Oliver v. State

687 S.W.2d 850, 14 Ark. App. 240, 1985 Ark. App. LEXIS 1896
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedApril 3, 1985
DocketCA CR 84-135
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 687 S.W.2d 850 (Oliver 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
Oliver v. State, 687 S.W.2d 850, 14 Ark. App. 240, 1985 Ark. App. LEXIS 1896 (Ark. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinions

Melvin Mayfield, Judge.

The appellant was convicted in a j ury trial of the offense of burglary and was sentenced to five years in the Department of Correction and assessed a fine of $1,000.00. We affirm.

Appellant’s first argument is that the evidence was insufficient because it did not show intent to commit an act punishable by imprisonment.

A Little Rock policeman testified that in the early morning hours of October 9,1983, he responded to an alarm call at Stephens School. After finding the doors on the east side of the building locked, he walked around a corner of the building and saw a pair of feet coming out of a window. He stepped back and watched a man, whom he identified as the appellant, climb out the window. The policeman called for the man to halt, but he started running, jumped two fences, raced through the neighborhood, and was finally taken into custody when found hiding on the back porch of a house about three blocks from the school.

The officer testified there was a security light in the area where the man climbed out of the window and that he could be clearly seen. There was testimony by the officer and school personnel that the window was in a room in which desk drawers and file cabinets had been opened, and things had been scattered all over the floor. The window had been broken, the wires to the alarm system had been cut, and a bicycle, identified by appellant’s girl friend as belonging to him, was found near the broken window.

Burglary is committed by entering or remaining unlawfully in an occupiable structure of another person with the purpose of committing therein any offense punishable by imprisonment. Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-2002 (Repl. 1977). Under Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41 -2001 (1), a building where people assemble for purposes of education is an occupiable structure regardless of whether it was occupied at the time of the crime. Barksdale v. State, 262 Ark. 271, 555 S.W.2d 948 (1977). However, in Norton v. State, 271 Ark. 451, 609 S.W.2d 1 (1980), the court acknowledged that Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684 (1975), held that due process requires the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of the crime charged; and the Norton opinion stated that specific criminal intent and illegal entry are both elements of the crime of burglary, and that existence of the intent cannot be presumed from a mere showing of the illegal entry. In Norton the conviciton of burglary was reversed because, “At most, the evidence revealed the appellant was standing inside the doorway of an office building which he had illegally entered and from which nothing was taken.” So the appellant contends that since, in the instant case, nothing was taken from the school, there is no evidence that he intended to commit a crime punishable by imprisonment.

We think, however, there is evidence here, not present in Norton, that is sufficient to support a finding of the requisite intent. In Golden v. State, 10 Ark. App. 362, 664 S.W.2d 496 (1984), we said evidence that the appellant had rifled a secretary’s desk and removed some Band-Aids after an illegal entry into the building was direct evidence of his intent to commit a misdemeanor theft which is punishable by imprisonment. And in Jimenez v. State, 12 Ark. App. 315, 675 S.W.2d 853 (1984), we held evidence that items had been wrapped in curtains torn from a living room window, and that dishes, glasses and silverware had been wrapped in towels and placed in a large pail was sufficient to support a finding that the appellant, who was arrested inside an unoccupied house he had broken into, intended to commit a theft punishable by imprisonment. The evidence here is somewhat similar to that in Golden and Jimenez.

In addition, in this case, there is evidence that the appellant fled from the police officer and Norton said, “We have consistently suggested that the flight of an accused to avoid arrest is evidence of his felonious intent.” Furthermore, the evidence here is sufficient to establish criminal mischief in the second degree, Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-1907 (Repl. 1977), a class B misdemeanor punishable by not more than 90 days imprisonment in the county jail, Ark. Stat. Ann. §§ 41-901 and 41-902 (Repl. 1977). Of course, the jury’s verdict was based largely upon circumstantial evidence, but it presented a question for the jury to determine. Drew v. State, 8 Ark. App. 120, 648 S.W.2d 836 (1985). On appeal we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, Johnson v. State, 7 Ark. App. 172, 646 S.W.2d 22 (1983), and when viewed in that light we find that the verdict is supported by substantial evidence.

Appellant’s second argument is that a mistrial should have been granted because of a remark made during the prosecuting attorney’s closing argument.

This is a matter that has been carefully considered in a number of cases. In Phillips v. State, 12 Ark. App. 319, 676 S.W.2d 753 (1984), we recognized that a prosecuting attorney’s comment on the failure of the accused to testify violates the privilege against self-incrimination granted by the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. See Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609 (1965) and United States v. Hasting, 461 U.S. 499 (1983). Phillips also discussed the Arkansas cases dealing with this issue and there is no need to reiterate that discussion here. The sum of the matter is that the prosecutor may not make any direct reference to the failure of the accused to testify but may argue the weight of the evidence and state that the testimony of a witness is uncontradicted; however, undue repetition of the fact that the evidence is uncontradicted or the use of language calculated to call the jury’s attention to the failure of the accused to testify, will cause a mistrial or reversal. See Moore v. State, 244 Ark. 1197, 1209, 429 S.W.2d 122 (1968) and Hall, The Bounds of Prosecutorial Summation in Arkansas, 28 Ark. Law Rev. 55 (1974).

In this case the prosecutor said in his closing argument:

As we told you in voir dire and we went through this quite a bit and all during the trial we’ve got two elements that we’ve got to prove. Three if you count the defendant being there and Officer Cullison said that was him. So let’s make a little triangle here for the defendant and set him aside over here because Officer Cullison’s testimony is unrefuted.

Counsel for appellant interrupted and at the bench, out of the jury’s hearing, he objected on the basis that the prosecutor had made a comment on the defendant’s not testifying, and counsel asked for a mistrial.

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Related

Gossett v. State
191 S.W.3d 548 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2004)
Geer v. State
55 S.W.3d 312 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2001)
Atkins v. State
979 S.W.2d 903 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1998)
Hutcherson v. State
806 S.W.2d 29 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1991)
Oliver v. State
691 S.W.2d 842 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
687 S.W.2d 850, 14 Ark. App. 240, 1985 Ark. App. LEXIS 1896, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oliver-v-state-arkctapp-1985.