State,

2012 Ark. App. 329, 420 S.W.3d 494.

The circuit court convened a hearing on Casillas’s motions to transfer on 21 August

2023, and the State presented the following evidence. Investigator Don Yoak with the

Garland County Sheriff’s Department was assigned to investigate the shooting that occurred

3 in March 2023. Yoak interviewed the victim, who identified his assailant and also shared

with police a video of the incident from social media. The video clearly shows the victim

and Casillas as his assailant.

Brian Branstetter, an investigator with the Hot Springs Police Department, was

assigned to the Ellis case. He interviewed witnesses that had been at the residence where

Ellis had last been seen, including Takahi Shelby, who eventually told police that Speed,

Chambers, and Casillas had taken Ellis from the residence.

Thomas Plummer, a detective with the Hot Springs Police Department, was also

involved in the Ellis investigation. He interviewed Casillas, who described the night of

Ellis’s disappearance as follows. Speed drove to the residence where Ellis was located. Speed

and Casillas went inside, while Chambers waited in the vehicle. He and Speed forcibly

escorted Ellis out to the vehicle, and Speed restrained Ellis by binding his hands and feet

with rope. Speed was also in possession of a handgun. Speed pointed or gestured with the

gun repeatedly while driving, and he hit Ellis’s head or face at least once. They eventually

stopped on the side of the road, and Speed and Casillas got Ellis out of the vehicle. Casillas

then waited at the vehicle while Speed led Ellis away at gunpoint. Casillas heard more than

one gun shot, and Speed returned approximately twenty minutes later. Casillas later cleaned

the inside of Speed’s vehicle. Casillas attempted to lead police to the location where the

vehicle had stopped but was unsuccessful. At the time of the hearing, Ellis had not been

located.2

2 Ellis’s body was discovered off Highway 7 in Jessieville on 16 December 2023. On 4 January 2024, the State amended the criminal information in 26CR-23-322 to include a charge of capital murder.

4 Jordan Leonard, a juvenile probation officer in Garland County, had been Casillas’s

probation officer since October 2021 and testified to some of Casillas’s history with the

juvenile system. The State also admitted his extensive juvenile records, which showed that

Casillas has been involved with the juvenile court system since he was five years old, when

a family-in-need-of-services (FINS) petition was filed on 20 September 2011. The attached

affidavit of Wendy Baker, his grandmother, stated that she and Harry Baker (grandfather)

needed assistance taking care of Casillas and his younger brother. The children were in

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