Lewis v. State

396 S.W.3d 775, 2012 Ark. App. 184, 2012 WL 639529, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 283
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 29, 2012
DocketNo. CA CR 11-341
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 396 S.W.3d 775 (Lewis 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
Lewis v. State, 396 S.W.3d 775, 2012 Ark. App. 184, 2012 WL 639529, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 283 (Ark. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

ROBIN F. WYNNE, Judge.

|,Appellant Daniel Lewis appeals following his convictions for aggravated robbery and theft of property, arguing that the trial court erred by denying his motion in limine and his motion for mistrial. We affirm.

The State charged Lewis with two counts of aggravated robbery and two counts of theft of property following a robbery at a Twin City Bank branch in southwest Little Rock on February 5, 2009. On that date, Lewis waived his Miranda rights and gave a voluntary statement in which he confessed to using a firearm to rob the bank and steal a car. Prior to trial, Lewis moved to suppress his confession, arguing that it was coerced. That motion was denied after a hearing. Lewis later filed a motion in limine to preclude the State from using his confession or, alternatively, to sanction the State for destroying potentially exculpatory evidence. In support of that motion, Lewis argued that the State failed to provide a copy of a surveillance video of the room where he had been held and interrogated.

12Puring the hearing on the motion in limine, detectives testified that each interrogation room is monitored by a video/audio camera that records constantly but, due to technology constraints, records over itself every thirty days. Although there is no written policy with regard to the system, it is generally understood that it exists for administrative purposes in the event a suspect alleges a detective behaved inappropriately. In that case, the recording can be retrieved upon request, as long as the request is made within thirty days of the recording. The system is not used as an investigative tool. Detective Terrell Vaughn, who took Lewis’s statement, testified that he did not rely on the surveillance system to record Lewis’s confession; rather, he used a separate tape recorder. Detective Vaughn never went back and reviewed the surveillance video. To his knowledge, no allegation of mistreatment had been made by Lewis in the thirty days following his interrogation. Neither Detective Vaughn nor Sergeant Jim Lesher, who also testified at the hearing, had any reason to believe the surveillance system was not working on the day of Lewis’s interrogation.

Ruling from the bench, the trial court denied Lewis’s motion and found that the video recording in question did not exist. The court also found that, assuming the recording equipment was working properly on the day of the interrogation, Lewis should have requested a copy within thirty days if he believed something improper had taken place. Lewis then proffered testimony that he was locked in an interrogation room all day and that repeated requests for an attorney were denied. He alleged that, after several hours, the detectives paraded his girlfriend — who had been with him shortly before and after the robbery occurred — past his room and told him that if he did not give a statement, they would lock herjjiip. He claimed that a female detective told him that his girlfriend would be locked up and his children would be taken away. Lewis stated that, at that point, he agreed to give a statement in exchange for the detectives releasing his girlfriend without charges. According to Lewis’s proffered testimony, he was arraigned in district court the very next day and spoke to the public defender about the circumstances surrounding his confession. However, it was not until almost two months later that his public defender filed a general motion for discovery on his behalf.

The case proceeded to a jury trial, and during the trial, the State sought to impeach Terri Pippins, Lewis’s sister, based on bias. On cross-examination, the deputy prosecutor asked Pippins if she would ever do something to help her brother “escape,” if she would bring him something he should not have, and whether she had attempted to smuggle contraband to Lewis when she hugged him or brought clothing for him the morning of the trial. Lewis objected to the questioning, and the court cautioned the prosecutor about bringing too much attention to the fact that Lewis was incarcerated pending trial. Lewis then moved for a mistrial, which was denied. The jury found Lewis guilty of all charges, and he was sentenced to a total of fifty years’ imprisonment. This appeal followed.

Motion in Limine

Lewis’s first point on appeal is that the trial court erred by denying his motion in limine regarding the surveillance video. The decision to admit or exclude evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial court, and we will not reverse a trial court’s decision regarding the admission of evidence absent a manifest abuse of discretion. Morris v. State, 358 Ark. 455, 14458, 193 S.W.3d 243, 246 (2004). Moreover, we will not reverse absent a showing of prejudice. Id.

Lewis contends that the trial court erred by finding that the surveillance video “never existed.” It is possible that Lewis misconstrues this ruling, because at no point did the trial judge say that the video “never existed.” It is unclear from reviewing the transcript whether the judge found that the video never existed or that it no longer existed at the time Lewis requested a copy of it. In either case, the trial court properly denied Lewis’s motion. The State is only required to preserve evidence that is expected to play a significant role in the defense, and then only if the evidence possesses both an exculpatory value that was apparent before it was destroyed and a nature such that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means. Autrey v. State, 90 Ark.App. 131, 142, 204 S.W.3d 84, 89 (2005). To prove a due-process violation based on the destruction of potentially useful evidence, the defendant must also show bad faith on the part of the State. Id., 204 S.W.3d at 90. At least two of these elements are not present in this case.

Although Lewis argues that the detectives’ knowledge of the surveillance system’s purpose meant they understood the video’s exculpatory function, the record contains no evidence that any exculpatory value in this particular recording was apparent before its destruction. The testimony at the motion hearing indicated that no request for the video or allegation of misconduct had been made until well after thirty days had passed. The State could not have known at that time that the video would become important to Lewis’s case. Lewis points to the testimony of a Federal Bureau of Investigations agent, Special Agent John LBrunell, who stated that, pri- or to giving his statement, Lewis expressed concern about officers fabricating charges against his girlfriend. However, that testimony was taken at a different hearing — the hearing on Lewis’s initial motion to suppress — several months before the surveillance video ever became an issue, and Special Agent Brunell did not testify at the hearing on Lewis’s motion in limine. Furthermore, the testimony itself does not support Lewis’s argument. According to Special Agent Brunell, Lewis only expressed concern that his girlfriend would become involved; he did not indicate that he had been threatened with her involvement.

Furthermore, Lewis has not shown that the detectives acted in bad faith. We have held that a bare contention of bad faith, without supporting facts, does not demonstrate that the State acted in bad faith in destroying evidence. Autrey, 90 Ark.App. at 142, 204 S.W.3d at 90.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
396 S.W.3d 775, 2012 Ark. App. 184, 2012 WL 639529, 2012 Ark. App. LEXIS 283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-state-arkctapp-2012.