Lewis v. State

709 S.W.2d 56, 288 Ark. 595, 1986 Ark. LEXIS 1872
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 28, 1986
DocketCR 85-223
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 709 S.W.2d 56 (Lewis 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
Lewis v. State, 709 S.W.2d 56, 288 Ark. 595, 1986 Ark. LEXIS 1872 (Ark. 1986).

Opinion

Jack Holt, Jr., Chief Justice.

The issues raised in this appeal concern court rulings admitting certain testimony into evidence. We find no error and affirm the trial court. Since this is a second appeal, our jurisdiction is pursuant to Sup. Ct. R. 29( 1) (b) and (j)-

The appellant, David Lee Lewis, was convicted by a jury of first degree battery and aggravated robbery on October 5,1984, and sentenced to 60 years imprisonment. On appeal to this court, the verdict was reversed and remanded on grounds not pertinent here. Lewis v. State, 286 Ark. 372, 691 S.W.2d 864 (1985). A second trial was held September 19 and 20, 1985, which again resulted in the conviction of Lewis and a sentence of 54 years imprisonment. It is from the second conviction that this appeal is brought.

The appellant’s first contention on appeal is that the trial court erred by allowing the prosecution to read the prior testimony of Otha Lee Spikes into evidence at the second trial. The trial court based its ruling on the fact that Spikes was an unavailable witness under Unif. R. Evid. 804.

The proof on this issue reflects that the trial lasted two days: September 19 and 20. A subpoena was issued and served on Spikes which ordered him to appear on September 19. According to the testimony of the bailiff, Spikes appeared on September 19, but he was not called to the stand that day. The bailiff testified he told all the witnesses to return the following day, however, he was not positive Spikes was in the witness room at that time. Spikes did not return the following day. After lunch on September 20, the prosecutor announced to the court that the sheriffs office could not find Spikes. A deputy sheriff testified that he went to Spikes’ home that morning looking for him and spoke to his brother. He then talked to a farmer whose truck fit the description of one Spikes was seen leaving in that morning. In spite of these efforts, the deputy was unable to locate Spikes.

A witness is considered unavailable if he is absent from the hearing and the proponent of his statement has been unable to procure his attendance by process or other reasonable means. Unif. R. Evid. 804(a)(5). When the declarant is unavailable as a witness, his former testimony at another hearing of the same proceeding is not excluded by the hearsay rule if the party against whom the testimony is offered had an opportunity and similar motive to develop the testimony. Rule 804(b)(1). The burden of proving the unavailability of a witness is on the party who offers the prior testimony and on appeal we determine whether the trial court abused his discretion in ruling that the witness was unavailable. Worring v. State, 6 Ark. App. 64, 638 S.W.2d 678 (1982), rehearing denied; Satterfield v. State, 248 Ark. 395, 451 S.W.2d 730 (1970).

We have long held that the right of confrontation by a witness may be dispensed with when that witness is unavailable and has given testimony in a previous proceeding against the same defendant, provided the witness was subject to cross-examination in the first proceeding by that defendant. Satterfield v. State, supra. In Satterfield, we explained that a witness is not “unavailable” “unless the prosecutorial authorities have made a good faith effort to obtain his presence at trial,” quoting Barber v. Page, Warden, 390 U.S. 719 (1968).

In most of the cases decided by this court in which a lack of good faith effort was found, the state issued a subpoena for the witness which was never served. See, e.g., Satterfield, supra, and Holloway v. State, 268 Ark. 24, 594 S.W.2d 2 (1980), rehearing denied. Here, the subpoena was served and, in fact, Spikes appeared on the date stated in the subpoena.

We recently considered this question in Jones v. State, 288 Ark. 162, 702 S.W.2d 799 (1986). In that case, the trial was scheduled for October 30 and the witness, Carl Stuecken, was served with two subpoenas within a week prior to trial. In addition, the prosecutor interviewed Stuecken on Thursday, October 25, and again advised him to be in court on the following Tuesday. The witness developed health problems over the weekend and was admitted to the hospital on an emergency basis on Sunday night. He underwent surgery Monday and was in intensive care on Tuesday, the day of trial. We held:

It was only then that the prosecution learned of his unavailability, having relied on his recent observations and the subpoenas.
There was nothing in these circumstances to alert the prosecution to any likelihood of Stuecken’s absence. Nor do we find that the prosecution should have exercised greater diligence in order to have discovered the absence of this witness.

Here too, the prosecutor relied on his subpoena and his recent observation of Spikes in court, and there was nothing to alert the state to any likelihood that Spikes would not return for the second day of the trial. When he failed to appear, the prosecutor dispatched a deputy sheriff to search for him. Accordingly, we find the state made a good faith effort to obtain the presence of Spikes, and his testimony from the first trial was properly admitted into evidence.

The appellant next challenges the testimony of Investigator Ed Gilbert. Gilbert first appeared on the stand to read Spikes’ prior testimony into evidence. The appellant argues it was error to allow Gilbert to subsequently testify since he, in effect, heard Spikes’ testimony despite the fact that the parties had invoked the rule. Unif. R. Evid. 615. Gilbert’s own testimony consisted of nothing more than naming the witnesses he had interviewed and using a city map to identify the locations of streets and houses testified about by the other witnesses.

In McCorkle v. State, 270 Ark. 679, 607 S.W.2d 655 (1980), as amended on denial of rehearing, we held it was not error to allow a deputy prosecuting attorney to testify on rebuttal when he was not placed under the rule. In so holding, this court stated:

Here . . . [t]he witness was in the courtroom only briefly and did not hear the appellant testify. There is no contention that the testimony he did hear, a policeman’s, was in any way related to the matter about which the deputy testified, nor does it appear from the record. We find no error.

See also, Gustafson v. State, 267 Ark. 278, 590 S.W.2d 853 (1979).

Lewis has not demonstrated that Gilbert’s testimony related to Spikes’ prior testimony in such a way that Gilbert’s answers could have been affected by his presence in the courtroom. The trial court did not err in allowing him to testify.

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Related

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2014 Ark. 407 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 2014)
Jones v. State
931 S.W.2d 83 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1996)
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Russell v. State
607 So. 2d 1107 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1992)
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778 S.W.2d 213 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1989)
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771 S.W.2d 773 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1989)
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755 S.W.2d 577 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1988)
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753 S.W.2d 258 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1988)
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742 S.W.2d 901 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1988)
McDaniel v. State
726 S.W.2d 679 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1987)
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725 S.W.2d 835 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1987)

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Bluebook (online)
709 S.W.2d 56, 288 Ark. 595, 1986 Ark. LEXIS 1872, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-state-ark-1986.