Lacy v. State

2010 Ark. 388, 377 S.W.3d 227, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 484
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 21, 2010
DocketNo. CR 09-1340
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 2010 Ark. 388 (Lacy 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
Lacy v. State, 2010 Ark. 388, 377 S.W.3d 227, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 484 (Ark. 2010).

Opinion

ROBERT L. BROWN, Justice.

|,Appellant Brandon Eugene Lacy was convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery during a jury trial that began on April 28, 2009 and concluded on May 13, 2009. Lacy appeals the judgment against him for capital murder and aggravated robbery and the sentences of death and life, respectively. He raises multiple points on appeal. We affirm.

On August 30, 2007, Melissa Lacy (Brandon Lacy’s estranged wife) and her boyfriend, David Weaver, went to visit Randy Walker at his home on Beaver Hollow Road in Garfield, Arkansas, and discovered that there had been a house fire. They entered Walker’s residence and found what was later determined to be Walker’s burned body in the bedroom. They called 911 and reported the fire and their finding of Walker’s body. The Northeast Benton County Fire Department and the Benton County Sheriffs Department, including Investigator Greg Hines, Investigator Richard Feast, and Fire Marshall William Hanna, arrived at Walker’s residence to investigate. Investigator Hines interviewed and took the statements of Melissa |2Lacy and David Weaver and then began a tour of the residence with Investigator Feast. Upon investigating the scene, Investigator Hines classified Walker’s death as an unexplained fire death and Walker’s body was sent to the State Medical Examiner for an autopsy. After investigating the scene on the night of August 30, 2007, Investigators Hines and Feast harbored some suspicion as to the cause of Walker’s death, but the scene that night was determined to be a suspicious fire death and was not considered a crime scene.

Fire Marshall Hanna was also at the scene on August 30, 2007 to investigate the cause and origin of the fire. He determined that the fire originated in the bedroom and that the fire eventually self-extinguished due to lack of oxygen. Fire Marshall Hanna was able to rule out accidental causes of the fire because there was no indication that the fire was caused by a faulty space heater or electrical wiring and because he discovered what appeared to be a melted, red plastic gas can next to the bed. He also viewed Walker’s body and noticed some unusual marks or avulsions on the back of his neck.

After viewing Walker’s body at the scene, Fire Marshall Hanna was suspicious that the death could have been a homicide but did not definitively reach this conclusion because of the condition of the body and the extent of the burns. Samples of burned fabric, burned debris, burned cardboard, and Walker’s burned clothing were submitted to the State Crime Lab for testing. The melted plastic container found on the carpet in Walker’s bedroom was also submitted to the lab for testing. The results of these tests, contained in a report issued November 20, 2007, revealed a residue of gasoline on each of these items and identified the |splastic container as a red fuel container with a partially burned paper in the spout. Once Fire Marshall Hanna received these results, he concluded that the fire was caused by an ignitable liquid, gasoline, that had been poured around the area of the bed in the master bedroom.

Walker’s family members, many of whom lived in Kansas, were notified of his death on August 30, 2007, by Megan Wright, Melissa Lacy’s sister. Randall Walker, Randy Walker’s son, Randall’s two grandmothers, and his fiancee left Kansas for Arkansas early in the morning on Friday, August 31, 2007. On that same day, Randall spoke with Detective Feast of the Benton County Sheriffs Office, who told Randall that they had gotten all of the evidence from Walker’s residence and that Walker’s family could try to salvage what was left. Randall and his fiancee returned to Walker’s residence on Saturday, September 1, 2007 with a U-haul truck and began removing some items from the residence. Several items that did not fit in the U-haul truck were moved into the garage. When Randall returned to his father’s residence a few days later, there were detectives inside Walker’s home who told Randall that they received new evidence and had new leads in the investigation of his father’s death. Randall was not permitted to remove additional items from his father’s home.

On September 2, 2007, Brandon Lacy called the Rogers Police Department and told police officers to pick him up at the Hi-D-Ho Restaurant in Rogers, Arkansas, because he had murdered someone. When the police arrived, they discovered that Lacy was intoxicated, and they arrested him for public intoxication. The Rogers Police Department contacted the Benton County Sheriffs Office to report that they had someone in custody claiming to have |4murdered Randy Walker. Once Lacy arrived at the Benton County Jail, Investigator Hines made the decision to wait to question him until the morning, to allow Lacy to become sober.

The next morning, Septembér 3, 2007, after properly Mirandizing Lacy, Investigator Hines began the first of several interviews with him. During this interview, Lacy admitted that he had participated in the murder of Randy Walker. Lacy further admitted to hitting Walker over the head with a fire place poker and forcing Walker to open the safe in his bedroom. Lacy also admitted to going out to the garage, getting a gas can, and setting a fire in Walker’s bedroom. Lacy repeatedly stated that he was unable to remember all of the details of that night. He informed the police officers that one of his friends was also with him that night, and that his friend had hit Walker over the head with a weight bar. In a subsequent interview the same day, Lacy identified his friend as Brody Laswell.

Laswell was arrested and admitted to being involved in Walker’s murder. Las-well admitted that he hit Walker with the weight bar, but claimed that it was only after Walker showed a gun. Laswell claimed that a struggle ensued. Laswell took the police investigators to the location where he and Lacy had disposed of the evidence from the night of the murder, including their clothes and a knife.

In later interviews, Lacy admitted to stabbing Walker in the chest with a fire place poker and slitting his throat with a knife. He said that he thought Walker was “pretty much gone” after Laswell hit him over the head with the weight bar, but he stabbed him and slit |shis throat to make sure. Lacy admitted that he took a .22 caliber gun from Walker’s residence and hid it at his cousin’s house.

Dr. Frank Peretti, the associate medical examiner, determined that Walker’s causes of death were blunt force trauma to both the head and torso, stabbing wounds to the chest, and cutting wounds to the neck. Krista Hall, a serologist at the State Crime Lab, identified Walker’s blood on both Lacy’s and Laswell’s shoes.

Lacy was charged with premeditated capital murder, felony capital murder, and aggravated robbery. Following the guilt phase of the trial, he was convicted by a jury of capital murder and aggravated robbery. Following the sentencing phase of the trial, he was sentenced to death and life imprisonment, as already stated in this opinion. It is from these convictions that he brings this appeal.

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

Although in his brief on appeal, Lacy challenges the circuit judge’s denial of his motion for directed verdict as his last point on appeal, this court determines challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence before addressing other points on appeal due to double-jeopardy concerns. See Hunter v. State, 330 Ark. 198, 201, 952 S.W.2d 145, 146 (1997).

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

Related

Lacy v. Payne
E.D. Arkansas, 2023
Roberts v. State
552 S.W.3d 446 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2018)
Lacy v. State
545 S.W.3d 746 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2018)
Taffner v. State
541 S.W.3d 430 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2018)
Turner v. State
538 S.W.3d 227 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2018)
Kauffeld v. State
2017 Ark. App. 440 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2017)
Williams v. State
2017 Ark. 145 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2017)
Evans v. State
2016 Ark. 377 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2016)
Carter v. State
2016 Ark. 378 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2016)
Ashby v. State
2016 Ark. 205 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2016)
State v. Lacy
2016 Ark. 38 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2016)
Figueroa v. State
2016 Ark. App. 30 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2016)
Sharp v. State
2015 Ark. App. 718 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Ross v. State
2015 Ark. App. 613 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2015)
Gonder v. State
2015 Ark. 351 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2015)
Grant v. State
2015 Ark. 323 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2015)
Smith v. State
2014 Ark. 246 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2014)
Bowden v. State
2014 Ark. 168 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2014)
Pitts v. State
2014 Ark. 132 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2014)
Spearman v. State
2013 Ark. 196 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2010 Ark. 388, 377 S.W.3d 227, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lacy-v-state-ark-2010.