Robert Herrington v. State of Arkansas

2025 Ark. App. 316
Court of Appeals of Arkansas·Decided May 21, 2025·Published

Opinion

Cite as 2025 Ark. App. 316 ARKANSAS COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION II

No. CR-24-554

ROBERT HERRINGTON Opinion Delivered May 21, 2025

APPELLANT

APPEAL FROM THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT

V. [NO. 49CR-22-8]

STATE OF ARKANSAS HONORABLE ANDY RINER, JUDGE APPELLEE

AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED AND REMANDED IN PART

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Judge

Robert Herrington appeals his convictions by a Montgomery County jury on charges of (1) Class Y felony rape—sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with another person who is less than fourteen years old; (2) Class Y felony rape—sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with a minor by the minor’s guardian; (3) Class A misdemeanor third-degree domestic battering; (4) Class Y felony introduction of a controlled substance into the body of another; and (5) Class D felony possession of less than two grams of methamphetamine, for which he was sentenced to an aggregate term of 120 years’ imprisonment. He argues that (1) there was insufficient evidence of the victim’s age as required for the first count of rape; (2) there was insufficient evidence to support the introduction-of-a-controlled-substance conviction; (3) his possession-of-methamphetamine conviction is barred by the Joshua Ashley-Pauley Act—codified at Arkansas Code Annotated sections 20-13-1701 to -1705 (Repl.

2023); (4) the imposition of a copy-expense fee is illegal; and (5) the State inappropriately used voir dire to educate the jury panel on the facts of the case. We affirm in part and reverse and remand in part.

I. Facts and Procedural History On August 20, 2021, then seventeen-year-old Minor Child (“MC”) presented to a hospital emergency room after overdosing on methamphetamine. At that time, she weighed a mere seventy-five pounds. She reported that Herrington, her biological father, had repeatedly raped her and injected her with methamphetamine before forcing her to have sex, slapped her, and tied her to a chair in a closet. As a result of this report and subsequent investigation, Herrington was arrested.

On February 28, 2022, Herrington was initially charged with two counts of rape. The State amended the information three times, with the third amended information filed on January 26, 2024, charging him with (1) Class Y felony rape—sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with another person who is less than fourteen years old; (2) Class Y felony rape—sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity with a minor by the minor’s guardian; (3) Class A misdemeanor third-degree domestic battering; (4) Class Y felony introduction of a controlled substance into the body of another; and (5) Class D felony possession of less than two grams of methamphetamine.

Herrington’s jury trial was held on January 29, 2024. His counsel made three objections during the State’s voir dire examination. The first occurred when the State was outlining Herrington’s criminal charges to the jury panel:

Okay. Give you a brief outline of the facts so you’ll kind of have context for this voir dire portion of the trial. As the judge read the charges, two counts of rape, introduction of controlled substance, possession of methamphetamine and domestic battery. The defendant here is accused of having sexual intercourse with his daughter before she was fourteen and after she was fourteen and so that’s why there’s two counts of rape. He’s also accused of possessing methamphetamine.

Herrington’s counsel objected: “We don’t need to give them facts and then quiz them on specific conclusions or how they’ll feel about or how they would react to. So, I object to this line of voir dire.” The State asserted that it would not go into specifics but needed to provide some background for its questions so it could “inquire about their opinions on these kinds of cases and find out if they have any biases or experiences related to it.” The circuit court stated that it would allow “some latitude” but instructed the State not to go “deep into the facts” and to stick to seeking “their general opinions about broad concepts[.]”

Herrington’s next voir dire objection occurred in response to a series of questions from the State on witnessing abuse. The State first asked if anyone had “ever . . . witnessed somebody being abused?” After receiving no response, the State asked the panel where child rapes took place, “[i]n public or in private?” When the prospective jurors responded “[i]n private[,]” the State asked, “So probably there’s going to be very few eyewitnesses that see some child getting abused, right?” Herrington again objected and argued that the State was “climbing into fact qualifying territory[.]” The circuit court again noted that it would allow “a little latitude” but also instructed the State not to go “deep into the facts” and to “just . . . move on.” After this instruction, the State asked the prospective jurors why they thought

child sexual abuse happened in private, and the prospective jurors responded that the conduct was illegal, and defendants were afraid of getting caught.

Herrington’s final voir dire objection occurred after the State began discussing the elements of each criminal charge. Counsel argued that “[v]oir[] [d]ire is about asking questions to figure out what the jury is going to do if they’re the right people to sit. Not give a lesson . . . on every single element of the crime.” The circuit court agreed and ordered the State to move on.

MC was the State’s first witness. She testified that she lived in Montgomery County with her father, Herrington, when she was between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. The State inquired about the abuse she allegedly suffered during that time:

STATE: I want to take you back to when you were thirteen years old. You said you lived with your dad here in Montgomery County. Now, do you know what we’re here today about?

MC: Over the rape trial?

....

STATE: And who was raped?

MC: Me.

STATE: Okay, and who raped you?

MC: My biological father, Robert Herrington.

MC identified Herrington in the courtroom and described the first time she was raped by her him. She noted that it started with her being molested. MC detailed pretending to sleep in a chair when her father started touching her “vaginal area, the clit, the inside of

it with his fingers.” She explained that he stopped when his wife walked into the room, but when she walked away, Herrington told MC to follow him outside. They smoked marijuana, which made MC sleepy. Herrington had MC bend over. He moved her shorts aside, pulled out his penis, and put the head of it into MC’s vagina.

MC testified that Herrington raped her again two weeks later. She noted that “[i]t progressed just a little bit more. He went a little bit deeper that time and a little bit harder.” She said that she could not remember how many times she was raped after that because it happened a lot. She noted that by the time she was seventeen years old the rapes became “more frequent, it went from every three days to almost daily.” She further said that Herrington would hit her when he raped her.

MC stated that she missed a lot of school during that time. She testified that, at one point, she went to school only four days during a two-week period. She said she skipped school because there was a rumor that “he was doing things to me.” And when she returned from school, Herrington accused her of telling people about the rapes and hit her.

MC also testified that the rapes also included drug use. It started out with “hydro and marijuana” and progressed to methamphetamine. MC stated that Herrington had her use methamphetamine because he believed it “made [her] act more like [her] mom.” She explained that “he still had this thing from my mom because she had left him [and] never wanted to go back. He thought he was in love with her.”

MC testified that during the final two weeks that she lived with Herrington, she was confined to the house and was not allowed to go outside where the neighbors could see her.

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Robert Herrington v. State of Arkansas, 2025 Ark. App. 316 (Ark. Ct. App. 2025).

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