Marcyniuk v. State

2010 Ark. 257, 373 S.W.3d 243, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 296
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 27, 2010
DocketNo. CR 09-634
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 2010 Ark. 257 (Marcyniuk 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
Marcyniuk v. State, 2010 Ark. 257, 373 S.W.3d 243, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 296 (Ark. 2010).

Opinion

JIM GUNTER, Justice.

|,A Washington County jury convicted Appellant Zachariah Marcyniuk of capital murder and sentenced him to death by lethal injection.1 On appeal, appellant claims that the circuit court erred in denying his motions for directed verdict, that the circuit court erred in allowing certain photographs into evidence and permitting the State to enlarge photographs of the victim on a projection screen, and that the circuit court erred in denying his motion to suppress statements appellant made during a traffic stop. Because this is a capital case involving a sentence of death, our jurisdiction is pursuant to Rule 1 — 2(a)(2) of the Rules of the Arkansas Supreme Court. We affirm on all points.

On March 9, 2008, at 7:21 a.m., a resident at the Colonial Arms Apartments in Fayetteville called 911 after being awakened by a woman screaming for help. One witness |2recalled the woman exclaimed “please don’t kill me.” When Fayetteville police officers arrived ten minutes later, they found a purse and woman’s shoe in front of the door to apartment eleven. A chain-link fence surrounding the pool area was “bowed inward” toward the pool in front of the door to that same apartment. Using a cellular phone found in the purse, the officers called Sharon Wood, who was listed as “mom” in the contact directory. She explained the phone belonged to her daughter, Katie Wood, who lived in that apartment. She gave permission for the officers to break into it to investigate. Upon doing so, the officers discovered signs of a bloody struggle in the kitchen. Thereafter, they discovered Katie’s deceased body in the locked bathroom where she had been placed in the empty bathtub fully clothed. Although not immediately apparent, it was discovered later that she had been stabbed six times and suffered a blunt-force trauma to the back of her head. Officers did notice an assortment of wounds to her arms, hands, and face. Officers discovered a partially open window in the bedroom of the apartment. In addition, they also found Katie’s broken key ring and the front-door key bent nearly in half.

As the investigation progressed, appellant became the lead suspect. Notably, his mother and father contacted police because they were concerned for Katie after appellant showed up at his mother’s home around 8:00 a.m. on the morning of the murder in a disheveled, frantic state asking her to take care of his dog and stating that he thought he had hurt Katie. A warrant for first-degree murder was issued, and that afternoon, appellant was pulled over by Lieutenant Donald Kerr of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for speeding in an area ^approximately five hours from Fayetteville. The on-board camera system illustrated that Officer Kerr approached appellant’s car and that appellant followed the officer back to his patrol car, where the following colloquy occurred while they were both seated in the front: Officer: How’s it going? You were going a little fast.

AppellaNt: Sorry about that.
OffiCEk: Where you headed?
Appellant: Amarillo.
OffiCer: What the purpose of your trip there to Amarillo?
Appellant: I have a friend who lives down there. He’s moving back to Arkansas.
OffiCer: Is the vehicle registered in your name?
Appellant: Well, my mom has the title. So I was going too fast?
Officer: What kind of work you do out there?
Officer: What happened to your face? It’s scratched. How much do you weigh about?
Appellant: 160
OffiCer: I’ll just write a warning on your speed, man, so make sure you watch it. We’ve got to wait and we’ll make sure your license comes back good and we’ll get you out of here in a minute, okay?

After dispatch alerted Officer Kerr that a warrant for first-degree murder had been issued against appellant, the officer exited the patrol car and arrested appellant. Officer Kerr immediately read appellant his Miranda rights, which appellant stated he understood. Thereafter, the following conversation occurred:

Officer: You got any idea about a warrant for murder? Did you kill somebody? Huh?
Appellant: No. Not that I know of.
Offioer: What do you mean not that you know of? Clearly something gave you a scratch you on your face? What’s going on?
[[Image here]]
OfficeR: All right, man, you know your rights. What’s going on?
Appellant: I don’t know what’s going on.
Officer: Well, you know you’re under arrest for a warrant, it’s First Degree Murder.
Officer: So you were going to Amarillo?
Appellant: Yeah, I was thinking about going even further, to see the ocean.
14 Officer: It looks like somebody scratched your face, like a human scratch, it doesn’t look like a dog scratch.
[[Image here]]
Officer: Okay. Where did this happen at? In Arkansas? You’re not gonna say nothing?
Appellant: I’m being honest with you when I say I really don’t remember.

Officer Kerr testified that appellant appeared casual throughout the stop and did not seem nervous. Appellant was taken to a local detention center until Fayetteville Police picked him up the next morning.

At trial, the State presented evidence that appellant had been at work delivering pizzas until nearly 1 a.m., clocking out early in the early morning hours of March 9. Several of Katie’s friends testified that she and appellant had dated for nearly a year and a half but that Katie had recently broken off the relationship. Those friends each told police about an incident that took place at a local bar where appellant and Katie had argued a few days before the incident because he wanted to get back together with her, but she was not interested. Katie had indicated that she believed he had stolen her cellular phone.

Appellant testified in his own defense and did not deny that he caused Katie’s death. He explained that he was upset about the breakup and desperately wanted to get back together with her. He stated that he had been driving past Katie’s apartment routinely in the weeks since the breakup. He testified that he had “kept after her to recommit” and “was obsessed with the idea of getting back with her.” He admitted that he had approached Katie a few nights before the incident at a local bar and “made a pest of’ himself. He claimed that he thought they had worked out their disagreements and might get back together. On the knight before the incident, he stated that he left work early and probably went home before deciding to go to Katie’s apartment to return her cellular phone that he had taken the last time he was in the apartment.

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Bluebook (online)
2010 Ark. 257, 373 S.W.3d 243, 2010 Ark. LEXIS 296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marcyniuk-v-state-ark-2010.